Business is Cold Hearted... You Should Be Too.

A recurring theme has been popping into my conversations lately... Whether it's starting a business, trying to shut down a business, dealing with how to raise babies or approaching someone new who you'd like to meet; emotions cloud judgment.

Have you ever wondered why your friends or that random person on the plane can provide the voice of reason when you just can't figure something (simple) out? It's because they lack the emotional or financial investment you have into your problem; therefore they have the clarity that you lack.

I've found in the past I can chat it up with random, pretty girls with zero problems unless I happen to have feelings for them. Once I realize I like them, everything pretty much clamps up and I start to act-a-fool. Funny how these things work against you when you want to care.

The same can be said with business matters. Many entrepreneurs have tunnel vision when starting their new venture. Though most are envisioning success, their execution veers off based on the founders' ulterior motives. A simple question I ask most entrepreneurs in midst of a startup is: Are you really doing it for the reward (the payoff) or are you doing it for other things? (e.g. learning programming, coding for fun, coding to solve a problem, killing time, etc.) From an outsider's perspective, I see a lot of startup decisions being made to satisfy the ulterior motives while very few are kept on track for the quickest, biggest pay off. (...and I honestly can't explain why the founders aren't seeing it too.)

Whether it's business or personal, the same general rule seems to apply. If you want to make the most logical decision with regards to a problem, you should throw your emotions out the window and focus on the facts/numbers. If you ignore the facts, everything you do will either slow you down or steer you off track.

I must admit, I've been struggling with this myself on a business I've been trying to shut down. With a demanding day job and working on two new start-ups, I really don't have the time, energy or the financial support to continue working on my old website.

However, I hate to lose and as much as I should just shut it all down like Chef Gordon Ramsey does when his kitchen staff begin to fall out of sync, something inside me just refuses to kill off the dying, unprofitable website that's been slowly bleeding my energy and cash flow. Maybe now that this is written down on paper, I will do what's right correct instead of hoping some miracle will revive it.

After all, this is business... it's nothing personal, right?