Knowing What You Don’t Know vs. Not Knowing What You Don’t Know
Have you heard the saying, dealing with the devil that we know?
Often times its easier to deal with something bad that we’re familiar with that something we are unfamiliar with. Pre-Penicillin many simple diseases would be a death sentence. Now that we have a cure for them (know and understand how they operate), they are usually just a nuisance as long as they are dealt with swiftly and correctly. Running a business presents much of the same. Each day many small variations of problems arise that need to be resolved quickly and efficiently. If they are ignored, the problems snowball, if they are dealt with, they use time now, but save greater time in the future.
Now think of a problem that arises that’s new. A new virus is discovered, like it was during this pandemic. Its new, no one knows how to treat it, and people are afraid. We don’t know enough about it, so our best doctors and scientists dig in. What is it similar to, how does it behave, what can we compare it to. Over time, we are able to draw conclusions, and develop solutions (the vaccine) which has good effectiveness to combat the problem. One thing we’ve learned from this pandemic is that having a solution and deploying/implementing that solution are not one in the same and present a different array of challenges.
In your business, many problems that arise will be variations on a theme of problems you’ve experienced before. Sometimes the problems present themselves in such a way as they seem completely unrelated to any problem that’s come up before, whether that be a personnel problem, a conflict with a client, customer or supplier, or sometimes something that’s completely outside of the control of your business (like a pandemic), no matter what the situation, having a group of peers who have gone through similar things, or an advisor that has more experience can be an invaluable tool to help you solve problems. There are some great groups dedicated to this specifically like TAB and SCORE, and there are consultants like myself.
The important part is learning both from the mistake and the advice of those who have made the mistake and overcome that mistake before. If none of those are available to you (hopefully only for financial reasons, because investing time in yourself for the betterment of your acumen is very worthwhile, and if you are unwilling to do this, success will likely be elusive), there are other types of business networking groups which are more sales driven, but can help you form positive long lasting relationships with other business owners and professionals like BNI, LeTip, your local rotary or chamber of commerce. All of these are filled with people just like you at varying stages of their lives and businesses. Just because someone is older doesn’t mean they’re doing it right, but oftentimes, those people know a lot about what they’ve done wrong, and it’s great to learn those things too. Building these relationships also opens up the door to potential suppliers and customers in your local community and builds a bench full of people to help promote your business.
To sum it up, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time a problem arises, especially if it feels overwhelming… IF you have a support system of people you know and trust who can help you identify the problem, and give some insight into a possible solution. If at first you don’t succeed try again.