Strategy 4 Saturday Blog (<4 minute read)
(Thinking clearly right now is harder- but also more important – than ever).
Coffee is my Comfort Food
My comfort food is a white chocolate mocha or caramel macchiato from Starbucks or Insomnia. I prefer them in the mug, at the cafe.
Although I don’t need caffeine every morning, I do love the taste and the habit of enjoying a nice sugary coffee drink. Unfortunately black coffee destroys my gut, but I’ve also learned that sugar drinks with caffeine aren’t so good for me either.
So I adapted, went to decaf, and even moved to oat milk. I‘ve noticed some positive changes, but the fact is, I’ve been trying to completely stop this habit for years, not just find a way to keep it going. However, when I am under stress, I go back to it.
Burning Hand
So, I had my burning hand moment. It’s not uncommon for me to take an afternoon break and go to the coffee shop to grab a coffee drink.
(Although I don’t smoke, my coffee habit sometimes reminds me of when I worked at a publicly traded company and watched half a dozen people stop working for a smoke break. While I burned inside counting the 3 months of back pay that I should have been paid after 5 years in exchange for their smoke breaks outside. And I digress.)
With that afternoon coffee, sometimes I would take about four sips and have 9 ounces left for the evening. For better or worse, I’ll put this in the refrigerator and sometimes I will drink it. Reheat it and drink it later. Or throw it out.
On the evening of March 27, I was particularly excited to reheat my coffee. I had to set up my monitor and computer to continue working on taxes and in the background I had NCAA basketball games to watch. Does anything get better than that? (a hearty chuckle)
For me, those are actually three things I enjoy. I love sugar coffee, tax work, and the NCAA basketball tournament.
Soon, as I reheated it in the microwave, I reached to grab the coffee and screamed out loud. “Ahhh!!!” That was the TCU mug with the disguised metal handle.
As you probably know, putting metal into a microwave is not a good thing! But even worse, is putting your bare hand on that handle right after it’s heated the microwave. I screamed in pain and immediately put my hand underneath cold water – this was not an ordinary burn. Oh no, this was a good one! Part of my finger immediately blistered up and several parts my other fingers had calluses. Wherever my hand had touched was burnt. According to the CDC, 15% of ER scalding visits are from coffee in the home, not that made me feel any better.
How My Burning Hand Relates to Business
There’s more of this story, but I’ll stop there and get back to how this relates to business. See, there are times in business (and life) when we tolerate bad habits. We have an employee who comes to work every day grumpy and does not smile at customers. Or we have the employee who doesn’t follow through with their work. Or we have a vendor that just never seems to get to our needs in time, even though they promise they will get it done next time.
We tend to fool ourselves that it’s hard to find employees, that it’s hard to find suppliers. We believe the transition cost will be more painful than making the change to find an employee who will perform at their best or a supplier who will do what you have agreed to.
Sometimes we have to make that hard decision before we make the fatal mistake. A significant burn or impact on your business can happen suddenly, you lose a customer because you tolerated mediocrity. A customer finally gives up, or a potential customer who you could’ve had, decides not to go with you. You did not do what they needed, a customer who needed a product on time didn’t get it because you continued to stay with the same supplier.
According to an HBR article, in a ten-year study of more than 2,700 leaders, 57% percent of newly appointed executives said that decisions were more complicated and difficult than they expected. See, that’s the burning hand moment, when you avoid making decisions because it’s more comfortable than the alternative. But, there is a certain point when you get burned, a scarred hand.
The Worst Decisions are No Decisions
In business, sometimes the worst decisions are no decisions, the delays, the belief it will get better. I know it will, when there’s really no data to prove otherwise. It’s comfortable, but when everything seems to be comfortable, all you’ll have is that burning hand.
(Perhaps, that’s what you are thinking right now when you should have anticipated the stock market would decline after President Trump’s tariff announcements, and you did not do anything about it? See previous Double Black Swan Blog Article and related WSJ article released this week.)
Adding insult to injury, I was in so much pain I tried to walk outside in the cold air to get my mind off of it. But when I came back in, I hit my knee on the door frame…which forced me to walk outside, so I would not throw profanities in the house. Then, because of the heat in the house, my hand seared with pain, one of the worst pains from my life.
Avoid the burning hand moment, and your door frame. Now, I have a scar to remind me to stop drinking coffee every day.
What are you going to change today?
Ps…
(…If this inspired you to change something, let me know, I would love to hear it. Hopefully, this scar will reap more rewards than I anticipated).
