Bring it on! Why you should lean into difficult moments

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The greatest opportunities come from the most difficult moments

It’s easy to start a business. Some may argue it’s easy to grow a business. The truth is that every entrepreneur will experience a difficult moment (or many) that will lead them to one of two decisions: close down the business OR lean in and create real value. Tough times are where real lesson are learnt and experience is gained.

There are many reasons why an entrepreneur will find themselves in a tough spot. Maybe you had a bad controller or accountant, maybe you forgot to pay your taxes or maybe you over-leveraged your business. Tough moments don’t happen by accident they happen on purpose. Remember that ignorance is not the same as innocence and at the end of the day its your business so you are ultimately responsible. The question to ask yourself is: what are you going to do next?

Getting into a difficult moment will happen because an entrepreneur will misread the signs their business is giving them. Money in the bank doesn’t mean profit. Employees who appear to think highly of you doesn’t necessarily mean you are leading or managing them well. The phone ringing off the hook doesn’t always mean that your business is awesome. The single largest reason a business does well is because the market conditions are favorable and it would be hard to fail in a strong market. This is also the single largest reason businesses find themselves experiencing difficulty. When the market changes so does the business. Every entrepreneur will hit a critical moment when their business starts to break down and problems begin to surface.

If you choose to lean into the problems, you will learn a lot about yourself and your business that you wouldn’t be able to learn anywhere else. Difficult moments can produce a better result for you and your business in the long term because the changes you make will be done out of desperation and will instill in you new habits that have real experience associated with them. You will discover where the real value in your business is and how to unlock it which will guarantee your future success. Some entrepreneurs can get to work, fix their business and get it to a new level very quickly by stubbornly refusing to fail. Other entrepreneurs fix their business through perseverance and time. Both types of entrepreneurs discover new opportunities on the other side of difficult moments.

Remember: everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face 🙂