Last week, an MSP client and I were catching up on their progress year to date. I hadn’t talked to him since early January, and the last time we checked in, he had just hired a brand-new SDR to start booking appointments and another outside salesperson to, in his words, “bring home the bacon.” He even hired an intern to take over the marketing.
He was very excited about his progress.
Then, reality kicked in. Or should I say reality kicked him. Right in the smurfberries.
He said the appointment setter turned out to be a total failure, unable to book a SINGLE appointment the entire 3 months he had her on the job. Shortly after, the outside sales rep quit, likely because he saw the writing on the wall and had also failed to produce any results. The intern, while great at her job, left shortly thereafter for a better-paying job.
My question to him: Who’s doing sales and marketing NOW? Answer: Nobody.
He just “never got around” to hiring their replacements.
So here we are, almost 10 months later, with ZERO progress. He had no “Plan B” in place, and the setbacks completely stopped him cold.
My advice to him back in early January, when he was full of excitement and enthusiasm, was to keep the job ads running and continue to look for additional salespeople on the very likely chance that one (or all) may not work out. I also told him to be very intentional about documenting and managing their work, activities, and process so that IF he needed to fire them, at least he benefited from the process of documenting their training for the next person he hires.
He was not that excited about this advice. It represented more work he “didn’t have time for,” and he brushed it off with a hasty “Okay, will do,” in manner I knew was totally insincere. I reminded him of this again since he was back on a call with me to help him kick-start this process all over again.
His situation is not uncommon, so, here’s a far more productive way to think about goal setting and growth:
Expect EVERYTHING to go wrong and prepare for it.
That’s not NEGATIVE thinking, that’s ACCURATE thinking. I don’t expect the new employee to show up as a self-motivated, self-governing rock star. I don’t expect the marketing campaign to be a home run, or even to work. I don’t expect the new software rollout to be effortless.
I anticipate problems and setbacks, so that I can create contingency plans and be 5 steps ahead of the problems when they occur.
Highly successful people process failures and setbacks very differently from everyone else. We view it as a temporary, episodic event that will pass—as well as a necessary (and anticipated) part of the process of winning.
Don’t get me wrong. I detest setbacks, so I am far more careful about who I hire, which vendor I select, which campaigns I roll out, and how I plan.
I’m also not telling you to merrily row, row, row your boat through problems with an even temper, emotions in check.
There are days when I’m vibrating with anger over some stupid thing that happened, some failure, some screwup, some “mistake” that could have and should have easily been prevented. Other days I’m bleeding from a hundred paper cuts of problems.
But stewing on it and giving it power by allowing it to stop me is NOT productive. A question I often ask myself: “Where’s the profit in that?” So, whatever it is gets the swift sword and quick action.
Here’s another thing I DON’T do: take it personally, put on a sackcloth and whip myself, dwell on it for days, and use it as a reason for being unable to achieve my objective. I simply get on with fixing it and doing the next thing. I’m too damned busy and pressed to mull things over for long. I take the lesson and move on. Fast.
And while we’re at it, let me give you another mega-important principle of success: Instantly and automatically reject the premise that there’s “nothing to be done” in every bad or unfavorable situation.
The mediocre majority religiously believes in and eagerly, passionately and aggressively defends the “circumstances beyond our control” concept. Their Serenity Prayer is shortened to “God grant me the serenity to accept everything that doesn’t go my way.” They’re quick to resign, pointing to things outside their control: the economy. The competition. The bad labor market.
Highly successful individuals believe there’s ALWAYS something that you can do or that can be done. We leave NO stone unturned.
As the saying goes, there are people who make things happen, people who watch things happen, and those who stand there wondering what the hell just happened.
To be the person who makes things happen, you’ve got to have a serious determination to push through ALL resistance, surrounded by idiots and enemies alike, conspiring to take you out.
There’s ALWAYS a way.
For more on pushing through failure, read about these 4 lessons from other MSPs in the trenches who turned failure into success.
