An acquaintance springs to mind who has an outsourcing mechanical machining firm who is pessimistic beyond belief.
I don’t see him very often, but I don’t think I have ever had anything to do with him without him complaining about some insurmountable problem or another that he was facing. Once about a newly installed machine that wasn’t working as it should have, another time about a worker he was recruiting, but had a lack of desire to work.
But I could go on and on, as I have endless examples.
I am saying this because
I believe there is no such thing as an entrepreneur who is not optimistic. We should all be. Everyone in their own manner. With ups and downs, it’s obvious. But in my mind, entrepreneurs have to be optimistic.
Let’s take the current situation, for example. With the pandemic, the economic crisis that was already creeping up in September of last year and all the rest.
Well, this historic economic moment is certainly not the best, and I would say that, more or less, we all agree on this point. But, this doesn’t mean we should let this situation get us down.
Someone recently asked me what I expected from the coming few months and if I am optimistic for the future.
But it is truly difficult to foresee what the near future will bring. Some time ago I wrote that today it is much more difficult to make long-term forecasts, especially given the speed at which the job world changes compared to the past. Well, what is happening at present is causing us to have even less visibility than before.
Nevertheless, I am optimistic. And I remain so because life continues even after the bad times. History provides clear evidence of this, just think about the wars that took place in the last century.
We have to find the strength to carry on without interrupting projects and the path that we have in our mind. The strength to prevent us from being influenced by the situation that surrounds us and carry on regardless.
If you think about it, something happens every day that could somehow negatively affect our company from an economic point of view.
What I mean – in a nutshell – is that there will always be situations posing potentially obstacles, but if we allow them to influence us, if we come to a halt every time, then we would never get anything done.
Each and every one of us, based on one’s possibilities and peculiarities of the market in which we operate and so forth, should find the inner strength to shrug off such influences and focus fully on the future, never taking our eye off the target.
Then, obviously, we need to maintain a certain level of conscience keep our feet firmly on the ground. So if we think that it is necessary to dedicate more time to a certain project, postpone an investment (attention: I mean postpone, not cancel) or something similar, it may be the right thing to do.
But this is another matter. Here we are talking about flexibility and we must always have a certain level of flexibility (especially in the face of what is happening at the moment, something that we can not underestimate).
It’s coming to a halt that we must avoid. If I bring things to a halt, it means I am too influenced by external events. It means that perhaps I wasn’t so convinced and sure of what I was doing, and that the external situation becomes almost an excuse, an alibi to stop doing certain things. But in this case, perhaps there were already other underlying problems. Am I wrong?
So:
if I am convinced that this is the right direction to take, then I have to move forward.
Then, obviously, when faced with situations to which there is no solution, well we have to accept that there is no solution.
