Horse Sense

A friend recently pointed out a terrific article by Jim Stovall posted at http://timmaurer.com/2012/01/16/horse-sense/.  Here’s an excerpt:

Recently, I was reading about draft horses which are very large, muscular animals that, throughout history, have been used for pulling great loads and moving very heavy objects.  A single draft horse can pull a load up to 8,000 pounds.  The strength involved in this is hard to imagine.  So then we can speculate what would happen if we hooked up two draft horses to a load.  If you instantly thought two draft horses could pull 16,000 pounds if one draft horse can pull 8,000 pounds, you would be wrong.  Two draft horses pulling together cannot pull twice as much as one.  They can actually pull three times as much.  The two draft horses that can each pull 8,000 pounds alone can pull 24,000 pounds working together.

The horses are teaching us a very clear lesson in teamwork, but they still have more to teach us.  If the two horses that are pulling together have trained with one another and have worked together before, they can’t just pull three times as much working together as they can by themselves.  The two trained horses in tandem can actually pull 32,000 pounds, which is a load four times as heavy as either of the horses could pull by themselves.

The powerful lessons that these magnificent draft horses can teach us involves not only teamwork but coordinated and trained collaboration.  No one lives or works alone as the proverbial island unto themselves.

What a great example of synergy!  We are often so motivated to do things by ourselves and for ourselves that we fail to seize the opportunity to work together with others to achieve something we simply could not do alone.

One of the amazing joys of being a business coach is to help business owners achieve something they could not quite accomplish alone.  It comes about through trust, collaboration, coordination of effort, and acceptance of step-by-step progress.  Business owners who seek assistance increase their odds of success.  All it takes is a little horse sense!

The Value of Spring Break

It's a big challenge for me to take a break from the work of my business. I'll bet if you're a small business owner, it's the same for you. You'd like to get away, but since you always feel behind, you tell yourself you'll take off when you catch up (which never comes, does it?). So you put up with the guilt and disappointment, and make excuses to family, friends, and most of all, yourself.

Well I have two thoughts for you to consider in this season of "spring breaks". First, take a small break now and then. Let go of the work for an hour or two. Take one day off and do something you miss. If even that seems scary, tell yourself you'll actually do some "strategic thinking" about the business (which maybe you will)! How you do it is not as important as actually doing it. The work will be there when you get back, but you'll find new energy and joy in it, and be able to tackle it with renewed vigor.  So take that small break this week. The human body and mind wasn't built to work non-stop without something breaking down. Give yourself the rest your body needs to refresh itself.

Second, find a way to take a more traditional spring break. Only it doesn't have to be in the spring. Find a way to commit to taking a week off this year. When was the last time you did that? Again, you've probably been promising yourself you'll do it when you catch up, right? Except if you actually do catch up, you probably think business has slowed down, so you work even harder.

In order to finally take that break, you need to plan for it. Make a commitment to someone else. Make a reservation. Block out the calendar for the chosen week so that you remove every excuse you can. Set it up so that there's a penalty to you if you don't follow through (i.e. a lost deposit, a family let down, etc.)

Why is this important? Well again, it will renew your attitude and energy toward your work. But there is also a financial reason to do it. If you can remove yourself from your business occasionally, you will start to build a business that just might be able to operate without you. Should you ever hope to sell your business for maximum value, this is a critical consideration. You might find a buyer just like you who will work as hard as you do in the business. But if you can search for a buyer who doesn't have to work as hard as you do because you aren't critical to the business, that buyer will pay you a higher price.

It takes time to build a more valuable business, and one way to start, ironically, is to take a break!