The Risks of Holding On: Letting Go for Business Growth

[00:00:00] What do you hold on too hard to? How do you try to protect yourself from risk in a way that exacerbates your risk? Today I'm gonna talk a little bit about the ways in which we as entrepreneurs can get into ruts of thinking or clinging to things that have maybe served us, and were intended to be temporary supports rather than long-term solutions.

Stay tuned. When I was maybe five years old, my grandparents had one of those popular four foot, five foot above ground pools in their backyard. And I was, when I would visit, that was my par. My mom wanted me to learn to swim, and I loved swimming.

Well, let me, let me back up. I loved the water. I was scared of swimming, and I had those little floaties, that little arm floaties to, to keep me going and or to keep me [00:01:00] up. And I had a little, um, little floater thing to hold onto. And my grandfather, because I was really scared, the pool seemed very long. He tied a rope across the middle of the pool. So it was oblong pool and then, uh, in the center of this oval across the short sides, he had tied this rope. And so that I would take off my floaties. He said, there you have that, so you just have to get to that and you'll be fine. And I was so scared of drowning. I would jump in the pool as far in as I could, and then I would swim all the way as fast as I could to the rope and then clinging to it.

And then I would clinging and I would crawl around like a crab on the sides of the edges of the pool. And never really swim in the pool. So one day my grandfather said to me, if you don't stop using that [00:02:00] rope all the time, I'm gonna remove it. You won't have it. And it terrified me. So I started swimming as much as I could around the pool, away from the rope to show him he didn't have to remove it. In fact, I did that so much that he removed it and I didn't even notice it until much later. And I think about that sometimes when I notice myself getting attached to having a certain, certain kind of support. And realizing that it might be similar to that rope in the middle of the pool.

And I don't know if you can relate to that . Just think for a minute, what are the things that help you to feel safe that sometimes get in the way of your own success?

So take a minute and if you're driving, think about it or if you're sitting down and grab a piece of paper and jot down a couple of things that you clinging to [00:03:00] that impede your success. One of those things could be certainty. I, a lot of us really wanna be certain. And if you think about it, when you first started your business, you weren't certain of anything. Everything was a risk. And because of that, it didn't really feel like that big of a deal. And as you get a certain amount of success, it can actually almost feel riskier to do things without certainty because you've gotten a little bit used to things working.

And I'm gonna encourage you to examine things like- examine yourself when you feel like you need to know and question, do you need to know or is the fact that you've been successful getting in the way of your ability to continue to be successful? Another example of something you could clinging to that impedes your progress is a tool.

I had a client many years ago who was really committed to this is the, this is the tool that's gonna make me successful. And it was very complicated and expensive to maintain. And actually it was a great tool, but not for the [00:04:00] size of business that they had. They needed to have a slightly larger business so that they could afford the support system for it.

And because they knew that people who were really successful used it. They really had this commitment to, this is gonna help me be successful. And once they let go of it and were able to spend those funds on investing in the things they needed at the level they were at. They were able to see their business grow and.

It. Getting attached to an idea about how things are gonna work is something we all do in business and in life. And taking some time to reflect and notice is this thing that I'm doing still helping me? I. Or is it paying off? In the case of the situation with the tool, it, it is effective. It was a good quality product.

They didn't make a bad decision in buying it. They just didn't quite have the information they needed to know that their business needed to be at a slightly different level for it to truly be effective for them. And it's really okay to say, [00:05:00] oops, let me start over. And let's look at what's really gonna be supportive and helpful to me today in this moment for what I'm doing right now. It's especially true right now in, or it's especially true in the current technological landscape. Things change rapidly and being able to identify which are the systems and tools that are continuing to be effective for you and which need to be evaluated, changed, or removed from your process is an important part of your at least quarterly review of what you're up to. Otherwise, you can get into that situation, kind of like families do, where you have every kind of streaming service in the world. And we used to pay $80 a month for cable and we thought that was a lot. And then you add up all your streaming services and it's like $220.

So it, it's really important to make sure that you're aligning what you're doing, what you're spending in terms of time, money, and energy, with what your actual needs are. [00:06:00] And what is actually gonna help you today in your business.

And whenever I find myself clinging to something that has been supportive or that I feel is going to protect me from a risk or a fear or uncertainty, I remember the lesson of the pool and I remember that ultimately I'm not even gonna notice when it's gone if I apply myself to pretending that it's not there.

 Challenge yourself this week to look at the things that you might be seeking in terms of feeling safe and secure or what gives you confidence or what you're holding onto, and notice what would happen if you change that perspective or let that thing go. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the results and let me know how it goes.

Aicila: Next week, tune in for my chat with Simon Calder Bank as we discuss the [00:07:00] impact of personal upbringing on leadership styles and how Simon's matriarchal influences shaped his empathetic approach to coaching, particularly in empowering female leaders and understanding gender dynamics in the workplace.

Thank you for tuning into business. As unusual, remember, in this ever evolving world of modern business, it's not about fitting in. It's about standing out. See you next time. Stay curious, stay innovative, and always keep it unusual.