In order to run with the big dogs…

You have to leave the porch

Maggie is my little princess, she barks up a good story, threatens people as they walk by our house, barking away and thinking that she is tough.  However, if you open the door, she doesn’t leave the porch.  There are a number of us in business that are the same way.

The reality of the world is this.  In order to run with the big dogs, you have to leave the porch.  Many times we are stuck in our ways, this is the way we have always done things or we hold onto things that keep us on the porch.  Many times in business in order to get on the path that we want to be on we have to have the trust to take that first critical step.

In my life I know where I want to go.  I don’t have the crystal clear image of the path to get there, but I have to take that first step to get there.  That is the critical item, we have to take that first critical step.  Another important and often overlooked item is if we want to step up our game we have to use the equipment that the professionals use.  Can you imagine Wayne Gretzky playing hockey with a stick that he picked up at Canadian Tire.  How about Tiger Woods playing golf today with the same set of clubs he started out with.  It simply just doesn’t happen.

When you out grow your accounting system

Many times in business, we continue to use solutions and systems that can not expand to meet the needs of our business as we grow.  We had this discussion in our office today about accounting systems.  Many times we start off with an application like Microsoft Excel.  A great solution for keeping track of basic accounting items, however as our business grows we may look at Quickbooks, a solution that will serve us for a number of years during our next stage.  Finally as we get bigger and grow our business we need something with a lot more features, more flexibility to meet the growing needs of our business and we may turn to a Microsoft Dynamics GP solutions.  Can you imagine a large firm continuing to run their business using Microsoft Excel as the main accounting tool, of course not…but many of us still continue to have beliefs and thoughts holding us back, afraid to venture into the next stage.

It all starts with a little faith

We need to have a little faith, and a little faith in power bigger than you won’t hurt either!  However, if you are not the type to put your trust in a power higher than you at least you can start by having a little faith in yourself.  This is all it takes to put one foot in front of the other, to have the courage to run with the big dogs and stop barking on the porch.

If I had a nickel for every time I caught myself saying “only if” or “what if I just did this”.  I would be a very wealthy person.  I am talking from personal experience here.  I had businesses with not the right fit for me, I got into relationships with those that perhaps I needed to stay clear of and I lacked the faith at times to do what I really wanted to do.  Mike Lavigne said it best “You Got To Follow Your Heart”.  It all starts with faith, faith in yourself and faith in a higher power.

If you are afraid to leave the porch, then stop barking

Don’t be like my little Maggie, get off the porch.  Don’t sit back several years later thinking what could have been!