It feels right to start 2016 with an old chestnut; It is not with the first stroke that the tree falls.
While surfing for something altogether different, this baby caught my eye. (I've spared you the original Gaelic translation) My smile reflected dimly back at me via LCD. Why did this obvious, simple phrase leap out at me? My first thought was of some new responsibilities this year that made me privy to a batch of customers who had subscribed to my company's service, and then asked to terminate in less than sixty days.
Yes, we live in a world where satisfaction, return on investment, and results in general are required to be more and more immediate, but less than sixty days? (BTW, this investment is less than the typical cable bill) From a business standpoint, we initially blamed ourselves. Were we not having expectation discussions? Were we not qualifying our prospects? Were our demonstrations too slick, setting the reality of a $64 per month SaaS product up to always fall short? The customer retention rate said no. In fact, we had achieved our retention goals.
That left me wondering why that old Gaelic expression had hit me so hard. Perhaps at this point, you know the answer. Yes, readers, on my mind where the times that I had failed to take enough strokes, the times that I had subjected myself to the 'right now' thinking that is the first cousin of today's instant gratification environment. Well, I'm committed to healing myself in 2016. One more phone call, one more email, one more stroke. I'm going to do it every single working day of this year, as I go after the biggest trees that I can find. I hope you'll consider going after the big trees, too.
Happy New Year!
