Is Your Business Actually Going Somewhere?

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We love to know exactly what the near-term process is we’re supposed to be doing, we’re almost obsessed with it, to the point that at least in business, we’re too often okay with knowing exactly which direction we’re going without any idea where it’s leading us. It’s a little Yogi Berra-like “I don’t know where I’m going but I’m having a great time getting there.” Or in many cases, we have an insatiable need to know the process in all its detail before we will make a single move. Either way we find the process to be more important than the goal.

Mike Shanahan, two time Super Bowl winning coach, would plan the first 15-20 plays of a football game before the game started and not deviate from that plan. What was happening in the world around those plays did not affect his commitment to the order those plays. And he won an awful lot of football games with that approach. It was brilliant football.

But business success just doesn’t work that way. In the early stages of building a business or a new product line, fully knowing in advance the process we use to build it with is never as important as we think. What’s really important is two things:

  1. Great clarity on where we are.
  2. Great clarity on where we want to end up.

If we know with certainty where we want to go, and have equal clarity on where we are right now, we will figure out how to get there. As long as we have the beginning and the end, that will allow us to create a few “next steps” to keep us going.

A stream seems to meander meaninglessly; quiet, rushing, muddy, clear, looping back where it came from – it doesn’t seem to have any clear purpose to it. We see it this way because we’re focused on the process, which does seem random. But the purpose of the stream couldn’t clearer – to do whatever it has to do in order to get to the ocean. And the stream, with all it’s apparent randomness, is 100% successful – every time.

Frodo the hobbit needed to get to Mordor to drop the ring in the volcano. He could see it a hundred miles in the distance with vast expanses of unknown land and obstacles in front of him. He had no idea how he was going to get there, but he knew exactly where he was and where Mordor was, and that allowed him to plan the next few steps. He got to Mordor not by having the entire process laid out first, but by simply knowing where he was and where he was going, and the next few steps.

My mother and father would drive from Ohio to Boston to visit my sister in college. Mom would always take 10-15 miles outside Boston and drive right to my sister’s downtown apartment with no maps. She tortured Dad with this for four years before she told him all she did was point the car at the Prudential building (tallest building at the time), and then turn left to get to my sister’s apartment one block away from it.

Do you know exactly where you’re going with your business? What does it look three years from now at maturity? What does your lifestyle look like then? What is the specific date you’ve picked to get there? Do you know with clarity where are you now – what are the gaps that need to be filled first?

Know where you are and where you’re going, and that will give you enough information to create the next few steps. If you have these three things, you can get to your Mordor. Focus on these and create (and recreate) a process as you go that serves you getting to your destination. Stop serving your process and build it to serve you. You’ll make more money in less time.

Why You Didn’t Learn to Run a Business in School

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“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” ~Albert Einstein

Centuries of academic emphasis on “teaching” (which fills our heads) instead of on learning (which fills our lives) has left us more proud of our ability to reason than of our ability to know. Knowing flows from learning, which goes to our heart and our life. Reason flows from teaching, which goes to our head.

We’re taught not to know, to not be certain of anything. Knowing is, in fact considered narrow-minded, arrogant, and dangerous. Reasoning is considered open-minded and allows us to fool ourselves into doing nothing for extended periods of time because we are “thinking about it”. Intuition is considered foolish, dangerous, reckless and knee-jerk, while rationality is considered wise, safe, sensible and measured. Apparently one of the greatest thinkers in modern times, Einstein disagrees. So do I, and I’m no Einstein.

The ancient Greeks had two words for knowledge; Gnosis – knowledge of the head, and Epignosis – knowledge of the heart/life. A friend of mine, Doug Root, had a conversation with someone recently who rewound the well worn tape, “Knowledge is power”, which really means “head knowledge is power”. Doug’s intuitive response was dead on, “That can’t be true, because if knowledge was power, librarians would rule the world. Knowledge isn’t power, execution is power.”

Teaching comes in a classroom from books and much too often, from people who have experienced very little of what they are filling other’s heads with. Teaching is about information that goes into my head.

Learning comes from doing, from the classroom of life, and from people who have walked that road before you. Learning is about knowledge that comes out through my life. Knowledge of the heart and life comes from intuitive and conative experience (see last week’s blog on Conation – The Most Important Business Word You’ve Never Heard), and forms the basis for wisdom. Knowledge of the head comes from cognative and rational teaching, and forms the basis for expertise.

Which would you rather have help you with your business, someone with expertise or someone with wisdom? I want the guy who has lived it, bled from their mistakes, rejoiced in their victories and has truly “learned”, not just been educated.

With all the emphasis on teaching, education, reason, rational thought, information and “open-mindedness”, I can tell you as someone who has walked the road and bled from my mistakes, if you want a successful business, you can’t afford to rely on the rational mind. You must DO things first (conate), learn things in the real world (make mistakes), draw conclusions from your experiences (have a bad plan you are totally committed to), and know for certain what works and where you are going – which is knowledge of the heart/life.

The really successful business owners all have a few things they know for certain and are fully committed to. They aren’t open-minded about these things at all, and that knowledge comes out in their successful businesses, not in a 3” binder gathering dust beside their “shelf-help” books.

What do you really “KNOW”; what have you DONE, EXPERIENCED, AND LEARNED from that are making you wise in the ways of business?

Stop trying to become an expert. Expertise will only confuse you, because there is no end to the head-knowledge you could gather. And in the business world, confusion is just a form of victimology; “As long as I’m confused or don’t have all the information, I’m not responsible to do anything.” The endless pursuit of information will not get you there.

You don’t need to be dead certain of a lot of things. That mindset can keep you from learning other things you’ll need to know. But you do need to be dead certain of a few things that no one can talk you out of, that drive your business forward with clarity, hope and risk.

Where is your business going? What does it look like when you get there? Intuitively, what do the next few steps look like? Are you completely and totally committed to a very few things that are driving you relentlessly forward? He who aims at nothing hits it every time. What are you shooting at?

“In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” Eric Hover

Learn a few things by doing them and living them out and use them to build a successful business. Honor the gift by moving forward intuitively and use the servant of rationality to learn from those experiences. You’ll make more money in less time.

Conation – The Most Important Business Word You’ve Never Heard

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I have somewhere I have to be.

The only motivation book I will recommend to others is Self-made in America, by John McCormack. John introduced me to an obscure English word that I now use as a cornerstone of my daily activity – conation.

I’ve truncated John’s working definition: Conation – the will to succeed that manifests itself in single-minded pursuit of a goal. – to:

Committed Movement in a Purposeful Direction

Social scientists have long talked about the Three Aspects of the Mind. Cognition (doing), Affection (feeling) and Activation (doing) are the three legs. Conation is when we take all three of these and figure out where we want to go, then start going there. Conation isn’t thinking, it isn’t feeling and it isn’t doing. It’s having crystal clarity on where you want to end up, and doing anything you have to in order to get there.

I find it fascinating that almost everyone I know has a good handle on what cognition, affection and activation are, but virtually no one I know is familiar with the word that puts them all together – conation. The most important of the four words, the one that creates action as well as results, is nearly unknown. Why?

Our educational system has promoted thinking and feeling almost to the exclusion of even activation – doing. Conation is most closely related to doing. If you don’t do, there is no conation.

We are all taught that if we just get enough information into our heads and feel good about it, that we’ll eventually do something about it. I believe the reason this valuable word hasn’t gotten much attention is because we’ve all bought into that idea handed down from the ancient Greeks on through that

We think our way to a new way of acting.

We see cognition – thinking – as the all important fundamental on which the other two swing. And of course we all like to feel stuff. So affection gets plenty of attention, too.

But we do not think our way to a new way of acting.

We act our way to a new way of thinking.

Even Einstein supported this when he said, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

Want to grow a Mature Business? Add “conate” to your daily verb count. The will to succeed that manifests itself in single-minded pursuit of a goal, or

Committed Movement in a Purpoesful Direction

Clarity – I know my goal. Hope – the will to succeed, that comes from knowing my goal. Risk – singleminded pursuit.

How do I know I’m conating? I’m already moving in a purposeful direction, with complete commitment to getting there.

Get out of my way, I have somewhere I need to be.

Which Banks are Making SBA Loans?

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The ARC loan is harder to get than it should be and serving a much narrower part of the small business community than intended, but if you can get one, it can be a great help to your business. Don’t take no for an answer – get creative!

What Banks are Making these Loans?

For a PDF list of banks in your state offering the SBA ARC loan go to: sba.gov – scroll half way down this page and click on: “List of lenders who have made ARC loans to date”

What is the ARC Loan?

Best explanation of the ARC loan itself that I’ve found on the internet is here at the Business Borrowers Alliance.

Contact Neal Gordon for more info – Just one page of their info is reproduced here:

From Business Borrowers Alliance Website:

About the ARC Loan Program

ARC loans can be used to make payments of principal and interest, in full or in part, on one or more existing, qualifying small business loans for up to six months. ARC loans provide an immediate infusion of capital to small businesses to assist with making payments of principal and interest on existing debt. These loans allow borrowers to redirect cash flow from making loan payments to investing in their businesses, to help sustain the business and retain jobs. For example, making loan payments on existing loans with proceeds from an ARC loan can allow a business to focus more funds on core operations, such as buying inventory or making payroll.

ARC loans are interest-free to the borrower, carry a 100 percent guaranty from the SBA to the lender, and require no fees paid to SBA. Loan proceeds are provided over a six-month period and repayment of the ARC loan principal is deferred for 12 months after the last disbursement of the proceeds. Repayment can extend up to five years.

ARC Loan Eligibility

ARC loans are available to viable, for-profit small businesses in the U.S. that have qualifying small business loans and are experiencing immediate financial hardship.

Your small business must be an established business, have financial statements demonstrating it was profitable in one of the past three years, and be able to project sufficient cash flow to meet current and future loan payments over a two-year period from loan approval. If your business does not meet these criteria, you can discuss your eligibility with your lender. ARC loans are not designed for start-up businesses.

Examples of qualifying loans may include credit card obligations for your business, capital leases, notes payable to vendors/suppliers, Development Company Loan Program (504) first lien loans, other loans to small businesses made without an SBA guaranty, and loans made by or with an SBA guaranty on or after Feb. 17, 2009.

ARC loans are designed to help businesses experiencing immediate financial hardship for reasons such as

  • Loss/reduction of customer base
  • Increase in cost of doing business
  • Loss/reduction of working capital and/or loss/reduction of short term credit facilities
  • Inability to restructure existing debts due to credit restrictions
  • Loss/reduction of employees (intellectual capital)
  • Loss/reduction of major suppliers (major suppliers out of business)

Where do I get the forms?

URL to download the SBA forms if you think you might want to do this you can visit Business.gov and download the forms at:

http://www.business.gov/finance/financing/loans/sba-loans/sba-loan-application.html

or best, bet, contact your bank and ask for the SBA ARC Loan officer. Many banks have customized these forms from the generic ones here, so you’ll end up filling out twice.