You can’t pay the bills with an A for Effort

As the school year resumes as well as the rebirth of my blog, my thoughts center on a little observation I’ve made about something that separates the groaning and droning masses from the few top achievers out there.

Perhaps this is so profound it should be a sign in every small business. School does not teach practical life lessons in this regard, and frankly, it’s a little disturbing.

In school, "trying" is worth something. In real life, it doesn’t mean squat. The only thing that matters is results. Some examples:

• Sports coaches are forced to praise the kids for trying hard, even though they lost.
• Teachers commend students for giving it "the old college try".
• Parents praise their kids for trying hard even though they fail an exam or fail to make the team.

They all say: "It’s okay, you gave it your best and that’s what matters most."

Throughout their education, people are conditioned to complain that they tried so hard and then expect a sympathetic ear, a sticker, or some other token reward just because they tried. The unfortunate consequence of these years of conditioning is that those who end up without rewards for simply trying turn into angry, jealous, and resentful people. They see the success of others as something mysterious or serendipitous – especially when others get their success without suffering as obviously as they have.

In the real world, "the college try" doesn’t get you a thing. Real world sports teams which lose game after game end up with new coaches and players traded away. In real world business, a CEO who makes too many mistakes is read the riot act by the board of directors, a salesman doesn’t make their quota is replaced by someone who can. The real world rewards one thing: setting and achieving goals.

Successful small business owners just don’t want to hear about all of the pain someone had to go through to get the job done. If they wanted to live through that, they’d just do the work and keep their cash to themselves.

Employees, clients, partners, etc. occasionally act like they deserve special consideration because they tried to do something (but failed). Let me tell you, they don’t. You have the right – and, if you want to maximize your successes, the responsibility to – only reward successes and to withhold those rewards upon failure.

You have to continually educate those in your sphere of influence that you don’t care how hard they try — you only care about results: the meeting of deadlines, the accomplishment of goals. And those who don’t get the lesson can go milk the life blood out of some other poor sap who is not so picky about the details.

Now, let’s back to our originally scheduled programming: putting more money in your pocket, with smart management and smarter marketing.

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