A favorite quote from my mentor and friend Dan Kennedy: If I find myself lying awake at night thinking about you—and we’re not sleeping together—YOU gotta GO. It’s a good rule to live by that gets more relevant and important to me by the day.
In my experience, far too many MSP owners roll over and tolerate a LOT of misery from a growing hoard of dummies, critics, cynics, slow-walkers, and narcissistic, envious opposition.
In some cases, it’s just sheer incompetence on the part of these detractors. In others, it’s willful and intentional tacks thrown under your tires with the sole intention of slowing you down or stopping you altogether. Often, it’s a giant case of self-importance, where they believe everyone should conform to THEIR agenda, THEIR rules. The employee who “knows better” than you and intentionally won’t do the work in the manner you’ve directed. The client who refuses to follow the rules of engagement or demands more than they paid for.
When that happens, what’s your reaction? Do you shrug and say, “Well, sh*t happens”? Do you silently fume but do nothing, say nothing to keep the peace and avoid looking “disagreeable”? The answer to that tells me a LOT about how successful you are.
These people create CONFLICT in your life, which is a giant distraction and time suck, draining not only your wallet but your peace of mind—and the more of it you allow, the more crippled and ineffective you become.
Years ago, one of the most stressful periods of my life happened because I was too afraid to confront and correct a handful of employees who were spending more time destroying my business than building it. When I look back, I can’t even believe the bad behavior I tolerated because I was afraid of confronting them.
That period cost me more than just hundreds of thousands of dollars. It cost me my health, both mentally and physically. Today, I have ZERO tolerance for such things.
When I set out early in the morning with a list of things to get done, I INTEND on getting them done and resent anything and anyone that slows me down or gets in the way of my accomplishing what I’ve set out to do.
Resent is a very strong word. It’s dark and bitter—and that’s exactly how I mean it. When someone interferes with my ability to achieve my set goals through negligence, stupidity, or incompetence, they’ll feel the heat of my wrath as I set them on fire to get them out of my way. I immediately start scheming how to eliminate or replace them. I’m not messing around.
That is the kind of intensity you need to forge ahead and overcome the enormous resistance we all face when attempting to accomplish anything of significance. (By the way, people think this causes high blood pressure. Not for me. Mine is perfect. I cause high blood pressure. It’s a superpower.)
Some “experts” will tell you this is an “unhealthy” response. They’ll say you shouldn’t be too harsh and demanding. You should be more understanding and tolerant of others IF you want to be a good leader. Be kind. A romantic idea for people giving speeches from stages, not for someone covered in sh*t, neck deep into the fight.
Tolerance and kindness are appropriate in a general sense but NOT in business, and certainly NOT when you’re dealing with someone who is interfering with your productivity or outright causing you harm as you attempt to pull off BIG goals.
The more you’re willing to accept failure and tolerate sloppiness, bad behavior, neglect, incompetence, or a laissez-faire “sh*t happens” attitude from the people you work with and depend on, the MORE of that you’ll get.
Seems to me, if you don’t feel this deeply and passionately about whatever it is you’re waking up every day to accomplish, you ought to find a bigger, more exciting goal to go after.
