Reading a Business Between the Lines — Part 3
One of the strangest things about running a business for a long time is that sometimes experience can actually work against you.
That sounds backwards.
We're supposed to get better with experience.
And most of the time, we do.
You learn what works. You recognize problems faster. You develop instincts. You stop panicking every time something goes wrong because you've probably seen some version of it before.
But there's another side to experience that we don't talk about as much.
Experience can teach you answers to questions nobody is asking anymore.
I've been thinking about that a lot lately.
For years, there were certain problems we had to solve at Red Alpha simply because of where the business was at that particular moment.
Maybe we didn't have the right equipment.
Maybe we didn't have enough customers.
Maybe we needed more services.
Maybe we needed to figure out how to produce something ourselves instead of outsourcing it.
Maybe the problem was simply getting people to know who we were.
Those were real problems.
And we built solutions for them.
But here's the question I'm learning to ask:
Are those still our problems?
Because there's no prize for becoming incredibly efficient at solving a problem your business has already outgrown.
Yesterday's Solution Can Become Today's Limitation.
Some of the things holding a business back aren't bad decisions.
They're good decisions that stayed too long.
A process might have been exactly what you needed five years ago.
A service might have helped build your company.
A piece of equipment might have changed everything.
A marketing strategy might have brought you hundreds of customers.
A responsibility you personally handled might have been necessary because nobody else could do it.
None of those decisions were wrong.
But that doesn't automatically make them right today.
There's a difference between honoring what got you here and being unwilling to move beyond it.
And since football season is here, there's an analogy that fits.
Imagine a coach still calling plays designed for a team he had three seasons ago.
Different quarterback.
Different offensive line.
Different receivers.
Different strengths.
Different weaknesses.
Yet every Sunday, he keeps reaching for the same plays.
Eventually somebody has to ask:
Coach, are you watching the team that's actually on the field?
Business owners can do the same thing.
We remember what worked, so we keep calling it.
We remember what hurt us, so we keep protecting against it.
We remember what customers used to ask for, so we keep building around it.
Meanwhile, the business standing in front of us today may be trying to play an entirely different game.
You Wrote the Playbook.
This reminded me of something from The Waterboy.
Coach Klein had great plays. He understood football. He had been creative enough to develop a playbook in the first place.
But somewhere along the way, he lost confidence in himself.
What he eventually needed to remember was bigger than any individual play:
HE WROTE THE PLAYBOOK.
That's what struck me.
His old plays didn't define him.
His ability to create them did.
I think business owners sometimes need that reminder too.
We can become so attached to the things we've created that we forget about the person who created them.
A product worked, so we keep making it.
A marketing strategy worked, so we keep running it.
A process worked, so we keep following it.
A business model worked, so eventually we start believing:
This is just who we are.
But those things didn't create us.
We created them.
And that's a big difference.
The old playbook is evidence of what you're capable of.
It isn't the limit of what you're capable of.
You Can Write Another Play.
There's nothing wrong with appreciating an old playbook.
Some of those plays moved the chains.
Some scored touchdowns.
Some may have saved the game when you desperately needed them.
Honor that.
But don't confuse honoring your past with being obligated to repeat it.
Because eventually the defense adjusts.
Your personnel changes.
The field changes.
The game changes.
And sometimes you need enough confidence to look at what's happening in front of you and say:
I wrote the old plays.
I can write a new one.
You're not starting over.
You're creating from everything you've learned.
Maybe you don't need more customers anymore.
Maybe you need better systems for the customers you already have.
Maybe you don't need another service.
Maybe you need to become exceptional at the services already producing results.
Maybe you don't need to work harder.
Maybe you've reached the point where the business needs you to stop doing certain things personally.
Maybe the thing that got you through one season is exactly the thing preventing you from entering the next one.
Read the Business That's Actually in Front of You.
That's really what this series has been about.
Monday we talked about noticing what your business keeps pulling toward.
Tuesday we talked about following the friction and paying attention to what keeps breaking.
Today, I'm adding another question:
What problem are you still trying to solve that isn't actually your problem anymore?
Look at the playbook in your head.
The assumptions.
The routines.
The things you automatically say yes to.
The things you automatically say no to.
The problems you wake up expecting to fight.
And ask yourself:
Is this still the game I'm playing?
Because experience is incredibly valuable.
But experience becomes wisdom only when we're willing to recognize when the lesson has changed.
Don't let yesterday's success convince you that yesterday's ideas were your last good ones.
The old plays may have been great.
But they never defined the coach.
You wrote the playbook.
And if your business is telling you the game has changed...
PICK UP THE PENCIL.
WRITE ANOTHER PLAY.
Behind the X's & O's of Business
Sometimes reading your business between the lines means recognizing that what got you here has already done its job—and trusting that you're capable of creating what gets you where you're going next.