One evening an old Cherokee told her granddaughter, “There are two wolves fighting inside you. One wolf is kind and has your best interest at heart. The other wolf is mean and only cares about himself.”
The granddaughter thought for a moment then looked up into her grandmother’s eyes and asked, “Which one wins?”
“The one you feed.” The grandmother answered.
That’s an evocative tale. But what does it have to do with creating a profitable business?
It helps to recognize how the wolves show up in life… and business.
You don’t literally have two wolves fighting inside, but you do have two stories. One story is fed by your hopes and dreams. One story is fed by your fears.
Like wolves in Yellowstone, stories are a natural part of life.
When you see tracks on the snow-covered sidewalk ahead of you, your mind automatically begins to put pieces together of what the prints they are. A wolf’s? A baby carriage? The mail carrier’s?
You don’t have to do anything for that story to start playing out in your mind.
Unless your mind is already playing a pre-recorded message. Like the one about the project you need to complete. If it isn’t completed, the delivery won’t go out. And then your clients will be frustrated. And then wolves will be circling at the door.
Stories battle one another on the stages of your mind constantly.
The story that wins is the one you feed. It’s the one that gets your attention.
How does this play out in creating a profitable business? Some activities, like completing the project, move you towards the future of your dreams. Other activities, like abandoning the project for a big slice of cheesecake, may lead you to the future you fear. Angry clients. Missed sales….
But the story you’re feeding isn’t always so obvious. Sometimes, the story is playing behind the scenes in your subconscious.
Sometimes, we need someone to point the story out to us. Like my doctor suggesting I was depressed. I was so deep in that story I didn’t even recognize it. Until it was almost too late.
That happens not only with our moods but also our thoughts, beliefs and actions.
Like me and depression, something alerts you to a story playing out in your life that you hadn’t seen before. You look up and realize the business you thought was booming is short of cash and it’s going to be a challenge to pay this month’s lease.
How do you handle the problems you don’t see?
You get proactive. Instead of waiting for the dramatic stories to play on the big screen of your life, you go looking for them. To solve cash-flow problems, instead of leaving it up to chance and a prayer, you begin to track the flow of cash through your business.
You begin to pay attention to how you’re losing money to the mean wolves. You see that you could be generating more money by paying more attention to the kind wolf.
To solve heart-flow problems, like my struggle with depression, you begin to track the flow of heart through your life and business.
By being aware of the story playing out in your business, you begin to have some skill around creating more of what you want and less of what you don’t want.
Changing the story isn’t something that happens overnight. It happens little by little. Day by day.
It begins with the practice of paying attention. Keeping a journal helps, both for finances as well as for emotions and other aspects of your business. Meditation helps slow down your mind, so you can see the scenes as they flash across the screen.
Over time, you begin to notice patterns. You begin to recognize the wolves for what they are.
The thing about wolves is they look a lot alike to the untrained eye. They have soft fur, bright eyes, and sharp teeth. One of my daughter’s favorite animals is the wolf. They are beautiful. They’re also dangerous, if you’re not careful.
As you begin to pay attention to the wolves in your life, you begin to notice their patterns. The mean wolf leads you into self-sabotage. Sometimes the mean wolf uses deception, telling you that this way is the safe path. This way will bring you to a better place. Until you discover the path leads you away from the creative path that your heart longs to follow.
The selfless wolf may also be tricky to follow. It sometimes leads you into paths that are risky, even dangerous. The selfless wolf knows that to get where you want to go, you often have to leave the safe path behind.
Knowing the story you want to create helps you distinguish the selfless wolf from the selfish wolf. The selfless wolf always leads you towards the vision you want to create. If that vision is clear, it’s much easier to follow. If, however, the vision is unclear, the danger of getting on the wrong path increases.
Just as maintaining a practice of watching the habits of your wolves helps, so does getting clear on the vision that leads you forward. Knowing where you want to go is half the battle.
Are you clear on where your story is headed?
To ensure you’re headed in the right direction look for landmarks. How will you know you’ve arrived? Many people talk of six, seven and even eight-figure businesses. That’s helpful as far as scope, but it is not very distinctive.
In the world of corporate finance, I’ve seen so many numbers they all begin to blur together. There’s nothing particularly distinguishable about them. Until you find the story. What makes these numbers different from another? How were they obtained? What’s the why behind the numbers?
When you start getting clear on what’s behind the numbers, the work begins to take on a whole new level of meaning and purpose. How is the world a better place because you’ve reached a certain number?
As Friedrich Nietzsche said, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”
Before my steep fall into depression, I held in the back of my mind the idea of a seven-figure business. For me, that meant success. The problem was it wasn’t enough. It was enough money; it just wasn’t enough of a clear vision to guide my steps. It wasn’t clear enough for me to distinguish one wolf from the other.
I had to go deeper, and into my heart, to find sufficient clarity to feel resonance with the path, and the wolf I was following. The selfish wolf didn’t care how I got there. For the selfless wolf, the why is everything.
What is at the heart of your vision?
When I was lost in the creative wilderness, my heart ached for something of substance. At first, I let joy guide my footsteps.
After many side paths, I discovered the words of Rabindrath Tagore to be true.
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.”
Service that brought the best of me forth. Service that resonated not only with me but with those I served. I found service that has made all the bumps and bruises worth it.
What is the work that brings you joy?
Feed that wolf!