The BIGG Successs Show
The Entrepreneurial Roller Coaster Ride
How to deal with the ups and downs of owning a business. Read our show summary at biggsuccess.com.
Welcome to the Big Success Show. Today, we'll discuss the entrepreneurial roller coaster ride. The Big Success Show with George and Mary Lynn. Hey, I'm going to Disney World. He's ever going on a roller coaster ride. Oh my gosh, have you ever been on Space Mountain? I have. I was in the dark though. Yes. That is being like an entrepreneur, sort of. Well, it is. Owning your own business and Mary Lynn, for the longest time, I never admitted this to anybody, but you have your highs, you have your lows, and it seems like you rarely have any in-betweens. And like I said, I never talked to anybody about this for years because I was afraid it was just me. And then finally, I got up the nerve and I mentioned it to my sister, who's also owned her own businesses for a number of years. She said she knew exactly what I was talking about. That made me feel good. So I decided to talk to other business owners about this very subject. And so far, this is first-hand research, Mary Lynn. Every single person I've ever talked to about this particular subject, they know exactly what I mean when I say it. You can see it on their face just as soon as you bring it up. It's something that I just think a lot of entrepreneurs don't talk about. Yeah, and Misery loves company. Thank you very much for bringing me into this. Oh, you're very welcome, Mary Lynn. Because right now with big success, I'm experiencing business ownership for the first time and I definitely feel like I'm on a rollercoaster. Yeah, but you love rollercoasters. Sort of, because there are days when I feel this exhilaration from the ride. And then there are days when I feel sheer terror and I want to get off the ride, but I can't. Well, you brought up the dreaded T-word, Mary Lynn, "Tare." And entrepreneurial terror is a phrase that's been coined for this. And if you've never experienced it, count yourself lucky. But the thing is, I believe almost all business people have. But George, even with a job, you know, I worked in the corporate world many years. And when you see people around you getting let go, there is terror and fear that your job is next. Well, I'll grant you that, Mary Lynn, but I still think it's different for business owners. And, you know, to give you an example of that, I remember one of the guest speakers from my class who talked about the number of mouths he had to feed. And did you catch that, the number of mouths that he had to feed? I think a lot of the most successful business owners take a very personal responsibility for their people. So they don't just look at it as putting bread on their own table. They worry about putting bread on their employees table as well. I can imagine when times are bad, that means a lot of sleepless nights. It sure can be. And, you know, we talked about entrepreneurial terror and there's an article, actually, a fantastic article. I often share this with my students. It was first printed in Inc. magazine in February of 1987. So we're going back just a few years on this one. And only but a goodie. And we do have a link to that article on our site today. It's a portion of the article that has been republished. And the article is written by Wilson Harrell, who's a serial entrepreneur and author of the book for entrepreneurs only. And he has a quote that I just love. He says, "The ability to handle terror and to live with it is the single most important. And, yes, necessary ingredient of entrepreneurial success." What he says is to never share your lows with friends and loved ones because you're just going to pass the worry onto them unless they're your partner in business. So this misery doesn't love company, right? Yes. And the thing is, he does say, though, that when you're experiencing your highs, make sure you share those with your friends and loved ones. Let everyone in on the good stuff. That's right. Coming up, our thoughts on how to keep the lows from being too low. Today, we're talking about the entrepreneurial rollercoaster ride and the highs and lows of being in business. Mary Lynn, every time I say lows, I want to say it that way. But unfortunately, you're not very wise. That's true. The way you spend your time and money when you're on a high often has a lot to do with how low you go. And we have two examples. First, and Mary Lynn, I have to admit, I've done this. You're admitting a lot today, George. I'm very proud of you. Well, thank you. This is like therapy. And I hope you'll let me off the couch at some point. After I charge you after you pay, yeah. But when you're so busy and you're running at capacity and you know your business couldn't crank out any more volume, no matter how much you wanted it to. So what do you do? You slow down. You maybe even almost stop your marketing efforts. It's easy to do. There's no time to worry about them anyway, right? So the thing is that ensures the next down cycle because you're not doing those things that you did to get to the up cycle. All right. And number two, you get careless with money. And a lot of times cash flow is at its peak during an up cycle. And that's part of the reason you're on this emotional high. So you make that major expenditure that you've been waiting on and you add to your overhead. And the next thing you know, you're on a low because business and cash flow have slowed down and you have little or no cash reserves. And Mary Lynn, I'm really glad to hear that you're the one who's talking about getting careless with money. Wait a minute. I'm an entrepreneur now. I am not. OK. Well, the thing is I don't think you can avoid the highs and lows, but here's what you can do. You can conduct business so that your lows are higher and your highs are higher. Now, I'm not going to pretend that that feels any different or any better necessarily, but here's what you can know. You're reaching ever higher levels of success and that's big success. You can get a written summary of today's show on our site at big success.com. You'll also find links to the article and to the book by Wilson Harrell. You've heard of the purple cow. Next time we ask, have you seen the purple tree? I'm going to go look for one now. Until then, here's to your big success. The Big Success Show at B-I-G-G Success.com. [MUSIC PLAYING] [BLANK_AUDIO]