Do You Approach Your Business Like "The Boy and the Nettles?"

Definition - nettle: "Any of a variety of plants having stinging hairs that cause skin irritation on contact."

Are you familiar with the story "The Boy and the Nettles?"

It's a classic Aesop fable about a young boy who was stung by a Nettle. He ran home and told his mother, "It hurts really bad, but I only touched it a little." To which his mother replied, "That's exactly why it stung you. The next time you touch a Nettle, grasp it boldly, and it will not hurt you."

The moral of the story is:

"Whatever you do, do it with all your might!"

That's the problem with a lot of business owners. They approach their business like the boy and the nettles. Instead of grabbing their business by the horns and giving it everything they've got, they instead approach their business gently, half-heartedly - as if they're afraid to fail.

Instead of adapting an aggressive, proactive posture trying to make things happen, they are passive, hoping something happens.

Check out this quote from Mike Mahler's Aggressive Strength Newsletter:

"Successful people analyze information quickly and make moves decisively. With making a decision comes responsibility. This is why many people try to avoid making decisions or bring other people into the decision making process. This way if things go south, there are other people to blame."

And this quote from the article, Attitudes That Tend To Be Held By Successful American Business People:

"Business people who are marked for success are almost always mildly aggressive...but not pushy. These people make things happen...not watch them happen."

Or this quote from Karen Schmidt's fine article, Are You a Spider Or a Lion?

"Do you sit back like the spider, and wait for things to come to you or do you go out and hunt for your opportunities like the lion? We need to have the attitude of the Lion. If we sit back and wait to see what happens, we will usually be disappointed."

There's nothing wrong with being afraid. It's a natural human instinct. We've all been afraid at some point in our lives. The key is to not let fear paralyze you into inactivity, or make you passive.

Always be aggressive, and go for it. If you do that, you'll never have to wonder what might have happened, if only you had been more aggressive.

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