There are two types of people when it comes to taking responsibility for life:
- those who blame the world for all that happens and take no blame for anything;
- and those who take the blame for everything.
Small business owners are amongst the latter.
We internalise each problem. We make it our own. Even though the rest of the world is screwed, we work harder because the spirit of the entrepreneurial gods runs strong in our veins. We think that we can kill any problem by just working harder.
That’s a little like a fish in a goldfish bowl. All is fine until Little Johnny pushes it over the edge. And we lie there flapping and thinking that if we can only work a little harder, we will find enough money to pay the staff at the end of the month.
In other words, we internalise stuff, and we take more responsibility for it than we should. That distinguishes us from the rest of humanity. (A recent US survey shows that small business owners give 100% more to charity each year than the rest of the people in their community.)
That also means, however, that when our goldfish bowl breaks, we are devastated. We are, for the most part, control freaks. And our biggest pain comes from the control passing from our hands into the hands of somebody patently incapable, like God (or any deity you believe in) or the vicissitudes of chance (if you don’t believe in any deity).
The SA government has declared the recession to be over. Don’t get excited. The recession, for you and I, is a very different thing. The government can be precise because our accurate Department of Statistics has said that some flag or other has risen by 0.8%. This signals the end of the recession.
This is the same crowd who believe that you and I earn an above average salary, as well as extremely attractive entrepreneurial profits.
I don’t know about you, but after losing 2000 clients over the past two years — two thirds of my friends — I suspect that very few of us entrepreneurs are earning profits on top of our meagre wages.
While it may not be true for South Africa, the rest of the world’s economy is being paid for by taxpayers, as governments throw money into the mixer to try to prop it up. When that money stops flowing in, I think we will see the second half of this recession. So don’t buy that yacht yet, even if you are earning big bucks, and getting a salary, you lucky thing you.
The rest of the world assumes that if they’re in trouble then somebody must take the blame. We take it. And when we do well, the rest of the world assumes we’re lucky, and should share the proceeds. And we all like to think we’re rational. If this was a book, it would be fiction.