Too Smart for Your Own Good?

Over the past few weeks I’ve seen several occurrences of something all business owners need to be aware, especially if they’re doing it. Chances are you’ve seen the same type of behavior and quite possibly have done it yourself.

Done daily, it will severely limit the number of friends you have.

Done once-in-awhile as a business owner, it can have a dramatic effect on your revenues and income.

The behavior I am referring to is the over-analysis and dissection of details that ultimately have no value to you, your business and your customers, yet by focusing on them it gives the person a false sense of accomplishment and meaning.

I am not referring to “paralysis by analysis.” That is a different behavior and one I’ve been known to exhibit from time-to-time (it’s the engineer in me).

What I am highlighting in this article is the short-sighted behavior to focus on “A” when in fact you should be focused on “B.”

It’s the proverbial story of the know-it-all in the audience critiquing a platform speaker’s performance instead of comprehending her message.

So here are a few examples I’ve personally seen in the past few weeks that made me pause and feel sorry for the person doing it.

A gentleman, who I do not know but reminded me of a college marketing professor, was bashing a marketing campaign of a very successful bricks and mortar retailer. The campaign was indeed an outside-the-box campaign, but given this business owner’s track record of success, it was just another test for him. Personally, I thought it was very cool. The “professor”, who was not focused on the big picture of the retailer’s business, simply poo-poo’d the campaign as “unprofessional” and “hurtful to the industry.” I am sure he took great comfort in thinking he was right and the multi-million dollar business owner was an idiot.

A woman, who happens to be an accountant and client, spending an inordinate amount of consulting time with me, complaining about how an online marketer’s recent email to her was full of amateur typo mistakes. I asked her if she even “read” it, not in the context of looking for mistakes, but rather to absorb the message. She confessed the answer was no (in full disclosure she is probably reading this and knows I was going to write about it). I never suggest being sloppy, and personally “good is good enough” is often not true, but mistakes do happen.

A few years ago, I wrote about a friend of mine, who did the same thing. His “blinders” prevented him from tapping into a big opportunity. Read the article here.

The number of examples are infinite, which is NOT the point of this article. The point of this article is to remind all of us to stay focused on what truly matters.

• What a speaker is wearing on stage doesn’t matter.
• A person’s accent should not distract you from what he is saying.
• Making fun of marketing that works and proclaiming it to be amateurish or unprofessional doesn’t do anybody good.
• Not trying something new because you THINK it won’t work is not a valid excuse.

For the person whose personality is hard-wired to criticize and critique, constantly, there is nothing I can share that will help. This type of person only feels good when they feel right about something and everybody else is wrong.

However for most folks reading this, I hope this article provides a good, start of 2016 reminder to stay focused on the things that truly matter.

Be careful of:

• Paying attention to inconsequential details, while missing the big picture.
• Being too comfortable with your current situation, thereby missing opportunities.
• Being 100% confident telling/thinking others are wrong and you are right.

Am I missing anything here? If so, comment below and I will add your thoughts to this article.