phil@bajsicki:~$

On Avoidance in Business

2023-05-04

4 min read psychology riskmanagement avoidance fear @business 

I have worked with a wide variety of businesses. I feel like that puts me in a reasonably good position to comment on one of the most frequent issues small businesses encounter.

Unlike what some might claim, it’s not a lack of vision, or a lack of SOPs and KPIs.

The core problem of running a business is execution.

Now, it might seem simple: Observe, Orient, Decide, Act.

Yet time and time again I have seen people fail at the final step. It sticks out like a sore thumb, and for good reason.

Regardless of the planning, vision, awareness, processes or culture you introduce into a business - no matter how great they are - it is impossible to succeed if the execution fails.

And there are many reasons it can fail, for example:

The list can get quite long.

Most of these can be accounted for, and addressed before they happen. So, not really an issue in the first place. Tech can be set up, redundancies made, schedules adjusted.

Yet at the end of the day, all those are things that have to be executed. Someone has to get up and do them.

This isn’t a problem in a large enough business that can hire more hands or outsource parts of their projects.

But when it comes to small teams, or one-man operations, execution is what truly determines success.

You can plan, envision, coordinate, manage and lead… but someone has to pull the trigger.

And that’s uncomfortable, especially in positions where you have to sell your product to people you don’t know. Anxiety kicks in…

You get the idea. But it can get worse than that.

“If I don’t get the sale, my business dies.”

This is dangerous not so much because it affects the sales process, and the interactions you have with your clients.

This fear can be so great that you end up avoiding selling in the first place.

Why? Because it’s an existential dread about your livelihood. It’s something we, being human, are uncomfortable with, and instinctively avoid. Even going so far as to shut it out of awareness, and unconsciously evading it whenever it comes up.

  1. Goal: “I must sell something, now now now!”
  2. Query: “What’s the best way to sell?”
  3. Answer: “I’ll develop a process that gets me sales with as little discomfort as possible!”
  4. Correct answer: “I’ll call|email|contact as many people as possible before doing anything else until I have money in the bank.”

This is how avoidance works. It’s not invisible, exactly, but it’s something that permeates the decision-making process and perverts incentives in an effort to avoid the scary and uncomfortable parts of life.

This same process applies to every part of life, of course.

One of the wisdoms I have found in life is the very short statement:

Choronzon is the process by which means to ends become ends in themselves.

The only solution to this is to accept how things really are. Yes, things can get scary, they can get overwhelming and difficult.

Yet at the end of the day, those are feelings you have - they don’t always reflect reality accurately. Nor should they keep you from taking the actions that you know are correct.

Falling to dispersion, getting lost in the weeds, and giving up agency are clear marks of cowardice in the face of reality.

One could say, in the face of God.

Reality can be challenging. Yet each challenge can be overcome, in one way or another. Some through effortful action, others through acceptance; whether by meditation, prayer, contemplation or other means.

Here is a Zen solution that I enjoy:

This is called susokukan.

It’s an excellent way to start your day, or to take a break between tasks to recover your mental energy.

In any case. I hope this has been helpful.

Thanks!

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