Editors note: The following is a guest article written by Chip Kohrman, founder of Telesaur. Chip was one of the winners of our recent guest post contest. Find out more about Chip at the end of the post.
It’s been decades since I heard a good nursery rhyme before bed, but I’ve relearned them for my own children. Nursery rhymes are like a circus: senior citizens living in shoes, visually impaired mice, personified cutlery running around town. The kids love it.
And really, who can ignore Humpty Dumpty? Shell shocked and shattered, all over the ground, with a bunch of horses trying to put his fragmented frame back together again? By the way, those were the king’s horses… and you know those royal steeds had saddles full of cash.
Couldn’t they have just outsourced it all to someone with opposable thumbs?
Someday, you too will hunch over a big pile of Dumpty, with nothing but your hooves. In preparation for that day, we can learn three things from Humpty Dumpty’s fall.
Choose your riders carefully
As it goes, “All the king’s horses, and all the king’s men.” The horses had a network. It was just the wrong network. Imagine if the all king’s men had been members of the National Puzzlers’ League. Not such a tragic fall after all, right?
How do you choose your riders? Their goals should run parallel to your goals. Their abilities should compensate your weaknesses. And in no way should they be, as Ashley Ambirge puts it, dream zappers.
Don’t carry around dead weight. There will be times when you’ll need your riders to carry you.
Choose your kings wisely
You’ve got to question the logic of a guy who puts his eggs on top of a wall for safe keeping. Some clients/tasks/startups/endeavors are set up to fail from the start.
Two of my previous employers taught me a great lesson. Let’s call them Employer A and Employer B. They both had impossible clients.
Employer A was hurting for cash, so he said ‘yes’ to his client no matter what. 80 percent of the company’s resources went to accommodate this client’s outlandish requests. The revenue generated through that client never surpassed the losses it created. As a result, Employer A doesn’t have resources left to serve new clients.
Employer B made a valiant effort to please his client. Employer B tried to bring his client up to speed with the industry. But after a few months, Employer B realized that his client was not learning or progressing. The problems were always the same. Employer B fired his client and moved on.
Even with lifestyle design, you have your kings. Decide which things pull you away from your goals. Fire them. There are always more kings.
Choose with hooves in mind
I was discussing lifestyle design with a close friend of mine several years ago. I told him I was ready to leave my job. He said I was crazy, and that I was “incredibly good at it” and that “not many people can do what you do.” He said, “Starting over means starting from the beginning.” But I left anyway.
Lifestyle design, however, is not a total about-face, but more of a calculated 179 degree turn. Take your experience with you and use it. Inventory yourself. You are miles beyond “beginning.”
Even if the king’s horses aspired to be piñata artisans, they could have boiled down their feet for glue. Experience holds its value when you control the rate of exchange.
And yes, outsource what you can.
Have any Humpty Dumpty tips to share of your own? Let us know in the comments!
Chip Kohrman is the founder of Telesaur, a startup that helps people find and do telework. He writes for the i heart telework blog and hangs out on Twitter as @telesaur.
photo by ScottSchrantz
I can completely relate when you talk about dream zappers. It’s difficult enough to get past your own negative thoughts… but to have to deal with them from someone who is supposed to support you is the worst. I agree – get rid of the dead weight – it helps a lot more than you would think.
I’ve failed in several ventures in the past because of that. It wasn’t readily apparent at the time, but you can even be related to your dream zappers.
Interesting post Chip. I think it definitely is important to choose the people you work with especially when you’re small business is with a small group of 3 or 4. You may need to carry more burden than others, and at that point, you have to either consider letting them go, or gather the group together and consider outsourcing some of the burden to other people.
Good call, Hulbert. The smaller the group, the more there is to balance amongst yourselves. Might want to be careful with using outsourcing as a way to compensate a slacker though… probably best to let the person go, then outsource to help the remaining team.
Chip, great to see you posting on Free Pursuits. You really hit on a great point. You need to always be assessing what your toolbox looks like. That toolbox includes your skills, network, partners, etc. IMO, that is the case whether you are doing on-site contracts, freelancing, running a business, or whatever. Knowing your assets is key.
Great post. Glad you guest posted for Corbett.
Jeremy @ RefocusingTechnology.com
Agreed, Jeremy. Tools like those are handy for everyone. I wonder if our personal freedom is directly tied to how well we know what our assets are…
What a thought-provoking post. I love your advice to take your experience with you and use it…You are miles beyond beginning. Although I am not at my ideal job now, I realize that I am learning a ton, and I will be able to take these skills with me wherever I go.
It’s certainly hard to feel that way though, isn’t it? Especially while you’re surviving a job that’s driving you crazy… but I have to admit the majority of my learning has come from those jobs. Bad bosses, bad occupations, bad coworkers — there’s something to glean from them all.
Like Hugh, I like your advice about taking your experience with you and using it. I’ve tended to have the same job the past few years but pursuing lifestyle design has helped me realize that my background and experiences doesn’t have to mean more of the same job. I can be the circus acrobat/tai-chi master/personal development writer. Eh, still working on that one.
Ben, first of all, circus carneys rock. Second, I’m happy to see you’re not planning to abandon your experiences. I was a custodian at one point in my life, and even that experience has proven useful. Keep at it!