Living with choices

Business choices and life choices?

I’ve come to an age where I no longer can have it all. I’ve come to realise there will simply not be enough time to achieve and do everything. That is a change for me as just 5 years ago I did not have that feeling. Everything felt as possible if I just set my mind on it.?

Sports is the clearest area of life where I have had to accept that not everything is possible anymore. I’be been a competitive cyclist and I’ve been able to ride with the top riders in my country. I have been amazed at my achievements. A lot of sweat has been spent. But it is clear with my age that I will never beat the best in my country.?

I’ve come to see time pass by. There is not enough time for all my friends. I should nourish the relations with my business network. I should develop myself relentlessly. I should be generous with my time. I should be more at home. The child is growing. Everything simply does not fit into the weeks and months.?

Life is full of choice. Some of the balance we find accidentally. Some of those time allocations we make consciously. And we struggle sometimes. It feels bad that we were not able to set aside time. We are longing to keep better relationships with friends. But you cannot just have everything. Life is not fair in that way.?

I’ve come to accept my choices. I know now that not everything fits. I think the trick for me is to acknowledge my limitations. Once I accept my limited nature, then I logically know that I will not get everything I want. I have found some sort of zen in cherishing my choices and living by them.?

That life I live is not everything, but it is a life that fits me.?

Business choices

Business life presents itself as a universe of opportunities. We could go global. We could improve quality. We could introduce new products. Then some say that we should focus on the core business. Or we could just listen to the customers more. I find a similarity to personal life here with all the options.

There are just so many “shoulds” in business. ?

I find us too often so hungry for more in business. This makes us unwilling to choose. Like in life we just want everything. We feel bad when we fail to make progress on multiple fronts.?

I think business is like life. You have to make choices on where you spend your time. Time is the same for life and business. Not everything fits into the week. Either you choose consciously or time will decide on your behalf.?

We are envious of other businesses. We want our business to be just as successful as the best. We think that if we just add people we can do almost everything. We benchmark with the best. Then we think that if we were just as good then we could have our cake and eat it too. But time is cruel and we are still human. We are limited beings also in business.

In business you never can have it all - no matter how hard you want or try.?

Strategy is choice

Every business can be wonderful in their own way. I take that as an opportunity for us to live a more balanced business life. In personal life, it is no good to try to live someone else’s life. The same individuality should apply to business life too.

Let’s make our business choices and decisions. Let’s be content at having the business be deficient in some ways. You can’t have it all.

It also goes the other way around. Only by choosing your battles you can create the distinct strengths of your business. Strategy is choice.?