Can great times…Roses, hilltops…

Can great times…be a problem?

It’s might seem like a bit of an oxymoron to say that great times can be damaging to the bottom line. How can that be? After all if sales are booming and profits are exceeding expectations what could possibly go wrong?

The problem: simply that human nature being what it is, boom times can lead to big spending. On a positive note, that can come in the form of productive expansions that are intended to assure future growth. But regrettably it can also result in the kind of spending that has no positive impact on that future strength of the business and potentially bad effect on those profits.

And while those kind of non growth expenses may be affordable in good times, they can be crippling when those days of plenty come to an end – as they inevitably and occasionally do.

Like the stock market where there are ebbs and flows, that same reality (that’s beyond our control) affects businesses whether small or large.

And that’s precisely why managers have to be sensitive to spending expansions that may not be affordable if and when those less than great times might come.

If they aren’t, the inevitable cuts will still have to be made. And the resulting pain would have been avoided if only they’d resisted that human tendency and exercised a bit more caution.

Roses, hilltops…And enjoying success

People who aren’t particularly ambitious (polite for lazy?) tend to be critical of those who are. Of course their comments are generally subtle and less than openly critical. The fact is they just don’t get those with drive and a desire to climb the really steep hills.

On the other hand, the overly ambitious among us do have a problem.

It’s the inability to stop once we’ve reached the top of that hill to enjoy the view from that vantage point. Stopping to smell the roses is more than some old, tired phrase. It’s the key to receiving (and enjoying) the satisfaction we deserve for the effort it took to succeed.

Once we’ve done that then we can reset our sights on the next hill and begin all over again. The truth is success is fleeting and its achievement will come less often than we’d like. So taking the time to look back on it and bask a bit in the warm feeling it gives is a reward we’ve earned.

Next up: Dissecting those success.