Success Depends on Down Days & Difficult Clients

Anyone can be successful. It just requires you to show up on a good day and go with the flow. Even someone with no skills, initiative or talent can skim the cream off the top when things are going well.

Let's imagine such a person runs an ice cream stall. They start their venture during the heat of summer. Children are on holiday buoyed up by generous allowances made possible by a good economy. No matter how rude, slow or inefficient that person is, they won't be able to avoid making money.

Fast forward a few weeks however, when children have returned to school, the weather has turned and an economic slump has soaked up all the extra cash that was previously sloshing around so freely that a large lump of it ended up in the till.

Now the person running the ice-cream stall has to become truly entrepreneurial. They must come up with potential solutions, trial them and adapt to the situation. They must attract customers rather than relying on surrounding footfall trade.

Being or becoming the person who solves problems and makes difficult situations work is when things really get interesting.

Another aspect of this is difficult clients or customers. Everyone loves the easy going customer with simple requirements who is overjoyed with everything they are presented with. However, it's only a matter of time before someone difficult comes along and the disruption from one unhappy client can wipe out the time, revenue and reputation gained by dealing with a score of good ones. Turning a bad situation around with a client and getting them to the point where they are happy with results, without breaking your entire company, is a definite skill that comes with time.

So there you have it, don't fear bad days, difficult customers or difficult financial times. These things will happen with periodic inevitability and being prepared for the inevitable is far more practical than living in fear of that inevitability with no plan for it.

Whatever problem you have in your business or your life, right now, is yours to solve and yours to grow from.