Are You a Prisoner of Hope? 5 Traps Entrepreneurs Must Avoid to Maintain Long-Term Growth
Hope can be a deceptive reality to an entrepreneur, especially when our expectations of starting and leading a business have been shaped by an intense desire and emotional investment. But hope is a world with no tangible consequences and where persistence is a false virtue. The reality of entrepreneurship demands we forgo hope for risk. We can’t hope that sales get better; we must take the risk make a change so sales do get better!
A prisoner of hope is a business leader unknowingly trapped in a deceptive world where reality is masked by that person’s wishful desire to succeed. Such entrepreneurs are optimistic, convinced that what they want to happen will happen, yet it will never happen because they are not doing, only hoping. For example, a salesperson whose big sale is always a day or two away from closing yet never does. People like this are living in a false reality, locked in a perpetual holding pattern with their never-ending effort to land the big whale while other real opportunities pass them by.
The requirement to embrace risk doesn’t end once you have launched your business; you must step out of the comfort of hope and into the reality of decisive action. The emotional investment to pursue your entrepreneurial dream is the key driver in the actions you take. Emotions can cause you to avoid accepting the risk. Know these five traps so you can recognize them before becoming a prisoner of hope.
Waiting for Ideal Conditions
In every community across the entire country, hidden away in boxes or on a computer hard drive sits a “can’t miss” business plan. The author of this well-thought-out plan is waiting for the right conditions: funding, free time, better economic conditions. To the risk averse, the dream of starting his or her business will be a perpetual desire that will remain unfulfilled while collecting dust.
For a business leader who is a prisoner of hope, the need to make a change gets pushed further and further down the priority list. Waiting for the right time appears to be the prudent strategy and because they seek to avoid risk, especially in turbulent times, they are lulled into a false reality, except they are now trapped, hoping for the right moment to change instead of acting.
Over-Planning
Planning a vacation is sometimes more fun than taking it. When planning a trip the expectations are stimulating and exciting. There are no delays or long lines, the weather is always perfect, and you never have to leave the comfort of your home. If only we could get the same experiences and stimulation with a virtual vacation. The reality is nothing replaces the real thing.
The same feeling of euphoria happens when we create a business plan. All the charts, forecasts, and expectations are positive and this creates a comfort zone in the same way as a virtual vacation. But become trapped by the desire to keep planning instead of executing and you are now a prisoner of hope. You are hoping that the plan creates success when the fact is, execution creates success. Make no mistake, to be successful you do need a plan, but we need to replace the “what-ifs” of planning with reality of execution.
Moving the Target
Over-planning’s close relative is moving the target, the act of changing the objective, goal, or focus of your business. You can avoid or delay reality through a superficial change or “re-aiming” of the target objective. However, when the target moves, we must stop and prepare to fire again. For a prisoner of hope, re-aiming is really an excuse for delay.
While moving the target is a legitimate business decision, the problem arises when business leaders who look to avoid the risk of change or fear the implementation of a new strategy and use it as an excuse to delay a necessary action or strategy. The easy way out is go back to the planning stage, thus trapping them and halting the forward motion of the business.
Failure to Follow Through
There is nothing more frustrating than a broken promise, and no business can be successful if there is a pattern of lack of follow through. Follow through is the act of completion, the delivery of value to a customer, prospect, employee, or a partner. It’s where both the mental and mechanical sides of business leadership meet. If you are trapped hoping that others will instinctively take care of the details, or that customers don’t expect follow through, then you are a prisoner of hope, lacking personal accountability.
Do not allow your mind to sabotage the necessity to meet objectives. If you set a goal -- hitting a revenue objective, improving sales, creating a new product or service -- and you fail because of lack of follow through, then you have mentally been trapped. Leadership accountability means connecting the mental and mechanical components of your business. Do not just wait and hope that things get done.
Saving Your Way to Greatness
In business you cannot save your way to greatness and those business leaders who are penny pinchers and cost cutters are certainly prisoners of hope. They hope they can be successful by not spending and watching every penny. The truth is, businesses survive and flourish because they maximize profits, and while cost cutting provides a short-term benefit to your bottom line, over the long term it is maximizing revenue that drives success.
A business leader that is playing to win recognizes that to be successful you must be willing to invest in capital expenditures, better personnel, and, most important, in proactive marketing.
By avoiding risk we are living in a false reality -- we are a prisoner of hope. Hoping that something will change to improve our situation. Success only comes from a constant forward progress, which requires you the business leader, to make something happen. And not become a prisoner of hope.
