I wish I could give credit to the person who told me the simple phrase, “There is no Breakthrough without a Breakdown.”
I started noticing that as a coach in business and with sales people, almost all of the greatest gains come from a breakdown. As a matter of fact, when I think about it, it almost seems to be a law of nature that translates into our business and our life.
When you breakdown a muscle through working out the muscle responds by getting stronger. When you have a hard time in a relationship the makeup usually strengthens the relationship. When you decide to change a business to capitalize on a new model, product or target market until you find success, the result is usually a break through. When you are failing to communicate with someone in a business relationship a lot of times just sharing in the failure can push the relationship to another level.
We fear failure or we fear admitting failure sometimes so much that we don’t allow ourselves to push past the event. We seem to think it will become part of our identity like a brand or a cross we will bear. Well, thankfully someone handled that for us.
My point is that conflict to the point of failure is not the problem. The breakdown is not a failure. It is only an event that we can assign meaning to. The meaning we assign is completely up to us. Whether or not it is positive or negative is based on our focus.
In selling, your close rate can be your breakdown. Your ability to dissect your process, profile, approach, client feedback, your messaging, your value proposition, your rapport building, contracts and commitments can be the breakthroughs needed to turn 1 out of 10 into 3 out of 10.
In relationships your breakdown could be your communication skill. Your ability to listen, to connect, to be present, to spend time, to be empathetic, to show affection and to be clear could be the breakthroughs need to keep together or go apart.
The decision to let failure be the defining event rather than the beginning of the solution is the real failure. You have been led to this point of frustration to be open to learn what you really need to learn…to be ready to breakthrough. Now go get it!
How is it possible that I received this on the exact day I needed to hear it? I have had a week of really contemplating my current business and model and trying to decide if I will be making a significant change. I am definitely feeling a bit overwhelmed by the idea of it pretty fearful. I have also taken a big step in the past week to close a significant door to something negative in my business in the hope of opening up many others. Thanks for the great thoughts. Printing to add to my vision board!