Take a time-out in the race that’s never run.
“I’ll just run to the next lamppost.
I’ll just run to the next car.
I’ll just run to the next crossroads.
I’ll just run to the next Chinese Takeaway.
I’ll just run to the next lamppost.
I’ll just run to the next bar.”
(repeat)
It’s wearying: the marathon of running a business that has no finishing straight, never mind a line.
You just do this, you just do that, and that, and this, and before you know it the next lap has started and it’s all “Push onwards chaps we’re not going to let these bally challenges get in the way.”
Then, suddenly.
Kaboom!
The biggest hurdle in business history drops right into your pathway and…You. Have. To.
SLOW.
DOWN.
AND.
STOP!
(Intermission I.)
All of a sudden, the birds are singing a little louder. Certainly, you can hear them.
The rush of traffic around you is a mere trickle.
The phone is, if not silent, chastened.
What’s going on?
But pretty quickly it’s all furlough this person, not that, check our contracts, call our clients, call our lawyers, call our bank, call our IT provider…
“I’ll just survive to the next junction.
I’ll just survive to the next signpost.
I’ll just survive to the next hospital.”
And then, again, once that rush is over.
The birds are out again (bloody racket).
The cars aren’t.
Those clients that truly love what you do, have told you they ain’t going nowhere else, and there are more of them than you realised.
And you’ve reconnected with them in a way you haven’t for years.
And your costs are in control.
And the IT works for WFH.
You’re gonna make it through man.
This, then, is the time, maybe the only time you might ever have in your entrepreneurial life, to take stock.
Pause.
Reflect.
Discuss your situation with someone that gets the whole ‘lonely at the top: lonelier at the bottom’ mind-bend.
(Intermission II.)
Talk to us.
Two seasoned professionals with deep specialisation in their industry and running their own business.
We’ve been through your pain, we’ve been through that Damascene moment that you might, only now, be experiencing — where you too could, if you really wanted to, prioritise your life over your career.
You may be taking this unique, but brief, moment to reflect on whether you value your personal sanity over the endless business-running marathon with no finishing line, no plan, that you are living.
We both had that moment.
Both Kate and I.
That moment where we said, “Sod that. We’re going to prioritise ourselves in all this.”
And we now live enriched, passionate lives where our professional joy comes from helping businesses to see, like us, trees from woods.
Where we coach wearied entrepreneurs through the challenges of not just their business life, but their whole life.
Helping them recognise that the next lamppost isn’t actually the finishing line, it’s simply a pit stop, a chance to take on more fluids, to ease back into the race, at their pace.
On their, your, terms.
Now you’ve stopped, even though it might have been forced on you, use the time-out.
At least maybe start a conversation with us.
