This week’s topic – Mindset – is one I’ve steered away from for a long time now.  And the reason I steer clear of mindset is because I’m very much about looking at a business through the eyes of systems, processes, deliverables, plans and tactics.  Let me explain through an analogy:

If you jump out of a plane, unless you have a system – which we call a parachute – you’re going to die. The mindset is going to help you, but actually it’s the parachute that gets you to the ground safely.

And if I push you out of the plane, whether you’re fearful or not, as long as the parachute opens you land, whether you were scared or not, whether you’re conscious or not, it would still land.

As I explained last week, the default position of any business is death.  Our challenge is to keep it going, keep it alive, keep it in the right gear, make sure we change gear at the right time.  There are three reasons why 96% of businesses never get past a certain point:

1/ Mindset – it’s how we think, but it affects everything that we do. And it affects our self-talk, our self-confidence.

2/ Ability – our skills and knowledge. But the trouble is, if you don’t know what you don’t know, then how are you meant to get that knowledge? The reason why most businesses are stuck is because the owners don’t know what the problem is, because if they did, they’d fix it.

3/ Execution – I’ve met loads of mentors and business coaches that can whip you up into a frenzy on your strategy and your mindset. To inspire someone is great, but to inspire them to DO something and they actually do it is the most important thing. I speak to hundreds of business owners every year and it’s surprising how many do know what they should be doing, but never actually do it.

And the challenge for business owners is if we lack confidence and we don’t know what we don’t know, we start looking at all sorts of different things.  But our mind can’t focus on lots and lots of different areas, so you just carry on back in the reactive because it’s the comfort zone of where you are.

But going back to systems… if you have a system that works for you – take McDonald’s – if you technically follow every single step of the way, you will get a good business, whether you’re confident or not.  And those days when you’re really not feeling it or don’t turn up and rely on others, then you’ve got the systems and processes to take over.

This week I recommend you read (or re-read) an amazing book that’s in my top 10 (my library is 900+ so this shows how useful I find it!) – its Carol Dweck’s ‘Mindset’ and she explains why it’s not just our abilities and talent that bring us success, but whether we approach them with a fixed or growth mindset.

Martin Norbury

Investor | Business Mentor at Advocate | Author of I don’t work Fridays

Image by Gerhard G. from Pixabay