Yes, it may be boring, but .....

Many years ago, when I found my younger son struggling with numbers in his math lessons, I suggested to him that he goes over the multiplication tables till the time it gets into his system. He immediately said "That's boring stuff, pa". He may be right that going through multiplication tables repeatedly is not anyone's dream but that is absolutely necessary if you want control over numbers.

Its fascinating to see that 'boring stuff' is everywhere but the willingness to take it on, separates the men from the boys.

Ask the film stars who seem to have a very glamourous life. They do every shot multiple times till the director is satisfied and believe me that repeating a "ahh" word, for example, endlessly is the least interesting activity that you can think of. But they do it so that it catches the attention of the audience while they watch the movie and rave about it. Or take the movements in a song sequence. The fourth starlet in the third row may have made a small mistake but that would mean that the lead pair do that part again. Is it interesting stuff? Not by any stretch of imagination.

Or for that matter, the super sports stars. They appear to be leading a dream life of flying into cities and winning humungous prize money but a closer examination would reveal that all that is due to the amount of time they work out at the nets or in keeping with their fitness regimen which is actually 'boring stuff"

It looks really cool to watch the leader of a party winning elections and it may be a glorious moment waving to the supporters. But in order to get there, he would have addressed 43 rallies every day for 15 days repeating almost the same lines, ate whatever is available and shook hands with thousands of voters, almost like a zombie. Ask him if all that was interesting and his answer would be an emphatic NO. But he does that 'boring stuff' in order to reach the victory post.

Is it any different in entrepreneurship or a professional career? Certainly not.

Interestingly I realize that its not young kids alone who dislike 'boring stuff' even if it is vital.

When I interact with many entrepreneurs, I find that their grasp of the market to be very weak and as a result they find it very difficult to relate their offering to the need of the market. That makes getting customers an herculean task. And when I probe a little deeper, I find that their investment in customer definition and problem statement is very minimal and superficial, because 'its boring stuff'. They don't actually say so but their willingness to work on it is so minimal that its obvious that they hate doing it.

I have seen even seasoned businessmen wanting to do interesting work like 'positioning and promotion' not realizing that the foundation for that so-called interesting work lies in the 'boring stuff' of defining the customer and his/her problem.

So if you want success, be prepared to do the 'boring stuff' with as much energy as you can muster.

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The Author is the Prinicpal Consultant of Idea To IPO Growth Consultants