Tips for SME managers and entrepreneurs

By Jayadev Menon            

People are constantly in fire-fighting mode. Don’t we hear such sentences repeated often by ourselves and people around us?

• I just don’t have the time
• I wish I could do a course to improve my managerial skill
• I can’t meet you this week
• I am running behind schedule
• I have not read a book since I left college.
• I wish I had seventeen hands and 2 heads.
• 24 hours are not enough

These individuals constantly crib about not been able to cope, but do nothing about it. Their situation is best explained by this story I read in a book written by a self-help guru :

A gentleman was visiting his friend; their conversation was being interrupted by the whining and moaning of the family’s dog and so he asked his friend why the animal would not keep quite.

The friend replied: The stupid mutt is lying on top of a nail.
The surprised visitor asked: Why wouldn’t he move?
To which his friend replied: It’s not hurting bad enough!

It’s like that with most of us – we are waiting for the condition to reach a crisis point before we act. When someone else talks about some chore or problem that is lying unattended we would wisely remark: “Prevention is better than cure!” But that wisdom somehow does not hold true for us!
Why do people make statements of the type mentioned above?