As we all know, we need to be on our “A-Game” as we navigate and come out of this pandemic. Some of us will not make it. At TRO, we have tried to highlight different tasks, concepts, best practices and thoughts to help you come out on top. But today, I want to flip that narrative and give you 9 surefire ways to end up on the bottom. Success is hard. Failure is easy. Here’s how to do it.
Chase Someone Else’s Definition of Success
If you allow someone else to define your success you will fail. Congratulations! Mom and Dad may have wanted you to be a legal scholar; but it doesn’t interest you. You be you. Define your own success and the odds are in your favor!
Start Many Projects and Finish None
If you want to be a failure, begin as many things as you can. You will look busy and indispensable–a true success. But looks can be deceiving as we all know. Thirteen unfinished projects are thirteen little failures. One complete project is a success!
When the Going Gets Tough, Get Out
Just when things get rough (like now), lose interest and bail—you’ll fail in no time flat. If owning a travel agency was easy, everyone would be doing it. But that is not the case—just ask a former YTBer. Remember the parable about the tortoise and the hare? Persistence will pay off!
Always Hold Your Poker Hands
In poker, (and in that Kenny Rogers song) you have to know when to hold them and when to fold them. When you are foundering and burning cash, throwing money into the fire is an option. But, a calculated exit (if it makes sense) might work out better for you.
Go It Alone
Under no circumstances seek help. You have already come this far on your business acumen, why ask anyone else for an opinion or help? Sorry, that’s a sure-fire way to fail. More than ever, we need one another right now!
S&#@ on Others
Crapping on others will certainly take you to the top. It doesn’t matter if it is a friend, family member or a competitor, just trample on them. While it may work on occasion, it usually doesn’t and is not worth the risk. My father used to say “be careful whose toes you step on today, they are likely connected to the but you will need to kiss tomorrow.”
Be Disorganized
To increase your chance of failure, make sure documents are strewn about at various places and frequently forget to meet deadlines and return calls. Today, organization will be critical and deadlines and milestones will be required to be met. And remember, disorganization is even more visible to outsiders than it is to you. This one is very dangerous!
Stay In Your Comfort Zone
Change is scary so make sure you never challenge yourself and always work on projects that you are confident of a successful outcome. If you ever get the opportunity to do something new, avoid it at all costs. Right now (and post COVID) our life will live outside of our comfort zones, so if you aren’t able to work outside—hang it up.
Put Everything Off
Make sure you are putting everything off. That marketing plan can wait. Learning about land-based vacations if you are a cruise agent can wait. If Secretariat never left the starting gate, he never would have won the Triple Crown. If you never send in that pesky tax return, the IRS will understand. Sure they will! Yeah, no! Just no! Carpe diem.
And while this is intended as a tongue-in-cheek guide to failure, sometimes it is a good exercise to look at challenges from a different angle. Instead of looking forward to success; I hoped to divert your eye from the carrot and to take a look at the potholes at your feet.
It’s a very strange, different, and challenging time. We are in it together and in the end, we will come out of it together—battered and bruised I am sure. But, if history is any indicator, we will be stronger because of it!
Keep the faith and wash your hands!
