Self-sabotage. We all do it. Do you know how to get out of your own way? Twice this month I have seen clear examples of business owners that could not get out of their own way. One was a business owner who fired a contractor that was providing them great value at a great price only to hire someone who was less experienced and ended up costing them more. It makes you want to say, What are you thinking? They are now paying over double the price for what they had before and at lower quality. It wasn’t an issue with the contractor, it wasn’t that things were done wrong. It was simply they thought they should be paying less for the service. So how did they go from having everything right to paying more with less value? Self-sabotage.
The second example I saw was that of a small business owner who approached a friend of mine about working with them. They had talked with my friend in the past but decided to go with someone else, again due to price. They were a new business owner and didn’t have a lot of excess cash so they figured they would do things themselves. Well, that didn’t quite work out so they finally hired a contractor. That #contractor didn’t know what they were doing so they hired another and then another. Then in desperation they called my colleague to help them. Things were a mess and it was going to cost much more than it would have originally just to do things right in the first place. They walked away again without working with my colleague. When she told me this story it just made me shake my head as I see it too often and I have done it myself.
You see, we can’t seem to get out of our own way sometimes. One of my favorite songs talks about “my biggest enemy is me”. You got that right! I know that I am my own worst enemy. I self-sabotage alot. We all do! I have even said out loud, “Audrey, just get out of your own way!” I stall my own progress, screw things up and procrastinate on doing what I know needs to be done. And why? Usually it is fear of the unknown. Is that a good choice? Do I have the money? Do I have the time? Am I doing what is best? Here is another great article on self-sabotage.
So today, take some time and make sure you aren’t standing in your own way. If you have a mess and you know the expert to fix it, pay them. If you are working with someone and they are providing a good service and you see the value, don’t think you need to price shop.