Can you see the forest through the trees?

I had an uncle that during the 1980s worked on a US Navy Submarine. He tells a story of a young officer who was looking through a periscope trying to identify “enemy ships” during a training exercise. The young officer spotted a ship, but they were too close to read the name of the ship, so he had to call out the name to a senior enlisted person in parts to then look up.

The young officer calls out the first part “NOS”, then finds and calls out the second part “MO”. When he can read the final section the senior enlisted person writes out “KING”. The young officer, all excited about the discovery turns to his crew and asks them to look up the NOS MO KING in the ships registry.

The senior enlisted crewman is of course laughing hysterically, but this is because he doesn’t see “NOS MO KING” but rather “NO SMOKING“, a sign on the ship, not its name. The young officer was too close (both literally and figuratively), and couldn’t see his mistake till it was pointed out.

How often are we like that though?

We are so close to our website, our business, our __<fill in the blank here>__ that we lose focus. Maybe its because the daily grind keeps us from looking strategically, maybe its because its “our baby” and no one says their baby is ugly…

Regardless the reason, if we are too close, and cannot take an objective look at our business and ourselves, then we are positioning ourself to fail.

The solution is simple.

Look to see if any of these solutions might help you:

• Take a “time out.” Take some time away from your project or business to gain perspective. If you can’t get away for what ever reason then,
• Ask for an outside opinion. And make sure you get an honest opinion, not your mom’s to who you can do no wrong. Of course one person can be wrong, so don’t be afraid to ask a couple of people what they think. Things might be going well, or they might now. Then finally,
• Look at the numbers. Be objective and look at quantitative numbers. Hopefully you can track you sales, leads, etc month to month, year to year, or in other manners. Are you bringing in more income or less? And more importantly: Do you know why?

When you get your feedback, be willing to know if you need to change. You may not know, in which case, ask others for advise.

It’s never easy going through this process, but every time I’ve gone through it, I’ve come away with a better position on myself and my business. (And it does get easier with time.)