Being totally committed and all in on the success of a business can be the difference between having a successful business and quitting before the business has had a chance to takes off.
A few years ago I planted a garden for the first time in several years. The first few weeks were brutal. I visited the garden every day, looking for new plant shoots to confirm my skills as a gardener. I was constantly concerned over issues like if I was watering too much or not enough, if the soil was prepared properly, or if I was using the right fertilizers and nutrients. When the new shoots arrived so did the rabbits and deer, so we erected a fence to keep them out. With the watering on a timer and my plants safe from predators, I soon stopped visiting the garden every day.
Over time I turned my attention elsewhere, and for a while, I lost my commitment to gardening. In the dark reaches of my mind, I must have concluded that if everything died or was eaten by animals I was not going to go hungry. While it was nice to grow my own vegetables, I was not committed to the outcome like my subsistence-based ancestors must have been. After all, I had options besides having a successful garden. I could shop for vegetables at a supermarket or eat out.
If my life depended upon the yield from my garden, I would have spent significantly more time researching gardening, and I would have become a pretty good gardener. However, since I had options, I was quick to abandon the garden when competing demands arose. Since then I have reinvented my gardening hobby and with it my commitment to gardening. I no longer grow common vegetables I could purchase locally, but now grow exotic plants in a hydroponic garden, upping the technical difficulty to keep me challenged.
How committed are you? Do you have income from sources other than your business that diminish your business commitment and divert you from learning opportunities related to your business? Is security preventing you from building a business that is all it can be?
