I enjoy Wipeout, where contestants navigate through sets of hurdles; clinging to swinging paddles or jumping over rotating barrels, before getting brutally thumped and dumped into a pool of water. They start with enthusiastic looks on their innocent faces, which mostly change to utter defeat a few seconds later.
If they get through one hurdle successfully, they get to go on to the next.
It's a bit like growing your own business - a series of hurdles, where a monumental effort is required to reach each one - with perhaps a moment between hurdles to gulp and plan.
Imagine each hurdle is a year of startup life.
According to Statista over 90% of startups survive the first year. That drops to 70% after 2 years, 50% after 3 years and only 40% after 5 years. What the stats suggest is that the longer you run the more likely you are to fail - a bit like Wipeout. It doesn't get easier.
You're running your own business to live the dream and make some money. Your first hurdle might be making your product (or service). Next is getting a few customers, then making money - for your business and for yourself.
Maybe think about it this way - in all likelihood your startup will fail. That's the brutal reality. So why not consider how to optimise things whilst the business is running? What can you do create a pool of cash that's enough to protect your family, and then ringfence it? Lock it away until the rainy day arrives. A failed business doesn't have to mean being broke and starting again. Work out how much cash you'll need to survive a year, or 5 or a lifetime and set that as your goal. Remember, businesses fail beause they run out of cash - that might be selling unprofitably, having expensive overheads or scaling too fast. Either way as soon as your business starts generating (even a little bit of) cash, which isn't needed for daily operations, ringfence it, lock it up and hide it at the back of a cupboard.
Because eventually you're going to need it to avoid the wipeout.
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