Strap In and Ride It Up

There is always a pile of books on management and entrepreneurship to choose from, and although I don’t find grand revelations in every book I pick up, I do like the search. Recently I discovered a new book, and what has stuck with me is the author’s description of catastrophic thinking, or catastrophizing.

The author presented this as a pattern that he noticed in himself. As he explained it, he had recently started a new enterprise and it was moving along in fits and starts, as a new business is wont to do. And he noticed that at every downturn or bad week, he found himself projecting one negative event to the nth degree.

“Okay, I got half as many orders as I normally do. That means I’m not going to be able to cover some bills — what if it happens again? I won’t be able to pay this month’s rent!” By the end of this thought exercise, he was living on the streets and had lost the majority of his teeth.

The author’s assertion was that moments like these are a lesson for entrepreneurs to know when to get out of their own way, because that thinking doesn’t stop at logical points. It spirals indefinitely until you’ve convinced yourself that you’re in some dark, awful pit with no means of egress.

I’d like to think that I am not the only person who saw themselves reflected in the author’s panic and “what if” response. In business, emotional swings are to be expected. When you run your own business, whether it’s a growing startup or a plateaued mature business, you’re simply going to have to ride the emotional rollercoaster.

As I considered the familiarity of this pattern, though, I developed a question. If it’s easy for owners to ride the emotional rollercoaster down, why can’t we ride it back up to the top? The fantasy of slipping ever downward is a compelling one, but if we’re really going to consider this as a rollercoaster, then you should be able to use that downward force to ride back up the other side to new heights.

When you’re riding the rollercoaster down, you’re projecting a fantasy of scarcity. “What if I don’t sell as much as I need to? What if I come in under the line?” While this fear is certainly compelling, that doesn’t change its unreal nature. So if we’re going to indulge ourselves in fantasies anyway, why not make them ones of abundance? “What if I sell an extra ten units? How would I handle it if I sold a hundred more, how would I manage that kind of rampant growth?”

In response to that question, I would point out that there are more than a few books that give guidance on how to scale up your business. Which can lead to interesting hypotheticals and planning scenarios, although the advice is somewhat limited by the refrain of, “Just ask somebody to loan you $100 million so you can afford to annually lose $10 million for 10 years.” While I have no doubt that that plan of attack is effective, it’s not something that most people can even conceive of, let alone enact.

If you’re an average human being without access to near-limitless capital and looking to advance your business, I’d recommend that you invest the time planning for your business’ success instead of dreading its downfall. Take some time and paint the picture of what a little more success looks like, and then a lot more. 

From there, start backing into scenarios like, “Well if I did this and got 1, how could I do that again and get 2? What behaviors got me there, what did I do that generated success, and how do I do it again, and bigger?” 

There will always be strong positive and negative emotions that come with owning and operating a business. But just like you ride the rollercoaster down with alarming speed, you can use that same energy to propel yourself upward and create a vision of where you’d like your business to be. Once you can see it, you’ll be able to start taking concrete steps to make that goal a reality.