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books Jay Abraham on 29 May 2009 12:49 pm

Is Your Business Stuck?

Written by Jay Abraham and republished with permission

When we say that you or your business is stuck, we really mean that you’re stressed. You’re uncertain. You’re frustrated. Days go by, and not much happens. You spend an enormous amount of time grappling with unpleasant issues like cash flow or meeting the payroll. It feels like you’re hanging from a cliff by your fingernails.

You’d like to spend time working on highly leverageable activities, but you aren’t sure what the most intelligent steps to take might be. Or if you have some ideas, you aren’t sure where to begin or how to execute those ideas. And even if you did know, there are so many daily crises demanding your attention that it’s almost impossible to divert energy to strategic projects that could take you to the next level, extricate you from the mental miasma you’re trapped in.

Profits dry up. Ads don’t sell. Prospects don’t convert. Margins start dropping. The picture is bleak. How do we turn this ugly picture around?

One of the reasons business people are stuck is that they have no passion for what they’re doing and for whom they’re doing it. Whether they have lost their passion or never had it in the first place, they all too often focus on the wrong things. They have lost track of the game they are playing, or maybe they never understood the rules to begin with. They feel impotent to change their business, or to change their lives. Turning on and turning up the passion leads to this kind of success.

Most people in bad times cut corners in the most treacherous way they can—by downsizing human or intellectual capital, the real asset of most businesses today. That is a mistake. You can find no greater leveraging tool than the energy, passion, intelligence, connections, and entrepreneurial spirit of the human beings you surround yourself with. The mentality of “I can do it myself!” works for your six-year-old, but it doesn’t work in the “sticky” business world of the 21st century.

Ironically, the more stuck people feel, the more attached they will be become to the status quo and the approaches they are currently taking, regardless of the lackluster quality and diminishing quantity of the results they are receiving from those efforts. But if there were ever an important time to test shifting the way you think about and do business right now, it’s during tough economic times.

You might safely and conservatively test one new approach to selling, marketing, or advertising, and then discover that a second approach makes things 20% better. But don’t stop there—the third approach might make things 40% better!

The adage “grow or die” applies to everything in nature, including the life force of businesses, relationships, and the human mind. A business must constantly grow. You can’t merely be content to survive; you must commit to thrive.

You often hear people say that a house is the ultimate investment that most individuals ever make. In reality, your business is where you invest, commit, and spend as much as 80% of your waking hours. It is also where your emotions should be invested. It is where your passion should be channeled. It is where your wealth and asset value should be created and meaningfully multiplied. And yet, most entrepreneurs really don’t see it that way.

When you invest energy, time, and money in your business, you are creating not just income but real wealth. Why? Because you can sell your business for anywhere from 5 to 15 times earnings, depending on your field. Nothing else can possibly touch that level of return. And by relieving yourself of all the stress you feel, your family will love you even more, too!

You not only deserve the maximum current and future pay-out from your business, you should expect it, both in tangible and intangible forms. You deserve more success, a constantly expanding income, total certainty, a high net worth, and all the perks of success. Yes, that certainly means financial wealth, but it also means satisfaction, gratification, low stress, fulfillment, the lifestyle you desire, and connectivity with the people you love.

Jay Abraham’s latest book, The Sticking Point Solution: 9 Ways to Move Your Business from Stagnation to Stunning Growth In Tough Economic Times, will be published in June 2009 by Vanguard Books.

Click here to sign up for The Sticking Point Reading Room, where Jay will spend six sessions with you to go through the strategies mentioned in the book.

One Response to “Is Your Business Stuck?”

  1. on 20 Jun 2009 at 11:46 pm 1.orang kaya said …

    Hi martin,

    You send me this article a month ago. It was until today I manage to take a deep look at it..believe it or not, they are exactly what I am thinking in my head these few days. It is like Jay have got a SUPERMAN X RAY sight that look inside my head.

    “Our business is the greatest /ultimate investment we must make”, cos it will generate stream of income for unlimited time when cultivated & took care well.I pour massive energy , time and money into my business..

    The problem is …I tend to build a castle that trap me inside my business rather than a vehicle that carries me to freedom of life , you know wht I mean rite? :). I got no time to share with my family (mom, wife & kid).. feel so sad .

    Can wait to get a copy of the book

    God bless you.

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