brian walsh blog

Dear Fellow Entrepreneurs

What has become more and more apparent to me in my work with entrepreneurs is that most get stuck along the way. The irony is that ‘getting stuck’ implies a certain connotation of inaction, yet in actual fact, getting and staying stuck is no inactive or easy feat – it requires huge amounts of effort! Stagnating or staying still is not scientifically even possible; it is a fallacy in terms of natural law, and so it is not a natural state. You have to work hard against the natural law of things in an effort (albeit that most are not consciously aware of just how hard they’re working at staying stuck) to stay still. I call this ‘holding up the walls’.

Let me explain. Everything in the universe is comprised of energy, and energy has to move. There is no such thing as stagnant energy. In other words, if you are not expanding, you are contracting; you can never be perfectly still or unmoving…no matter how hard you might try to get it right! What most entrepreneurs do is start a business and manage to grow it past the initial start-up phase. This phase is painful and often requires so much more work and effort than initially anticipated. Due to this gruelling and somewhat unexpected challenge in getting the business to a stable operating phase, most entrepreneurs embark on a phase of subconscious stagnation, sometimes wasting years of potential growth and productivity. Instead of growing their business to the next level, they
focus all their energy in trying to keep the business where it is.

Of course, due to the natural law of energy, the business will begin to implode on itself because it is not expanding. (And let me warn you that no matter how hard you try to keep the business stagnant, it will eventually implode, so this is something you want to be aware of, recognise and counteract as quickly as possible if you find yourself getting into this pattern.) The entrepreneur – who is really more self-employed in this instance than being a real entrepreneur – has to work exceptionally hard, fighting against this only to keep the business stagnant. This effort consumes all their energy and resources, and often wears them down. It is like trying to hold up heavy concrete walls that are about to topple over.

So what can we do to avoid this kind of scenario? Simple solution – don’t stagnate. And by this I don’t merely mean that you should necessarily increase the number of clients you service or how much money they’re paying you; you may not want more clients or money. What I mean is that you should continuously think of creative ways to improve your service to your existing clients, and continuously think of creative, more effective ways to utilise and optimise the money you are already making. Remember the Law of Entrepreneurship which is to produce the same or greater results using less and less energy. Stagnation happens when we stop following this law, when we become complacent and just ‘go with the flow’. We need to exercise creativity in how we can
continuously improve the value of what we offer, as well as offering it at lower cost in terms of money, time and energy.

I know this past year has been challenging for many of you, but please pay attention to what I’m saying here. You need to be even more determined and creative at this time. Do not sit back and wait for better times, because that will cost you a lot more than taking creative action to improve what you offer and how efficiently you offer it.

Take action; grow yourself and your business. Don’t stagnate. Stop holding up the walls!

Your Entrepreneurial Coach
Brian Walsh

www.entrepreneur.co.za

I am going to revert to more written content in my Blog as opposed to Videos. There is a number of reasons for this but I hope you will enjoy the weekly content in this way. All “Brian’s Weekly’s” from the Weekly Entrepreneur.co.za Newsletter will feature in the Blog. Please leave comments and interact around it.

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Kind Regards
Brian Walsh