Lose the lotto mentality

• Get rich or get out.
• Big hairy audacious goals (BHAG)
• The best thing since sliced bread.
• The next big deal,
• Own the category, etc.

We hear these kinds of sayings all the time. Basically they are all a recipe for the same thing, if you have a great idea and you sacrifice enough you will make it big time.

Jumping for joy at winning a big deal

The only problem is that the stories that get told like this are about the 0.0001% of all those who tried and actually succeeded.

If there’s anything I can share with you all it is that business is about the daily grind of providing a service or product to customers who are indifferent at best and outright hostile at worst.

One of the saddest things to watch is to see a budding entrepreneur sell their whole lives - wife, husband, children, house, friends – everything, in order to achieve that elusive goal of the big deal that pays for it all. This is what I call the lotto mentality – the belief that if you keep buying tickets then one day you will win.

Actually relationships are a good analogy.

Business is like marriage. It is very exciting at first, but over time it loses its initial lustre and turns into something else, but something else that is good. You do need to work at it occasionally to get through the hard times, but once the relationship is going well the thought of having to do all that again is too much.  So it is with business. Once you get established, have a regular customer base and grow a bit then you have steady revenues. That is, it is a reciprocal relationship.

Chasing the big deal is like having one night stands and hoping that you have found your future partner to be with for the rest of your life. At best it is a bit of ephemeral enjoyment. This kind of lifestyle is understandably addictive as challenging your own fears to make a new conquest is exciting. And while this needs to happen occasionally most of your job is just the day to day grind. Get used to it.

Think of your business as a long term relationship rather than a short term fling and you will probably have a better outlook on it.