When you have a puppy it’s a gorgeous bundle of feet and fur. It’s adorable, and it looks at you with perfect doleful eyes. It’s everything you imagined. Then it shits on the bathroom mat and eats grandma’s new leather gloves, followed by Sunday lunch. And you go through the process of training this monster until it knows to go outside to have a wee and not to attack the postman.
But it gets big and has a mind of its own; it fights other dogs, barks at the Amazon guy, stays out late, gets a tattoo, drinks alcohol, smokes spliffs and goes partying in Ibiza. And it mates with the wee poodle down the road, regularly. Her owner is pretty upset and the babies have snouts, long tails, furry eyebrows and webbed feet.
In your imagination your business is a cute and cuddly puppy – your idea is pure and simple, untarnished by the realities of living in an imperfect world. You have a unique product and wonderful customers who love you and pay ahead of schedule, never complain, and always come back for more.
Like the dog that grows up to be a hound, or your cute baby who grows up to be a 6’6” rugby playing, beer gulping, womanising (or menising) brute, you’re going to have to accept that things evolve, and they’ll probably head off in directions you weren’t expecting. Embrace those changes, thrive on them and go where your suppliers and customers take you.
One day, after banging your head against a wall for months, your customer will say, “I don’t suppose you can ………………..?” and then you’ll have a business. It won’t have the purity of the idea you started out with, and it will be messy. But it will be yours and it will fly.
Great way of looking at business! Thanks