The story of the dog sitting on a nail.

I’m sure you’re wondering what this is all about. It’s a story of a customer of mine. He told me when we were having a coaching session and talking about something he was finding very difficult to do.   We’d agreed that what he needed to do was necessary, was the right choice for him to do, was going to help him overcome some difficulties and help him grow his business. But he wasn’t doing it.

We were talking about this and he told me this story:

There’s a guy having an ice-cold beer with his granddad. Sitting on the floor between the two of them is his granddad’s dog. After a few minutes, the dog lets out a whine. After a bit, the guy says, “Granddad what’s going on with the dog?” And granddad said, “Ah he’s sitting on a nail, it’s digging into him.” The guy says, “Why doesn’t he move?” And granddad says,  “It’s not hurting him enough to move yet.”

We were having a bit of a laugh and my friend said, “You know he was feeling the pain a bit more now and he thought it was probably pissing him off enough that he was going to move.”

And he has in fact taken the action we’ve talked about and taken that step forward.

The point I want to make to you is – this is true for all of us.   I, myself, often on the weekends lie in bed until I need to pee so bad that it’s painful before I’ll bother getting up.

The same thing is going on here. It’s true in business for all of us.

The lesson of the story

I wanted to suggest to you think back into your business about what’s paining you, what’s frustrating you and that you perhaps should be doing something about but that you haven’t been because maybe the pain isn’t bad enough. And I want to remind you also that in business, sometimes the pain comes in disguise.   Sometimes the pain of the nail is more about missed opportunity or stunted growth than it is about actual pain or obvious frustrations.

Recommended Reading: The Power of Letting Go and the Joy of Things Happening Without You

Think about this:

• What opportunities are you missing?
• What growth are you missing?
• What margins are you missing?
• What deals are you missing?
• What work are you missing out on because of something that you haven’t attended to properly?

You might need:

• To do your marketing better
• To put your prices up
• To do your selling better. (Most trades businesses that I know could work a lot harder on sales and treat it more seriously.)
• To hire somebody
• To fire somebody
• To address an issue in your business caused by people
• A business coach
• Money to go and get yourself a business coach.

That’s definitely something you should do perhaps to help you identify those nails that are causing you pain. (I know I’m being funny).

I’m Jon, I’m a business coach. Maybe you should hire me. To make it easier for you, I’m running a workshop here in Byron Bay. You can get up to Byron and you can spend a couple of days. It’s only $300 and you can suss me out a little bit and see if I’m really as good as I say on these videos. How about that?

There’s a link somewhere below this video or you can go to my website www.smallfish.com.au and look for the Tools Down Workshop. Have a bit of a read, watch another video and see if you want to come.

See you later.