A coupla years ago, I bought a guitar. Like many delusional wanna-be’s, I thought I could teach myself to play. I bought a book, found guitarlessons.com, and committed (in my mind) to play all the time.
Except that I would never play while Marti was in the house.
Or if something else came up.
Or if my fingers still hurt from the last time I’d played.
Progress was slow. By the time my fingers felt better and I was alone again in the house and I had time, three or four weeks might go by, and I’d forgotten most of what I’d learned.
Finally my friend Ann, an excellent guitar player and songstress, told me how to master guitar: “Practice until your fingers bleed!”
Ann’s intense. Very intense. My dog still pees on the floor every time she comes through the front door of our house. So, outrageous statements like this one are not uncommon. I considered shrugging it off.
But Ann’s right. If I want to learn to play, I have to toughen up. I have to play regularly - even when Marti’s home - and especially when my fingers are sore.
Same thing with my business. It has gotten hard. I need to toughen up.
From 1998-2008, it felt like all we had to do was answer the phone; new work was always on the other end of the line. I lulled myself into believing it was because we had something special.
Fast forward to today. Any “specialness” we had is offset by the fact that the economy is still in the crapper. And if we want to get out of this stink, we’re going to have to learn how to actually run a business.
And we are. We’ve become first-row students of marketing, sales, positioning, strategy, and efficiencies. We’re trying to keep the team engaged, even while we’ve had to say goodbye to some of our friends. We’re being transparent, even when it’s embarrassing.
It’s not easy. But we’ve got to do it. As Gary Vaynerchuk says in his book Crush It, “You have to work your face off.”
