I recently bump into an old acquaintance and we had a quick chat. He runs a small business with 5 team members and recently discovered his Accounts Clerk siphoned off a large sum of money over a period of time.
What is interesting is the conversation we had, I shall call the acquaintance ‘X’.
…….
Me: So do you have any system to control/spot-check/keep track of your accounts?
X: Aiya, if they want to cheat me they sure can.
Me: … does that mean you have or don’t have any monitoring?
X: Ha ha (Sarcastic laugh), you don’t read newspaper ah, even listed company also got cheated by their accountant lar.
Me: … so what do you plan to do differently now?
X: What to do lar, accountants all very smart, they want to cheat they can cheat anytime.
Me: Do you check/spot-check/review your accounts regularly?
X: Aiya like I said earlier, all accounts are smart, if they want to con me nothing I can do lar…
…….
What I find amazing about the above conversation is how often it happens when some business owners talk about the “stuff” in their businesses and their lives. “Stuff” like the economy, sales, team members, etc… They make negative comparisons to justify inaction.
Negative comparisons, while it make a person feel better at that moment in time, also help the person to avoid ownership, avoid taking responsibility and avoid asking the hard questions necessary to implement real and permanent changes.
It usually is a variation of this:
“There are people in worst position than me, so I am still okay.”
“Even that [smarter person than me] cannot do it, so it is okay that I can’t do it.”
“Other people also [face the same problem as me] so okay lar.”
Let’s do an experiment, say the above statements out LOUD and see what it does to your emotions and motivation to improve…. well?
What happen if we make positive comparisons instead?
For example, in the case of ‘X’, he can easily conclude there’s hundreds of thousands of businesses operating everyday in Malaysia which are not cheated by their accountants… what are they doing right and what can he learn from them, instead of looking at the few cases being reported and conclude there’s nothing he can do because “Listed companies also got con by accountants, so accountants are the smartest people in the world and there’s nothing I can do.”
In the case of economic downturn, instead of looking at “all the competitors are also not doing well, I am not the only one.”, look at who is doing well and find out why and do the same!
Instead of “all my friends also told me employees are lazy and cannot be trusted”, look at the businesses with great people and learn what they are doing right.
Negative comparison gains you ABSOLUTELY NOTHING unless you want to draw comfort by measuring yourself against the worst and tell yourself you are okay because you are slightly better.
Have a profitable week ahead!
The Familybiz Works Team.
ps: If you own a business in Malaysia, register NOW for our FREE Business Optimization Clinic, valued at RM699. We guarantee you will get at least 1-2 ideas you can implement immediately, even if you do not engage our services.
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