How do you approach new opportunities?

Are you the type to take the bull by the horns and jump on every opportunity? Or, are you more hesitant to take on opportunities because you feel that you are not ready to take on those opportunities.

Most of us are more careful to take on opportunities, a trait we’ve likely developed as business owners to protect our business and our assets.

Maybe you can relate to the following situations:

• You invest in a new program for the business but you couldn’t quite get the hang of it
• You start a new course and you felt like you couldn’t keep up with the material
• You brought on a new hire but they didn’t work out because you did not have the time to invest in them
  

These are all situations that make us feel that we must be cautious to accept new opportunities and only accept them when we feel like we’re “ready.”

We must:

• Have enough money
• Have enough experience
• Have enough time
• Have enough knowledge
• Have enough…whatever
  

The facts are there will always be excuses for why we shouldn’t do something, but we’ll never be ready enough with that mindset.

We can take inspiration from Marissa Meyer, former CEO of Yahoo. She says:

“I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that’s how you grow. When there’s that moment of ‘Wow, I’m not really sure I can do this,’ and you push through those moments, that’s when you have a breakthrough.” 

We break this down more in this week’s video.

We can also take inspiration Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM, who says: 

“Growth and comfort do not coexist.” ― Ginni Rometty

This is a great reminder that if we aren’t uncomfortable, we’re not growing. We must be aware of when we become content in our business, because that’s when we become stagnant in our growth and limit our potential.

You may think, “I’ve been in business for 40 years, there’s nothing else I need to learn. I’m fine where I’m at.”

Well then let me ask you the following questions:

• What’s your plan for retirement?
• Do you plan to work until you're old and gray?
• What’s your succession plan? Who will take over your business when you retire?
• At it’s current state, is your business worth buying if you choose to sell?
• If you couldn’t work for three months, would your business survive?

These questions are so important because it highlights the real reasons why we go into business. It’s to create a business that runs without us so that we CAN retire, we CAN take a vacation, we CAN sell our business, we CAN expand our business and we CAN pass it down to our kids and grandkids.

If you can’t do any of these things, you are too comfortable where you’re at and you need to evaluate what opportunities you are missing because you’re too comfortable or scared to grow.

That’s one of the great parts of having a business coach. When I feel like I’m not ready for something or feel like it’s not the right time, my coach pushes me out of my comfort zone and reassures me that I am equipped, smart and worthy enough to take on new opportunities. Every time I come out as a better version of myself, that can use this experience to coach my clients.

If you are looking for that push for yourself, I highly suggest you do a complementary coaching session with one of our business coaches. This two-hour session alone will challenge you in ways that are guaranteed to improve your business.

I’ll leave you with this final quote by Arianna Huffington, editor of the Huffington Post:

“We need to accept that we won’t always make the right decisions, that we’ll screw up royally sometimes – understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.” ― Arianna Huffington