Don’t Look at the Tree

When I was six years old, and my father was teaching me to ride a bike, we lived on a street with a big tree right in the middle of it. There was plenty of room to drive around it on either side, but the road was paved right up to the tree with no curb (this will become important later in the story).

He ran next to me as I went up and down the street in front of our house, learning to balance the bike. Slowly, Dad took his hand off my bike seat, and I went farther each time before he had to grab it and rebalance me.

Finally, I went far enough that he couldn’t keep up and let me ride alone. Unfortunately, as this happened, I was pointed toward the tree!

My dad shouted, “Look at the road—don’t look at the tree!” But all I could do was stare at that tree and imagine myself crashing into it.

So what happened? I rode right into the tree!

Don’t stare at the tree!

Imagine this pattern: Every morning, after feasting on headlines full of fear and dread; you check your pipeline to see what you can do to move deals forward. Every evening, after wandering the wasteland of social media; you look at your bank account, anticipating dwindling cash.

What does this behavior reinforce? Fears of what’s to come, anticipation of collapse, disaster!

When we feed our minds a continual diet of bad news, we see bad results coming.

We’re staring at the tree!

Look at the road!

I’m not suggesting you ignore the signals your business and the marketplace give you. The tree is there, it’s real. Nothing good comes from pretending otherwise!

But instead, focus on the road forward.

After taking stock of all the information available, ask yourself: “Given all that, what do I want to create?”

Expertise-based businesses like yours don’t need the economy to be gangbusters; you need two more good clients. Where might you find them?

Sure, clients are clamping down on their budgets going into the fourth quarter; they may not come to you with that end-of-budget-year spending spree as they have in years past. What do they need? How can you help them with that?

I should have listened to my father when I was six, but you can learn from his wisdom now, “Look at the road—don’t look at the tree!”

If the tree is staring you in the face, and you can’t see the road around it, hit reply, and we can get on the phone and find the road together!”