A Business Lesson From Cats
There’s the fairly common perspective that ‘hustling’ to improve your business is, in general, drudgery.
It’s sometimes seen as a necessary evil you need to endure in order to reach ‘success’ in business.
You need to put in the hours of cold calling or you need to spend hours optimizing your SEO to drive traffic or you need to spend hours researching products to bring to the market and talking with potential suppliers.
You need to put in a lot of effort but you’d much rather be out playing paintball, playing golf, or playing basketball. You’d rather be ‘having fun’ but you make the sacrifices necessary for success.
And because you’re willing to make these sacrifices you will ‘win’ in business.
Today I was watching some cats playing and then it hit me. I got a totally new perspective.
Watching The Cats Play
If you leave two little kittens alone together they will play with each other. They’ll chase each other around, tackle each other, jump on each other, and bite each other lightly and playfully.
They don’t really think about it. They just do it and it’s clear that they’re having fun. They really enjoy the roughhousing.
These cats are expending energy and ‘playing’ but they’re also getting better at all the key skills necessary to be a cat.
They’re learning how to defend themselves, fight rivals, and take their place in the cat hierarchy. They’re learning to escape potentially deadly situations and they’re learning to hunt for food. Those are valuable skills and they’re learning them through play.
Can You Approach Your Business More Playfully?
Can we take a lesson from these cats? Can we improve our businesses while having more fun, taking ourselves less seriously, and enjoying the process more than we are now?
I know that you can have serious fun at networking events as you build your Rolodex. You can enjoy the anticipation of learning new material when on a strategic coaching call. You can ride the excitement of going ‘all in’ on your business and betting on yourself.
If you can approach your ‘work’ in the same way these cats think about play then every day can be fun. Even when you’re working hard to close an deal or research a particular market niche.
If you have this mindset, today can be an exciting rough-and-tumble ride and the promise of tomorrow still exists.
I’m going to think of those cats as I continue to work on my business. Why not have more fun while learning from podcasts, taking action on new strategies and networking with important individuals.
With the right perspective you can have fun and improve your skills, just like those two cats rolling on the floor.
Hey, I even get to take a swat at the competition every now and then. 🙂
Want to talk? You can reach me via my contact form.
