What book is on your kindle or bedside table?
I’ve two on the go – one for work and one for pure enjoyment.
The enjoyment one is brilliant – “The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared“.
It’s a comedy.
And it achieves something rare in a book – it makes me laugh out loud. The blurb on its back includes: “Should carry a health warning for spouses or partners who are easily irritated by the sounds of helpless chortling.” That’s accurate. Don’t read it in bed if your beloved’s a light sleeper!
But onto more serious (business) matters.
The book’s main character name is Allan. And at one point the author writes:
“Allan was not one to pin his hopes (or, for that matter, his fears) on what might happen in the immediate future. What happened happened. There was no point second-guessing it.“
There’s an external world out there – outside of your control. Doing its thing inexorably.
Some of it will be good for your business. You can hope that stuff happens.
Some of it will be bad. You can fear that stuff happening.
But your hoping and fearing is an utter waste of your time – unless you do some reacting/planning/risk mitigation to better position your business.
In the book, Allan doesn’t concern himself with what the external world might do. He focusses solely on what he can do.
There’s an important lesson there for all of us in business!