Persistence, not listening to the nay-sayers, determination, following your dream: All things which contribute to starting and building a thriving business. All things which are fueled by good old-fashioned stubbornness. I have yet to meet a successful small business owner who doesn’t have a very large streak of it. Unfortunately, that’s not always a positive.
The Good
Stubbornness is a positive quality when it’s driving you to create, build and sustain a business. The desire to “do things my way” is a powerful motivator. It’s what keeps you on track to work the long hours and make the hard decisions. It has built multi-national Fortune 100 companies, as well as the local machine shop.
The Bad
As the saying goes, “There are 2 sides to every coin.” There’s a bad side to entrepreneurial stubbornness. It’s human nature to become attached to our own viewpoint – not only do we get stuck in ruts, we furnish them for additional comfort. This makes it difficult to see other’s (accountants, consultants, employees, managers) points of view and listen to their ideas.
Ideas which are good for you and your company. When a company is growing there’s a juncture when the owner should shift from “a one-man show” style of management to a team approach. Many don’t make that change, they stubbornly hang on to old ideas and ways of doing things, which often leads to the ugly.
The Ugly
There comes a time when an owners’ refusal to modify his inflexibility crosses the line from poor management skills to self destructive behavior-“the old way is good enough, no one is going to tell me what to do”. Resulting in — due to the owner’s unwillingness to recognize and adapt to changing ideas, technologies, employee’s needs and market requirements — a bankrupt company.
Good entrepreneurial stubbornness often turns bad and ugly over time. Owners fail to understand that we all need to evolve if we are to thrive in an ever changing world, and we have to be willing to listen to others to do so. As Benjamin Franklin said, “We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.”
