BUSTED

BUSTED!

 

Almost every business I know has been busted at least once. I would go as far as to say that every successful business has been caught napping or off guard several times and has had to go through recycling to get back on course again. Getting "busted" of course can be fatal that it is why it is important to deal with the crisis it brings about urgently. Sadly many businesses that go out of business hardly realize they have been busted. You have to recognize that you have been busted before you can do anything about it.

 

Name the top ten companies in the country today and you will find that half of them were not in that ranking ten years ago. Give them a few more years and they too will be replaced by new comers. Staying in business is challenging, staying on top is even more of a challenge. Statistics tell us that 8 out of 10 new businesses close within the first year. Totally busted. Those that remain in business struggle to survive and those that survive have been revived from busted circumstances several times. They will have developed "return from busted" competencies.

 

Busted is part of business. We face the immediate danger at start up. We must learn to deal with it as we grow and we cannot ignore it when we are successful. We must either learn to deal with it or forget about doing business altogether.

 

But it is not only business that moves from boom to bust. Successful careers can be turned to a sudden low point by embarrassing or unfashionable turn of events. The boom to bust phase of existence is perhaps the most certain of the human life cycle, strangely it does not require any effort on your part. The bust to boom phase is more uncertain and requires tremendous effort from you.

 

From bust to boom is hard, humbling and hazardous. It is like dragging yourself out of a pit or crawling up a rocky mountain side on your hands and knees. It is a humiliating exercise of courage and character. Many never recover from the loss of face (pride) that seals their fate. Moving from bust to boom reminds us that we never owned success and that it belongs to another who dishes it out at will and allows us to experience bust to keep us humble. It is as if the maker delights in his position as kingmaker. Indeed, it is not uncommon for the busted to turn to God and seek new guidance and direction. When you are busted it is the most sensible thing to do. Ask God. Anyone moving from bust to boom must look up. Bouncing back is only for the brave who believe.

 

Busted, for the unschooled, is really like an ambush. It comes as a sudden realization. It is as if a carpet has been pulled from under your feet. Busted is an ambush you never quite see coming. It is as shocking as it is sudden. It is as de-winding as a rugby tackle, deflating as a tire burst and as disorienting as a blackout. It follows no rules or formulas and is as unpredictable as loosing an amateur game.

 

Busted comes to the calm and confident, the careless as well as the careful, the considerate and kind. It comes to all of us. For some it happens repeatedly for others it happens at the beginning for others just before the end. For some it takes a long time, for others take a short time. Some seem immune, others are prone. In life, it is quite reasonable to assume that we will be busted at least once.

 

Recently I experienced a business downturn that cut our turnover to less that one quarter in a space of 12 months. We never saw it coming. This is an immense blow to the operations of any business. We took measures to control the damage, but the impact of that time is still very real. It also has serious implications on our future. Like every business that is busted, we grappled with the realities of getting back on track. There are many people to help you bust your business. People to get you out of a busted situation are very expensive. Perhaps there is need for experts to keep us from being busted. I now realize that there are powerful lessons to be learned from being busted.

 

The first phase of being busted is actually success. Success is the most blinding experience and numbing to reality you will ever have to go through. Many great people in history were fooled by their success, and came to very humbling ends. Wise people know the folly of success and refuse to be fooled by it. This second group know that success is, at best, short lived and easily turns its face to another. If you don't have a better reason of doing what you do (apart from success), success will fool you.

 

After we overcome the initial shock and trauma of being busted, it dawns on us that the signs were there all along. But because a mixture of confidence, pride and arrogance, we choose to ignore the signs. Though busted is an ambush, pride and denial cause us not to see the signs. We refuse to believe that our biggest customer giving us 80% of our business could walk away. We refuse to believe that the competition has anything to offer. We are too self-serving to see the needs of others or too busy with our business to notice that the industry is changing. We start quarrelling (instead of listening) with our customers when they stop buying. We believe that the boss is so awed with our success that he will overlook our incompetence. Think about it the signs are always there.

 

A weak foundation will bring a house down. What foundations have you built your career or business on? If the foundations are weak like corruption, stealing or taking undue advantage of your customers, you can be sure it is only a matter of time before your rising success crumbles at the base.

 

The perfect ambush is triggered by a momentary loss of focus. In that moment, the chess master registers, "checkmate". All it takes is a moment of minor or major loss of focus. The effect is the same. Loss of concentration, or loss of direction facilitate the perfect set up for an ambush –busted!

 

So what do you do when you've been busted? Perhaps it is important to realize that boom to bust is just like bulls and bears. You can take courage and comfort in the fact that neither situation is permanent. It does not last forever. It is also true that you can learn a great deal from being busted. If you survive "busted" , you come out stronger and a great deal humbler. When the bubble we have built our dreams on bursts, we can redirect our energies to the things that really matter without any hang-ups.

 

If you have been busted like me, its important to realize that you can be down but not out. Here are some important things you can do; Stop fighting (a trapped animal only harms itself by fighting the trap), Accept the reality, Study the fundamentals, regain focus. Look up and start the long hard climb knowing you have been there before

 

Allan Bukusi, 2003