The Sounding Board

I’m currently re-reading Michael Gerber’s The E Myth Revisited. It’s an interesting read. Might want to get yourself a copy if you haven’t already.

In any regard, I was struck by a quote shown at the beginning of the Introduction. The quote is by Joseph Heller. It reads:

“I think that maybe inside any business, there is someone slowing going crazy.”

Ever feel like that when it comes to your business? I certainly have. I’m sure we all have. But why?

If you’re anything like me, it’s because you always have a million (and one) things going through your head at any given time. Ideas, partially formed plans, snippets of this, a dappling of that, oh! and I need to do some research on this, or learn how to do that better, I need to call so-and-so and ask about ____, remind myself I need to follow up with _______ on _____. OH! And! As if there wasn’t enough ’stuff’ clamoring for my attention? There are the multitudes of marketing and operational improvements or ideas jostling around for a position at the forefront. Some are for my own business, some are for clients, some are just there…they come and go with no apparent focus on who they should be used for.

Now, added to all of that mental debris floating around in my head, there are also the multitudes of real work I need to get done. Update a database for this client, research ISSN numbers for that one, compose an email campaign message for another, sort through a weekend’s worth of email for yet another.

Oh! And did I mention? There’s also my own academic commitments for my Accounting degree. And of course, my kids would like to see me emerge from the cave that is my office once in awhile - at least long enough to remind them that no, they are not yet adults, free to come and go as they choose…and no, I have not left them to fend for themselves for all eternity.

If all of that’s not enough to drive you slightly crazy? Hmm…than maybe you should consider running for President. (Something jokingly suggested for me by a couple of my colleagues a few days ago.)

Interesting that I should read that quote today. I guess there is some element of truth in it - although I don’t see where that’s such a bad thing. Crazy people tend to be somewhat non-conforming. It’s also been my experience that most of the truly successful entrepreneurs I’ve known are also non-conformists. We don’t do things in ‘conventional’ ways. Part of our success lies in finding newer, better, more creative ways to solve a variety of problems. It’s that innate ability to see things from a different perspective from everyone else that lends to our success. With that in mind, I’d say being a small business owner makes being crazy seem logical.

What do you think? Are you slowly going crazy and proud of it?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 12:33 pm and is filed under Business 101, General Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.