Why Failure Follows Success. How To Avoid This Common Disaster!
Starting your own business to many is often a long time dream. It may have been festering for years until the time was right for a host of reasons. A stumbling point for many is that this was the destination and once reached it never really took off like envisioned. The imagined success never developed. Let's explore some possible reasons.
Good news is that it is avoidable if you have the knowledge and skill sets of self management. The critical skills of change management will be paramount in the outcome the business success you enjoy. Integrated in change management is the goal setting process. It is tied to basic human behavior principles not know or used by many on a conscious level.
Failure following success does not follow logical or make sense yet it happens again and again. Look around and you may see many examples. What are some of the reasons? Each situation is unique but there are many commonalities. Here is one. A satisfied need is no longer a motivator. A person’s long time goal to own their own business is finally reach. They get it open and then it collapses! There are probably other factors to consider, but one of the critical missing steps the entrepreneur missed cripples them. If the goal was for years to have my own business and then one day I finally achieve the goal, I have arrived to the destination. Unfortunately this is case frequently. The alternative to this scenario is to have a fulfilling vision to sustain me beyond startup of the business. I will be offering some future articles on vision as a subject. If I do not have the experience or get the guidance to immediately set new and challenging goals in the place of the one just achieved, I am in "Goal Limbo." In psychological jargon I have no limits and boundaries. As a major step in the change management process, each change requires a new establishment of Goals or limits and boundaries.
Change management is a very broad subject with varying theories and philosophy’s of working with this challenge. I have read and studied most of them. On the surface it looks simple and it really is, but the unaware or unskilled will blow right by opportunity and cause unnecessary prolonged aggravation to you with their clumsiness.
The basics are that all change means loss. Think about it-every time change happens you gain some things and you lose some things. It could mean changes in relationships, physical environment, and status of peers, benefits and privileges-on and on. Here is another question: of all the things you lose, what is the biggest and most important? Of the many workshops and trainings I’ve conducted, no one has named it yet. If you are ever in one of my workshops, please don’t blurt out the answer because it is important to let people struggle with the question. The biggest thing people lose with change is their identity! Yesterday I defined who I am to myself by long list of things. If I were with a company for 10 years, a lot of who I am to myself and others is wrapped up in that association. Then who am I without that association? If your startup company was operating out of your garage and you just moved into new space who are you? When I was sitting on my office couch overwhelmed, by the changes about to take place what I was experiencing was the emotional reaction to the fact that the ways I had identified myself just vanished in an instant. I felt loss even though I was going to a better place with growth!
Until I establish the new identity I will be a little out of my game and unsure of myself. The key to making these adjustments is your skills in dealing with the process which are available to all humans who experience loss. It is the grieving process. Knowing how to recognize in yourself and others the symptoms of each step is an art form. I have been amazed with clients as to the extent they struggle with this. I have seen it tear organizations apart. Maybe you can recognize this symptom of a company; us versus them? Somewhere along the way a change occurred and it was not dealt with effectively usually ending in polarization. Old way-new way.
Becoming aware of basic human behavior principles will magnify the success an entrepreneur can have. The reverse is also accurate. My experience is that more difficulties in businesses exist and cause failure are associated with the owners depth and skill sets associated with their human behavior dynamics of themselves and employees than any other item.
It's been said by many that business is simple; it's just people and money!
Steve Mellinger is an “Entrepreneur” with unique information, experience, skill sets and social networks. His earned degrees are BS, Education, and MA Psychology with doctoral studies. Author of “How to Profit in Any Economy, Commercial real Estate Tactics” which is available on www.PBI-USA.com. www.Entrepreneur2Leader.com-offers Psychological and tactical strategies for business building.
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