I’m not normally one to give unsolicited business advice, but I’ve been thinking about this enough lately that it’s almost become a mantra: nothing good requires zero effort. Okay, maybe not quite a mantra, because that sounds a tad obsessive. But, I have been thinking about the phrase quite a bit, and it’s applicable to just about everything. In fact—it may be applicable to absolutely everything. But, for the sake of this post, let’s stick within the boundaries of business.
It’s natural to focus on the things that require immediate attention—problems, concerns, inefficiencies, etc… And, it may feel counter-intuitive to spend any of your attention on the things in your business that are going well, or running smoothly. As many business owners have found out the hard way, you can’t count on things running smoothly forever—not without attention. And even then it can be beyond your control. We can’t just trust that things will remain good forever—it’s simply not true. In order to improve your chances of longevity, growth, and continued success, every facet of your organization requires attention. All the time.
That’s not to say that one should assign a great amount of attention to the things that are running well, but one should assign some attention. The primary goal may be to pay enough attention to never have anything really require your attention. Then you can spend your valuable (and limited) time and energy on things that don’t desperately need attention—because, normally by that point, It’s too late.
Maybe this equation helps to clarify the thought: inattention lends itself to laziness which then lends itself to failure (or to soften that— laziness lends itself to lack of success).
Give a little thought this week to a few of the components of your business that you don’t generally expend any thought on. You may be pleasantly surprised with the outcome.
Photo By Geoff Gallice – , CC BY 2.0