Addicted to the Struggle

In the many years, that I have been working with start-up businesses, I have always been intrigued by a ratio which I concocted some years ago. I termed it the “Poverty pain over the Effort pain” ratio.

What is poverty pain? Poverty pain is the pain of not achieving a level of income or wealth that is commensurate with your current needs or your future desires. Struggling to pay yourself a salary at the end of the month, the feeling of your credit cards being maxed out, the excuses you make in order to save money and not go out with friends and your awareness of the petrol and bread prices are all manifestations of the Poverty Pain. You are often secretly jealous of your wealthier friends and family. Sometimes, you even look for, and revel in, their human flaws and carnal weaknesses to make you feel temporarily better about yourself. Poverty pain drives the ego in a very confusing manner. You tend to need to show-off far more than normal. In my lowest of low times, I would go out to dinner 3 to 4 times a week, always being the one to offer to pay (secretly hoping for the other man’s ego to kick in). Ironically, as the pain subsided, so did my need and desire to go out so often. Luckily, dinners were my show off “weakness” and not the need to show off about a new German sports car or the latest range of Italian shoes and clothes!

Effort pain is the pain of staying late, working weekends, and doing work that has no immediate income-generating value. Most “entrepreneurs”, whom I know, have no problem staying late to produce a proposal for submission the next day. They will stay up all night if necessary. What confuses me is that these same struggling start-up entrepreneurs, however, are less likely to stay up and work on a process or a policy document that is not perceived as necessary or urgent. There seems to be no link, in their minds, between the building of these processes and the end of their struggle.

So one spends time explaining that the way out of the struggle, is to build processes and systems that become the bricks and mortar of the business. These processes allow one to replicate and to employ more effectively. Instead of a whirlwind of explaining, managing, putting out fires and firing and hiring (and firing) and losing customers, there is a calmer transition of new staff, and a more standardised level of value delivery to clients and, most importantly, more time to find income producing opportunities.

So, why don’t entrepreneurs embrace this way out of the poverty pain? There are many possible explanations for this. The one, which I’m convinced is the most common reason, is that there is a sub-conscious addiction to the struggle. The pain of the struggle has been around, for so long, that it has almost become a comforting friend. It has allowed the struggling entrepreneur to look outward instead of inward for years.

“It’s because of BEE or because of apartheid; it’s because I’m too young or because I’m a woman, it’s because …” Of course, it is never because of me (the entrepreneur)! “And then there is this “effort” (work) that I need to make in order to get out of the predicament in which I find myself. Surely there must be an easy way? Surely all these successful entrepreneurs did not have to work hard to become successful? I know all the books and the business gurus say that it takes hard work, but I’m different. I’m special.”

It is clear that this type of thinking connotes that the “effort pain” is higher than the “poverty pain”. (A fraction)

It is only when the “poverty pain” is higher than the “effort pain” that one can move out of the struggle vortex into a successful entrepreneurial trajectory. (A multiple)

So what is your ratio? Is it a fraction or a multiple?

This Week’s Challenge

Make the effort to succeed.