Big Red Car here. It is particularly sweet here in the ATX this weekend. The azaleas are starting to bloom. This is why one lives in the ATX.
On Earth as it is in Texas, ya’ll!
So The Boss is having a chat or two with his CEO clients and the issue of failure comes up. The Boss is administering some tough love to a couple of his CEOs because he feels they have elected to fail. They have chosen to fail. Let me tell you about it.
Failure is real and it is painful
Failure is real. It hurts. Failure always has a root cause. Eliminate that root cause and it may disappear. Guiding the Vision into becoming a viable product, business, company is what entrepreneurial fonder/CEOs are supposed to do.
Doing so requires a plan and therein lies The Boss’s beef with a couple of his entrepreneurial CEOs. It is made all the worse because he knows they have success in their DNA.
Failing to plan is embracing planning to fail. <<<It is really that damn simple. If you don’t plan, then you have chosen to fail.
If you fail to develop a clear Vision, Mission, Strategy, Tactics, Objectives, Values and Culture — you are planning to fail.
We have discussed how these critical building blocks of any company work together. Here is a tidbit — Vision, Mission and All That Jazz.
Search The Musings of the Big Red Car and you will find a great number of such conversations.
Overnight success is a long term proposition
When such planning is undertaken seriously what happens is what the Big Red Car likes to call the “power of alignment.” Good book on that subject can be found here. Worth a read but here’s the bottom line. Those plans, dragged out of the founder/CEOs head and put on paper, will align the efforts of your team. By the by, almost 4MM folks have read that book but don’t worry, you don’t need to read it. [Joke by the Big Red Car. Irony alert. Rent someone else’s experience at every opportunity. Cheaper tuition.]
A nail struck squarely will be driven more quickly than one that is struck repeatedly from the wrong direction.
Most overnight success is the product of a carefully crafted plan with a few pivots along the way. The pivots are much easier because the team had a plan and therefore knew when they pivoted.
When failure comes calling, do not cry into your beer and tell the Big Red Car market forces overwhelmed my lovely little startup. Look in the mirror. Man up and say: ‘I chose failure because I was too lazy to plan.”
The dividend
So, failure is a choice, Big Red Car? OK, I’ve got that but what happens when I do plan?
Well, Old Sport, you are still in the risk taking business so you do not automatically get to pass “GO” but you will have a sense of liberation and empowerment.
More than a few of The Boss’s brilliant CEOs have reported a physical relief from finalizing their Vision, Mission, Strategy, Tactics, Objectives, Values and Culture. Offsite meeting to communicate. Bit of an update a couple of times per year. Freakin’ Promised Land.
One CEO told The Boss he was sleeping better, his sex life was more vibrant, he was catching more fish, every time he went anywhere he found a parking place, his bread was landing peanut butter side up and his kids were obedient. [Big Red Car just joshing ya’ll except for the sleeping part. The CEO was feeling better and he was sleeping better and he was performing better. You can too.]
Sorry for the tough love but the Big Red Car loves ya’ll. Really. We don’t bullshit each other, do we?
But, hey, what do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car. Be kind to yourselves, dear readers. You absolutely deserve it. Get a mani-pedi or a massage and send the Big Red Car the bill. Do not choose to fail. Failure is a choice.
