What is the hardest thing about marketing an online business by yourself?
If you aren’t already self-employed, you might say the hardest thing would be self-discipline. After all, nobody else cares whether or not you spend your time diddling around on Facebook. When you clock out for the night, either you completed your goals for the day or you didn’t.
Reality will give you instant feedback.
Self-discipline is not the hippest word on the block. It’s like the tall girl in class, the one who plays excellent volleyball but goes home immediately after the game. She has a seat on the Student Council and works in the family-owned restaurant on the weekends.
Our confused emotional responses to the word ‘discipline’ begin at the beginning, with its definition.
One meaning is to be well behaved.
Another is an act of punishment.
A third is a distinguishing feature of your personal nature.
And last but not least, it means activity leading to skilled behavior.
We all have a capacity for self-discipline, which can also be defined by what it isn’t: compulsive behavior.
Compulsiveness, on the surface, appears to be way more fun. He never misses the party – it’s usually at his house – he can’t hold a job so you can always find him on a Saturday morning. And he would have been an ace competitor, he’s so fast, but he accidentally slept in and missed the team tryouts.
Being well behaved? Clearly not on his radar. B-o-r-i-n-g!
Self-disciplined? On purpose? Nah-ah. Discipline is what he knows he’s going to get from the authorities if they catch him.
A thought experiment
Let’s say these two characters, Self-discipline and Compulsiveness, are buddies of yours. Just a couple of questions, food for thought:
- Which one would you prefer to have a long-term friendship with?
- Which one can you predict will succeed in business?
- Which one is likely to be in the position to loan you an interesting amount of money?
- Who would you like to emulate, or your kids to emulate?
Ready?
The minute you start to wrestle with these questions, you realize that neither one is the bad guy. You probably need more information, such as, is the party guy the son of wealthy parents who plan to leave him a fortune?
Or maybe you wonder whether the volleyball star is a nice kid. Maybe she’s neurotic as heck from trying too hard to be perfect. Sure, you may prefer that your kids become like her in some respects, but you hope they can loosen up once in a while too.
My conclusion
What’s best for entrepreneurs?
How about a touch of compulsiveness in the middle of a lifetime of self-discipline, and a dab of self-discipline during a compulsive act. We need both, in just the right ratio, which is always changing.
To paraphrase William Blake: Don’t exorcise your devils lest your angels leave with them!
