Two great WAM meetings last week with lots of great stuff to digest and think about. The biggest one this week, “don’t let emotions get in the way of your success”.
Pride can be the best and worst thing to have in business. If your pride pushes you to be more successful, pushes you not to fail and fills you with the desire to do better, well of course that’s a good thing.
However, when pride drives you to resisting change, trying to impress the wrong people or to focus on the wrong goals it can be your worst enemy.
I am full of pride, overly competitive and stubborn so it was extremely hard for me.
I came up with a plan, a vision, and I’ll be damned if anyone is going to change it. Forget that it wasn’t working, I’ll just fight harder, work harder, etc. Yep, that was me. Sadly, I see it in so many others now. Changing is somehow a failure. Instead, take pride in being able to recognize your miscalculations and being able to make the changes you need to.
I wasted so much time and energy trying to satisfy other landscapers. I used to take advice from the old timers in those landscaping organizations as if it were gospel and of course they shot down every new idea I had. When I started realizing that actually having to physically work in my clients yards every day and bragging to my fellow landscapers about how many hours I sweated wasn’t the “success” I was looking for, well that was an eye opener. Why was I even listening to these folks let alone trying to emulate them. Yet, I see this everyday. People I’m working with are more scared about the others in their industry laughing at them then they are failing, even when I point out to them that the majority of people in their industry are indeed failing.
My goal used to be to be the best landscaper. If you want a trophy, go for it but “the best” landscaper was not going to retire at 49 and go golfing. Now, I take pride in what I learned about actually building and operating businesses and business relationships.
Is your pride getting in the way of your success?