Greg's Right FIT Newsletter #82

Techniques for FIT

• Keep an "unexpected wait" list. If you've ever found yourself in a waiting room or an unusually long track meet, have a list of small 15 minute activities that you never get around to.
• When you're asked to join a board check for term limits and something resembling Roberts Rules of Order governing the meetings. If it's not there, politely decline and save yourself a headache. 
• Back to school time is near. Have you booked your dentist, physician, and eye exam? Everything starts with health, get a checkup. 
• A lot of noise this week on turning off the notifications to your devices. See Right Fit #50 and do the same. Take control.
   

Being Human - Being unavailable

Will it really fall apart? 

I'm visiting with a business owner who just took on a big growth project and is being forced to disconnect from the business for a week. I ask if he's concerned about being absent at such a critical time and he said, "Not really. It's not going to fall apart." 

I look at him, we pause, and say together, ". . .or it might."

When your business grows, you're going out on a wire to get to the next size and you're exposed. I've used the hermit crab analogy before, and it's being played out in real time with this man's business.

The hermit crab analogy is that when a hermit crab grows, it has to leave its shell and move to the next larger shell, but in the between time, it's an unwrapped tasty-treat for a predator. To get to the next bigger shell, to get to a spot where our business owner is more recognizable, has fewer competitors, and offers more value to customers, he needs to leave his current shell. He made a huge investment, hired many new faces, is selling to new customers, and he's exposed. 

My friend will probably make it to the next size, but many businesses don't. A polling executive told me that only 25% of small to mid-sized businesses are looking to grow. There's a reason. You're exposed. 

While you're out there, you still need to take care of yourself and you have twice as much incentive to buid the skills of your people. So, be absent every once in a while. It won't fall apart. 

Or it might. 

Random Stuff

Ajax - aka Driftwood

Have I told you about our cat, Ajax?

He's a gray tabby that entered our lives when a neighbor moved away and was not going to an apartment that allowed pets. He had raised Ajax to be a mouser, and when we inherited him he had been prowling for a few years. 

When summer comes, Ajax starts going on walkabouts that can last anywhere from two nights to two weeks. He'll set out one evening and show up one morning like nothing has changed. Like driftwood, just wandering through the neighborhood. 

Last year he went our for a walkabout that was longer than usual. He had been gone for three weeks when we left for China. I wrote him off but on our way home from overseas, our neighbor sent us a picture, he was back. 

This summer he's been gone for at least a month. I'll let you know when he comes back. 

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