I help entrepreneurs leapfrog over the typical potholes that derail most small businesses with inspiration, motivation, education, and support across a wide range of business topics drawn from over a decade of running my own business, teaching entrepreneurship for the City of New York, and coaching and consulting privately with dozens of women and minority small business owners. Honestly, why go it alone when help is an email away?
Free Your Mind
Hello Reader,
On Saturday afternoon, my mom's TV died.
I know, it's tragic, particularly with the Super Bowl airing the next day. (FYI - My mom didn't care about that, in case you were wondering.)
TV is important to my mom. It's how she gets her news, a big part of her daily entertainment, and a component of keeping her brain active through quiz shows like Jeopardy and The Chase.
So, we spent much of Sunday shopping online for TVs.
I found several replacements for the one she has from a well-known electronics chain, which included same-day delivery for no extra fee .
Pretty sweet, right?
I was staying with my mom for another few days and could easily set up the new TV for her. So, with my solution, my mom could have a working TV with minimal pain and no extra costs by early Monday morning.
Problem solved. Or so you'd think.
Except...my mom insisted on going into a particular store to make this purchase. And, okay, that's fine, but she also became fixated on getting the old TV removed. The store where she wanted to buy the new TV charges a pretty penny to remove the old set, which isn't even included if you pay them to deliver and set up your new one.
To me, this was crazy because the store I recommended accepts TVs as part of their e-recycling program for free. If she wanted to shop at a brick-and-mortar store, we could bring the old TV with us to recycle it and go home with a new TV that I could set up for her all without spending one penny more than the cost of the TV itself.
That's a slam dunk, in my opinion.
But not to my mom. At every turn, she raised "problems" with my solution.
What I realized is that this wasn't so much because it was my solution, but more so because it wasn't hers.
My mom, like most people, became attached to the solution she had come up with for herself—to go to a particular store. No matter the costs and inconveniences.
The fact of the matter is that I can relate to my mom. Something tells me you probably can, too.
It's such a human thing to get attached to our own ideas.
Even when we're introduced to something clearly better and that makes more sense, our instinct is to hold fast, justify, and make excuses.
Here's what I want you to do the next time you're twisting yourself in knots to maintain a position, defend a decision, or support an argument—
Take a beat and ask yourself: "Am I just making things harder for myself, or is this really the best course of action?"
If you need to, write a list of pros and cons for each option, sleep on it, and reevaluate in the morning.
My mom eventually decided on a compromise.
We went to the store where she wanted to buy the TV in person. However, instead of paying them to deliver and set up the new TV and also to remove the old one, we walked out of the store with a new TV, and I set it up for her. The old TV went into a storage space in the house until we can responsibly dispose of it at no cost sometime later this year.
This whole experience was a good reminder that: Change is hard. Changing our minds is harder.
Until next week, I hope you stay open to the possibility that there just might be a better way!
PS - In case you missed it, last week talked about how It's a Numbers Game.
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Easily Said & Done
I help entrepreneurs leapfrog over the typical potholes that derail most small businesses with inspiration, motivation, education, and support across a wide range of business topics drawn from over a decade of running my own business, teaching entrepreneurship for the City of New York, and coaching and consulting privately with dozens of women and minority small business owners. Honestly, why go it alone when help is an email away?
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