Life, nature and business are variable. They rarely travel in straight lines. They are organic. They move up, down, and sideways often on timeframes that you cannot predict or control. Trying to control, manipulate and insulate yourself from these movements can be frustrating and usually unsuccessful. This makes me think of the mutual deception among public companies and Wall Street analysts that public company growth rates and earnings can be smooth and predictable. How stressful to try and predict it all and inevitably be wrong, particularly when your personal credibility and reputation are on the line as the public company CEO and CFO.
On the other hand, I have found that being at peace with variability in your business provides freedom and a healthy perspective on it all. Rather than energy spent trying to control the variability, one’s mindset shifts to one of recognizing that variability is something natural. This recognition helps build a business that not only can handle the variability with grace, but it helps a business use variability to its advantage for the long-term. Keeping a healthly cash reserve on hand to make investments during a downturn or avoiding sudden swerves in company strategy come naturally to the management recognizing that variability comes with the territory.
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