By Jody Eagen

Entrepenuers tend to focus on Action: We need to 'do' to feel like we are moving our businesses forward. Most of my coaching with entrepeneurs involves helping them understand their ‘why’ behind the action, i.e. to gain clarity, both short and long term. The story below is one example.

When I met Atheena, she was sullen and confused. Her creative ability was ruling her life preventing any real focus or movement in her business. Without a clear direction, Atheena said yes to everything, as long as it involved creative people and ideas. But money was becoming a problem.

I listened to the plethora of ideas Atheena had for creating new products out of the leftovers of yesteryear. They were indeed fascinating, funky, retro and marketable. So why had she not produced them for sale? Each new idea brought similar comments: ‘I could do these but I also love doing things like...’ and ‘well, in the long term will this work?’

As a coach, I get to ask simple questions that my clients are not willing to ask themselves. ‘What would be the benefit of picking one product and just giving it a shot’. The answers came fast and furious: I would accomplish something; feel better about myself; learn something about every aspect of my business: production, marketing, sales and profit margins and I could use these lesson to help decide on the next step’. Now Atheena understands her value for a short-term focus, so let’s get one.

I ask, ‘If you could only do one of your great ideas in your life time, which would you choose?’ The answer was surprisingly quick to come followed by some great reasons that this was of course the product to focus on. We now have short-term clarity.

In this case, we had to have a basis to manage all the future creative ideas that would derail the short-term focus. Why was it important, for the long term, to have all this learning and to have this accomplishment? Atheena started to embrace the notion that she was not just creating a product or two but that she was creating a business. Each step was a learning step to create, long term, a business that produced many products.

Riding on that energy, I had Atheena discuss how she would produce the product. The enthusiasm waned as the real world raised its ugly head. In came the ‘ya buts’, the reasons why it wouldn’t work. For each one, Atheena was able to understand why it was important to prove or disprove it. Whether it was getting production material or how much money she was going to make, she realized that until she did it, she would never know.

Atheena gained real clarity about her first product and set some action steps in our first meeting. By our second discussion, she had goals for both production and sales and understood that she could still do her other ideas on the side to keep her creative juices going.

Atheena continues to be tempted by new ideas and ventures. She is clear though, that every step made for one product gets her closer to a longer term vision to produce all her great ideas. We discuss each new venture to see how it fits the big picture or disturbs the short-term objectives. With a sense of her long-term vision, she can make better choices and embrace her decisions.

Of course, Atheena’s first lesson along this path was around her talents. She discovered that producing the product was not going to bring her much satisfaction. In the next newsletter I will discuss the notion of support and our Life Team.

For now, ask youself a simple question: ‘I am clear why I am about to take this action?’