Seeds of Wisdom: The Trouble with Someone Else's Winning Formula
“You have an Exclusive membership” said the lovely customer service rep at the car rental agency. Her beautiful Scottish accent made it sound like I was part of an elite club and that she was about to explain all the special benefits available to me.
She proceeded to tell me that all of the options I had just selected were going to cost twice as much and that I was ineligible for the special waiver I wanted.
“I don’t understand,” I said.
So, she repeated everything word for word. She even had her colleague explain it to me, in exactly the same terms.
I understood all of her words the first time, but none of what she said fit with my idea of what it meant to be an Exclusive member.
After a long pause and lots of blank stars, I said, “I think there is something very obvious to you that is not obvious to me.” Then I explained that I was trying to sort out why the price is so much higher for “Exclusive Members.”
So, she repeated everything word for word again, but slower this time as though English was not my preferred language.
Another long pause and more staring.
Finally, I asked, “What other levels of membership do you have?”
“Oh,” she said, “We have an Inclusive Membership.”
And suddenly it was clear! I thought Exclusive meant I was special; she meant that I was ex-cluded from the special benefits.
We were separated by a common language!
I’ve been traveling in England and Scotland these past two weeks, and each new lodging and city brings new assumptions, misunderstandings, and long awkward pauses.
Simple things like how to lock a door, use a cooktop, turn on the shower, how to pronounce any given word, and of course what side of the street to drive on are so obvious to everyone who lives here. I simply does not occur to anyone that they need to explain or provide written instructions for how to successfully get through the day.
I am not a stranger to the ways of the British, Scots, and Welsh. I have traveled extensively throughout the British Isles as an adult and even lived in London while I was in college. And yet every day I am vexed and confounded by the simplest of tasks.
When the Obvious Isn't Obvious
At the start of my travels, I presented my Entrepreneur Styles model in Oxford at the British Association for Psychological Type (BAPT). Type conferences are their own special culture. We speak in abbreviations and codes that have great meaning and significance to us but would have sounded like a foreign language to anyone listening.
We all do it, right? We speak in lingo and acronyms because it’s easier than saying the whole phrase or explaining a concept each time we use it. We assume others are following along because most people are too polite to interrupt and ask the “dumb questions” for clarifications.
When we have been using a particular process, technology, or system for many years, we develop a level of comfort with the lingo. What seems perfectly obvious when you have a depth of knowledge and years of experience is like a foreign language to others.
This also applies to systems you have created or specific marketing methods you use to attract clients. Because you either created them to suit your own style or adopted them because they instinctively made sense to you, they are obvious routes to success for you.
When Your Formula Becomes THE Formula
The mistake most coaches make is that they figure out what worked for themselves and then they want to teach others how to succeed using all the same methods, tools, and processes. As the philosopher Abraham Kaplan, reminds us that if your favorite tool is a hammer, everything looks like it needs pounding.
Its not that what you do is wrong or won’t work for anyone else, it’s just unlikely it will work for everyone and its folly to believe otherwise.
Some entrepreneurs, for example, find great satisfaction in systematizing their business and will tell you that is the secret to success in business. While others emphasize “breaking the rules” and “disrupting” their industry as the best path to forge. Then there are the folks who focus on building high functioning teams as the key to growing your business and still others who seek to alleviate the pain and suffering of those who are most vulnerable as a path to creating resilient businesses.
None of these is inherently right or wrong. But they are distinctly different pathways for building a successful business.
When the Formula Fails, Who Gets Blamed?
But here’s where we get into trouble: someone describes a pathway that worked for them, they share it persuasively and convince others it will work for them too. When someone fails to succeed via that method, individual’s commitment, or “readiness” for this path to success is called into question.
What if those folks needed different instructions or more context for how this approach could work for their business? And what if the methods is diametrically opposed to how that person thinks and what they prioritize?
When we build our businesses around an approach that relies on our Bozopowers rather than our Superpowers it is a recipe for failure. Not failure of the individual business owner, failure of that particular pathway for that individual.
Different Superpowers, Different Pathways to Success
At the conference in Oxford, I introduced eight Entrepreneur Styles. Each relies on different Superpowers to build something viable and valuable. Those differences influence what we notice, which problems we want to solve, and how we go about solving them.
Stabilizing Administrators draw on experience and proven processes. They create value by making things dependable, consistent, and repeatable.
Mobilizing Strategists see what could work better and organize a path toward that future. They may want to change the environment itself, rather than simply work more effectively within it.
Improvising Analyzers notice what isn’t working right now and find a practical response. Solutions often come so readily to them that they overlook how valuable it is to someone who does not see it.
Inventive Designers may begin by questioning how the problem has been defined. Their contribution can be a new product, method, model, or way of seeing the possibilities.
Protecting Caretakers start by asking what someone needs to feel supported and well cared for. Their pathway brings reliability and relationships together.
Visionary Mentors help people see themselves, one another, and make the larger picture clearer. Their work can open a path toward growth and shared understanding.
Crusading Motivators respond to what is happening in someone’s life right now. They bring energy to helping that person move forward and make life more workable.
Healing Advocates attend to meaning and whether a choice feels right to the person making it. They may help someone understand an experience differently and find a way forward that fits their values.
Keep in mind that these aren’t eight sets of instructions you must follow. They are invitations to recognize where your own contribution begins and lean into it.
Before You Follow Someone Else's Formula
The next time you meet someone who is attempting to persuade you that you too can have a wildly successful business if only you follow their methodology, ask them how many years or different business models it took before they found their winning formula. Then ask WHY this particular approach works for them.
Listen for the natural strengths that their system allowed them to use. Did they bring order to something confusing? See a possibility that others missed? Solve an immediate problem? Help someone feel understood?
Then turn the question toward yourself: “Does this approach make room for MY Superpowers?”
Back at the car rental counter, I didn’t need the same explanation repeated again. I needed to understand the assumptions that the lovely customer service representative was operating under. I needed her to step back and consider a different approach to help me successfully rent a vehicle so that I could explore the Scottish Highlands on my terms.
In business, that’s a useful place to begin, too. Before following someone else’s pathway, ask the “dumb” questions that will help you understand the lingo and framework that undergird the criteria for success. And if you still don’t understand, take a moment to think about what would help you understand and ask more questions.
To find out more about your Entrepreneur Style, make an appointment with me:
