Hey, everybody. Charlie Hauck back again for another Fast Tip Friday. When you do 50 of these a year, whatever the number is, sometimes it's a stretch to find the content, but we'll give it a shot. This week, it's not going to be long, but I hope it makes sense to you. It makes sense to me and I'm the king of everything, so let's go with it!
Imagine a bottle of ibuprofen, something I bet everybody has in their house. Everybody has it close at hand. If you're a professional in business development, if you run a business development team, I'm sure you've got plenty of reasons to take ibuprofen when you've got a headache, when you're frustrated, when you're upset, sometimes we overdo it when we work out, have muscle aches and pains, or we've got a sore back, or a bad knee, or whatever. We reach in, we grab the magic bottle of ibuprofen, and frankly, I have not been a big fan of ibuprofen most of my life, but at 67, almost 68, I’m starting to make a better friendship with this little bottle.
BUT… there is a problem with it. Ibuprofen does not fix the problem. It only deals with the symptoms that you're tired of putting up with. So my question is this - What is it that ails you in your business development gain, in your business development practice and your business development rituals? Are you trying to get rid of symptoms of the statistics, or the results, or the income that you don't like?
Are you willing to dive deep and really find out what the root cause is and not create some kind of mental B.S. ibuprofen to make you think it's not your problem or not your fault that you're not doing what you need to do? I know it hurts at times to hear that message, but look, I love ibuprofen, just to give me enough relief to let me finish out the day or do another couple of miles on the bike ride or whatever it is, but it's my fitness… That's the problem. It's not the achy knee or the sore back. And it's your business development discipline, it's your business development courage, it's your business development focus that's really having the impact that you need to address. It's not the symptoms that you can handle with the ibuprofen of a lack of commitment, a lack of courage, or a lack of accountability.
So look, don't try to manage yourself to a better sales result, a business development result, an income result by stuffing too much ibuprofen down your throat every day that will allow you to avoid the truth. Look, I probably need a knee replacement, but until then, ibuprofen and I are going to get along just fine. I know at the end I'm going to have to make some tough decisions about what I really want to do and how comfortable I want to be, and ibuprofen is not the answer.
Find some magic in those words. Don't deal with symptoms, address root causes and see if it doesn't have a bigger positive impact in your performance, your results and your ability to enjoy life. It's good, but it's not the answer. Take care. Have a great Friday, great weekend, and be ready to run like crazy on Monday to get it done. I'm out.
