If you don’t own the results of your decisions over an extended period and take accountability for the implementation and results, then you don’t learn.
Small business owners like doctors, chefs, grocers, plumbers, electricians do this every day. They are in the arena every day, getting their hands dirty.
In the coming months, we are going to hear a lot from talking heads on television and Facebook about who deserves to take the tax stimulus, who needs a bailout, and who should be left out to dry. Most of these people haven’t built or run anything in their lives. It’s all academic to them, and they don’t own anything they are pontificating about.
Seek out and listen to your tribal elders about finding your way through this uncertainty. Sound judgment and wisdom come from making mistakes in the arena, picking yourself up, and persisting. That’s where the learning is found. These elders were once in the same position as you, and that’s why they are trying to help.