Forces of nature

One part of life often teaches us lessons that we can use in other parts of life. Recently I watched as a crew of guys tried to wrestle with a very large runaway schooner, being pushed by 50-mile-an-hour gusts into the other boats in the harbor. The strong winds had caught the bow, so that instead of just backing nicely out of her slip and going out to sea as her skipper intended, the large wooden bowsprit (the part that sticks out beyond the bow) was blown into neighboring boats and was literally ripping them apart. The engine just didn't have enough power to overcome the forces of nature.

After scraping along two boats, and getting stuck up against some mid-channel pilings, the crew decided to give up and take her back to her dock. This was not her day to go out to sea.

When things had settled down a bit, and as I listened to the wind continue to roar through the harbor while I was working, I realized that the sailors were doing what many businesspeople do. They fight the forces of nature.

In business, the forces of nature come from three sources: customers, government, and the people running each business. The first two you can't do much about. They're like the wind and the tide. You have to work with them, not against them. If you try to fight them, you will lose.

Obvious examples of "fighting" customer forces include trying to:

• Sell things that no one wants anymore

   

   

• Sell things the way you used to, when everyone has changed the way they buy

   

   

• Convince people that they should want something, when no amount of talking will convince them

   

   

• Ignore trends in the market that are causing buyer behavior to shift

You would think that people would be smart enough to avoid these mistakes. But their pride blinds them. They think they're smarter than the customer. Like the engine in the schooner, they depend on determination. They "rev up." They increase their efforts, working harder and harder on things that have no effect whatsoever. I've seen business owners run their businesses into the ground behaving this way. It's actually quite common and, just like that big bowsprit breaking off pieces of neighboring boats, it's terribly sad to see. It's obvious to a skilled observer what must be done, starting with the understanding that, in certain conditions, the ship is going to behave a certain way.

In today's business conditions, you can be sure that your customer is going to be cautious about spending money. She's going to evaluate your product carefully. She's going to want thorough and specific answers to her questions, or you won't make the sale. You're going to have to pay very close attention to what her needs are, and what she is asking for.

You are another force of nature

The customer trends and the government trends are the forces of nature working on you. But what about your nature? What forces do you bring to bear?

You are, in fact, another force in the mix. And you can decide that you are going to work with the other forces, rather than against them. Instead of applying your energy to resisting the forces, you can decide to become super aware and super accommodating. You can make it a personal goal to understand what customers really want. You can focus your energy on meeting those needs.

Or, you can blow it. You can do what many business owners do when the business climate gets nasty. They don't sharpen their tools. They don't become more effective. They just do things the way they've always done them. They make the same mistakes they've always made. They aren't disciplined. Even if they see changes in the business environment, they don't change to match those changes. Even if they realize that they have a new, formidable competitor, or their customers are telling them they need to change something, they don't change what they are doing. They're too stubborn. It's their way or the highway. They want to do what they want to do, the way they want to do it.

Then: Crash, bang, boom - their business starts to run into problems. Things start to snap and fail. Life gets very, very difficult - financially and emotionally. Still they don't change their activities - and their basic nature - to meet the new challenge. They behave as if it's still a beautiful day with a gentle breeze blowing, when in fact it's hurricane city out there.

If you recognize the forces at work, and adjust your own behavior - your very nature - to work with them, you can be productive and effective. You can succeed even as others are failing. You can be the sailor who successfully backs out of the harbor, without threatening anyone else's boat. You can make it look easy, even though the wind is up and the conditions are treacherous.