We just can't have everything we want, and the way the world is now, we want more and more—in fact, almost everything.
I recently started swimming again for the first time properly in about eight years; I'm managing to get there twice a week, one long, slow swim (very slow) and one structured session to get a little bit faster.
The long, slow session lasts about an hour or an hour and 10 minutes, and the faster session is slightly less.
I could get better and more quickly; I would just have to dedicate more time and resources to it.
Ideally, I'd go to bed a bit earlier on the nights before I swim, I'd have everything ready, like my lunch and my breakfast and my work stuff, and maybe I'd do that four times a week and so four nights a week I'd go to bed earlier, and I'd also give up four hours or five hours of my weekly time to get better at swimming.
But then, if I do that, I'll get worse with something else, and then I'll get stressed trying to find the balance, which is kind of the metaphor we have.
And so the same thing applies to our businesses.
We make the mistake of thinking that we get to have everything we want, so the value-based business where people are looked after and happy and psychologically safe and smiling, and their growth at 10 or 15% a year and even if we're not growing at 10 or 15% of the year, we can still have the same value-based business.
You either have a growth business, which is centred around monthly and quarterly results, and nothing else matters, taking all the stress and upset and heartbreak that brings, or you have a business that is less obsessed with that.
Profit is oxygen for your business, isn't it?
It's essential for life, but not the meaning of life.
And so, if sometimes you have less profit or sometimes you have more , it doesn't really matter if you're there for a long term.
If you're only there for the next quarter, though, or maybe a year or two before you're getting out and getting your money back, it's a very different environment to work in.
It's fine to have either; of course it is, but it's just better to be clear which one you are.
If you're a profit-centred business, then be a profit-centred business and be successful at it, but don't expect to attract the team or the customers who would rather not be associated with a profit-centred business.
There are countless stories about how well value-based businesses exist in the long term, but it's about the fact that they make decisions which are difficult and sometimes problematic in the short term in order to get to the longer term in better shape.
If you were a dental corporate (a dental service organisation) it's very hard to invest in a clinician for the next five years.
It's hard to let them grow and blossom and support their CPD financially and in time and watch them become a better version of themselves and a loyal person in your team, someone who would take a bullet for you.
It's hard to do that if all you're concerned about are your next quarterly results.
Thinking a little bit about the long term lets you focus on what your business is actually for and why it's actually here.
Blog Post Number - 3761
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