I heard a story recently about a friend who has a couple of kids and a pet fish.  Recently, one of the little guys thought it would be fun to pet the fish while he was swimming around peacefully in his fishbowl.  Apparently, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back for the fish and he leapt from his fish bowl onto the ground below.

Maybe he thought he was diving into bigger, deeper waters.  Maybe he thought there would be something better on the outside.  Who knows?!?  But we all know that what awaited him on the floor below was not a better life, but suffering. 

I meet with a lot of clients who are suffering.  They are really going through a hard time.  Whether it is because of choices they made in business, or at home, they are suffering.  A lot of times, it is extremely hard to ask for help in these situations because you got yourself into a mess and you can get yourself out of it.  Plus, you don’t want to go around telling everyone about your bad decision or daily struggles. 

My problem seems to be I have these urges to do something different.  Something "better."  You know, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.  And I see that in a lot of my client’s lives.  They decided they can do their job better than anyone around so they go out and start a business doing it on their own.  Many times they are blessed/cursed with extreme and immediate success.  But then their lack of planning and poor business choices lead to their struggles.  Many people are extremely good at what they do, but they are terrible businesspeople.  That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be in business for themselves, however.  I would suggest that you do what you are good at and have someone help you with the things that you aren’t good at.  That way, it relieves you of the stresses you face when you try to handle something you don’t like to do and you know you have competent people helping you in your business.  (As an aside, this is not necessarily a call to have employees, but to properly hire independent contractors to handle certain business tasks). 

While the grass may look greener, I would encourage you to thoroughly do your research.  Get your plan together up front.  This is something that cannot wait!  If the plan doesn’t look good, then maybe you need to answer some more questions, or back up and change your plan.