Last week, on a season 6 Shark Tank episode, the owners of drumpants.com were “in the tank.”
A cool idea? Check.
A proven profit model? Check.
Interested sharks? Check. Check. Check.
BUT, with two different sharks making them an offer, the leaders of drumpants exposed a critical (perhaps fatal) flaw in their company:
DrumPants is run by two people who lack the ability / willingness / courage to be agile decision makers.
This is a big deal. Huge. MUCH bigger than many business “experts” admit. Yet, every shark knows the power of decision. One shark watched and waited, and seeing their wishy washy indecision, decided NOT to make an offer. Another withdrew a $125K offer due to indecision. Finally, another shark withdrew a $250K offer due to their lack of decisiveness.
I would have done the same thing.
When you are a “professional wait-er” — as I call people who are always “waiting” always citing “timing” or “income” etc and avoiding yes/no decisions — I know a few things about you:
1) Your chances of sustainable success and profit are extremely low.
2) I’ll never (ever, EVER) work with you personally. I don’t / won’t have the patience necessary to coax you into decisive action.
Bottom line: Being decisive is critical to your success as a business owner. In fact, I searched and found 49 recent articles I’ve written that mention this fact. (You can find these articles here.) I found another 43 articles that discuss — to varying degrees — my aversion to “waiting” and indecision.
Yes, DrumPants lost access to $250K of funding — and the savvy partnership of a shark who could have helped guide their success. BUT, if they don’t put on their big girl and big boy pants and start becoming RUTHLESSLY DECISIVE about their company, they’ll continue to lose far more.
Do you WONDER if you’re being aggressively decisive enough in your own business? Do this:
1) go to the sent folder of your email account. Use the search bar and search for terms like, “waiting” and “think it over” and “not the right time.” What have you put OFF due to your unwillingness to decide? Make a list.
2) Go to your notebook or super fancy little note taking app on your computer — peruse through your list of best laid plans. How many are accomplished? And How many are still “waiting” for you to decide to pull the trigger?
Finally, decide something today. Say no. Say yes. But, make a decision. You’ll be shocked at the energy you have when “unfinished” business is decisively eliminated.
