When The Going Gets Tough The Tough Get Going

I am veering slightly away from the subject of social media for this post today but bear with me as I think it is a very important point. Life is tough and business life is even tougher. I think a certain generation (my generation) came into business life with rose tainted specs on thinking that apart from the odd hiccup (dot com bubble) things were pretty much plain sailing and it was all Land Rovers and property development all the way. The reality is very different.

You get kicked in the face all the time in life, more so in business life as there is money at stake and people do irrational things when money is on the line. People try to steal your business, charge you too much, bad mouth you behind your back or maybe you are just on a bad run of luck with losing clients or sales. Doing business will get you down at times, not allow you to sleep with worry at night, lose friendships, neglect your family and lots of other irrational behavior and when the going gets tough it can get really tough.

The key to being really successful in business or life in general is to pick yourself up when down. Don’t ever feel sorry for yourself. Don’t doubt yourself when things are not going your way. Never listen to the haters or non believers who always said you would never make it anyway. I am a firm believer in your success will be defined by what you do straight after your darkest hour. When something goes wrong for me personally I won’t let it go and I’ll keep on fighting that day or week until I can turn it in to a success. You might lose the battle but you should never lose the war.

I like to judge people not on how they perform when things are going well and life is good but by how they react when the circumstances change and the odds are stacked against them. To borrow a phrase from Bill Cullen you’ll find out who the “true warriors are” when things start going badly and times are tough. That’s when you’ll know who you want in the trenches beside you for future battles.