A common theme I’ve been writing about, and one that is gaining more and more interest from my audience, is quitting, or the frequent, strong and overwhelming desire many MSP owners have to give up.
Seems like I’ve hit a nerve.
More often than not, quitting is not a good idea. A better one is to take a step back, breathe and get some perspective. Talk to someone who can give you quality feedback, not a peer who might be in the same (or worse) situation you’re in. Often, you’re one big breakthrough, one decision away, from getting traction again, reinspired and ready to rumble.
As an example, one of TMT’s members, Daniel Merck, CEO of UniVirtual Solutions, was on the verge of giving up. In a last-ditch attempt to turn things around, he joined membership, went through the Rapid Implementation Workshop and process and is now THRIVING, questioning why in the heck he ever thought about quitting. I understand his frustration because Daniel, like me and probably like you, is wired to succeed and NEEDS to win. When we’re “failing” at something (which often means not really failing but rather not getting the results we want), we are deeply frustrated and highly irritated, questioning our abilities and feeling exasperated with the output (results) we’re getting from the input (work and effort).
That’s because ALL of this is an emotional issue. We know that running and growing a business is supposed to be hard. More succinctly, we intellectually know that, but it’s hard to remember that when you’re in the heat of a million problems and urgencies, and have a giant mess on your hands, crushed with deadlines, screaming clients, slothful or dysfunctional employees who need to be fired but you can’t yet because you don’t have a replacement, money leaking out in multiple places that you can’t quite get a handle on and a LONG list of things you need to work on or fix that you can’t seem to find the time to get to.
Many people have said to me that I seem to have it “all” worked out. That I’ve somehow figured out how to have the perfect staff, perfect clients, piles of money lying around and all systems and operations humming along perfectly. I can assure you that’s not exactly how it is. YES, I have more great staff than bad. YES, we have mostly great clients. YES, we have systems and processes. And YES, we’re making money. However, there’s a reason why I have a GIANT orange construction cone outside my office: everything is always under construction all the time.
Further, as you grow, the pace of change is going to speed up. More employees equal more chances of hiring a donkey who can (will) burn the place to the ground if you allow them to. More clients equal more chances of accepting a giant a-hole as a client who is unappreciative and unreasonable, threatening to badmouth you online, not pay or even sue you. As you layer on more sophisticated services (advanced cyber and compliance), you create more complexity and difficulty in delivery, opening up the chance of royally screwing something up for a client.
So, how do you deal with the crushing overwhelm and the feeling of failing?
First, by DEALING with it head-on. If you fail to address the giant flaming turd on the table, it doesn’t just disappear. It gets worse. The table catches on fire. Then the room. You have to practice working through overwhelm.
Dealing with it means spending time thinking through the issues on paper. Get stuff out of your head, where it’s in a continual loop creating stress. I write EVERYTHING down. Get away from your phone and computer because there’s too much temptation to check e-mail or go online.
When thinking your problem through, here are two key questions to start with:
- What exactly is the problem I’m trying to solve? What am I worried about? Write it all out.
- What do I want to have happen that would make me feel good about my progress? Defining what you want to have happen is extremely important, because without a clear goal, you’re just doing activities that may or may not be the right ones.
Most of the time when people come to me with high anxiety over a problem or problems, I find that they haven’t really thought it through. What’s the ACTUAL problem we’re dealing with, not the symptoms? For example, if you aren’t getting enough new clients, that’s a symptom, not the problem. The problem is something else that is causing you to not get the clients you want. Is it that you’re not putting sufficient work into marketing? Likely. If you’re not, why not? Is it fear of doing the work? Are you truly so busy that you cannot get to it? Are you REALLY unsure about where to start?
I find most people know what they could do but have convinced themselves that they “don’t know what to do or where to start,” because they’ve not sat down and mapped out a plan of action – and NO plan of action is PERFECT. Trying to find the “perfect” plan of action is simply a form of procrastination, and you might be clinging to that excuse of “I don’t know what to do” as a way of giving yourself permission to not do anything. Get honest.
Once you have that problem identified, you need to come up with a solution.
Here’s the question: What are all the ways I can solve this problem?
If you truly are too busy to do the work, hire someone to do it. Delegate some of the work you’re doing now to free up more time. Maybe you need to hire someone to take things off your plate. Outsource the work that needs to be done. OR get up early and stop doing low-money work and distracting yourself. Come up with some solution, ideally more than one. Force yourself to come up with more than one plan of action. If you have 10 actions that will solve a problem, you’re better off than having just one. ONE solution can fail. All 10? Not likely. You implement 10 strategies or courses of action, and one is likely to work extremely well, a couple of others will greatly help and the others will be nonstarters.
Thinking through issues on paper by asking yourself questions to clarify the REAL problem and what you want IS how you’ll get the clarity you need. As Einstein once said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about the solution.”
A good solution is smart, but asking yourself the right questions – and forcing yourself to answer them – is where genius lies.
Thousands of the IT industry’s smartest, most ambitious CEOs, business owners, and sales and marketing leaders return to the IT Sales and Marketing Boot Camp every year for one reason: actionable content specific to your business. I’m presenting a full deep dive on extreme productivity so if you feel “too busy” to do the work, this is a can’t-miss session.
