My Resent Business Disasters

There is no secret that over the last few years I have had a pretty tough trot in business. For a while it seemed I was moving from one crisis to another.

First I sold my business of 10 years (which included me as a sales rep) to a couple of men who destroyed it within 4 months. By “destroy” I mean destroy it to the extent that they stopped serving customers, stopped paying suppliers, never paid superannuation to any of my staff and even stopped paying wages to their employees (which included me) for months until everyone resigned. ASIC finally caught up with them an shut it all down. All caused by the actions of a couple of greedy, dishonest men.

When this happened, I went through a process of rescuing people I felt responsible for and supporting others involved. One of the people who I gave massive support to then went completely rogue. And by supported I mean:

• I lent him money;
• I gifted him his entire retail business which included an operational structure, processes and contacts so he could run the business AND THEN A BOOK OF CLIENTS which he paid nothing for;
• I then offered him the top opportunity in my new business
• and then I supported him in this opportunity by gifting him with leads which I was paying for

And by going rogue I mean he refused to pay me back all the money I lent him (having spent it in Europe), he lied to everyone about his role in my business, then he tried to steal from me, then he stole 30% of one of his clients business, and then tried to defraud the rest of the clients I sponsored him with. What a disaster!

So within 18 months of my first disaster I had to go into rescue mode again, saving people from the actions of another greedy, dishonest person – while extricating myself from arrangements with another disgusting person with no integrity.

Getting Full Value – Learning All The Way

Both these events caused me tremendous stress. Its hard not to be stressed when people are attacking, manipulating and causing such incredible harm to those they are supposed to be serving. But I look back now and see such incredible positives from these experiences. And that is the point of this post.

When business – or life – seems at its worst, you don’t really know where the chips will fall. So try and pull yourself out of the stress for a moment and process the experience objectively, to the best of your abilities. At the worst you will learn a lot. You may just end up in a situation though that is a whole lot better than you could imagine. This disaster may just be the best thing that could have happened to you. 

For me, in retrospect, this journey has been more than amazing. Having the resilience to survive these disasters, the journey has been one of the most fullfilling journeys I have travelled. Here are a bunch of things I learned from these two disasters

1. Twice I learned just how much an asset my reputation for integrity and doing the right thing is. This is really important as when you constantly do your best and the right thing by people, people trust you. In my case with the two disasters above, not only did I manage to get back on my feet, but it also let me rescue the people who were being rorted. These people trusted me enough to let me fix the issues, which means I got the opportunity to minimise – and then make up – for the damage they suffered.
2. I learned how important it is to trust my instincts and intuition. In both these cases, often as the disaster was brewing I felt that things just didn’t feel right, or authentic. I’m quite a trusting person so I suppressed my intuitions in these cases on hearing the words of the other people involved. Words obviously don’t work with dishonest people though – so one thing I learned was how accurate my instincts are and to pay more attention when those inner warning bells start going off. Despite the words coming from those around me.
3. I learned to surround myself with good people. And by good I simply mean people who try their best and who are honest. When your back is against the wall, these are the people who will support you and give you the little breaks that will help see you through the dark times
   1. Remember to be grateful to these people too – and then show the same good faith to others in your circle when you get the opportunity. IE. Be a good person too.
4. Get rid of bad people as quickly and as completely as you can. They never get better. They just continue to find new opportunities to undermine the integrity and value you want around you. Sure, do your risk analysis and create damage mitigation strategies, but then move quickly and decisively and remove them from not just your business, but your whole life. They are a cancer that need to be cauterised.
5. Don’t talk yourself into doom and gloom scenarios because of what is happening today. This disaster could just be the disaster needed to level your playing field so you can achieve a greatness you otherwise would never have been able to. In my case, my business now is 1000 times better than my previous business. I never would have had this opportunity without the first business disaster as it was from the rubble of that disaster that the idea was seeded.
6. I learned from everything and everyone around me. Both the good and bad. In every situation there are lessons that will make you a better and stronger person – if only you make the room to reflect.
7. I learned you can use disasters to clear out waste that is holding you back. One of my strategies to recovery was only take on elements of the past that would support my future. Everything else I let go.
8. I learned to be more gentle with myself. I found the more stressed I got in these tough times, the less productive and creative I was. Being gentle with myself, taking proper breaks and fully resetting on occasions worked wonders to get my head back into the game. Even now on the other side of these crises, this is a discipline I have brought with me.
9. I learned that business is a responsibility as much as a path to success. We are well served to look occasionally at ALL the people who rely on our best performance, getting things right and doing it in the right way. This includes clients, suppliers, employees, board members, partners, shareholders etc. One thing I noticed in those who’s activities caused the disasters I found myself in, is they had no sense of responsibility or loyalty to people other than themselves. I found their behavior absolutely disgusting, but in reflecting on that disgust, I realised it came from the deep sense of responsibility I have to all people contributing to AND benefiting from my business. I now reflect that this attitude, this sense of responsiibility is one of the secrets to business success.
10. I reclaimed my belief that everything would work out for the best. Growing up, I always knew no matter how bad things would get, everything would be ok. I lost this a bit during the first half of my business disasters as I slipped into a deeply stressful state. However I won that back – not after recovery but during the disaster. And you know what – in knowing this, everything did turn out ok. So you should know it too. The pot of gold is still there waiting!

This post is a bit of a specific look at some of the more difficult days in my business life. One day I hope to write a book about it. On a general level though, the real point I am trying to make is when in difficult, stressful situations, make room in your psyche and your mind to get full value from them. Learn as much as you can – as it is here that you can learn the most. Clear out as much clutter as you can – as it is hear that you can most effectively clear away those things holding you back. And sow the seeds for your future success – as this bed of disaster can be the foundation to your future success. So get back into your creative, plant that seed and see what comes of it.

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