To Charge or Retreat?

To Charge or Retreat?

I’m watching the sun rise over the Atlantic off the coast of Palm Beach, a beacon luring us to the opportunities of a new day. We’ve flying home later today from a week of vacation and facilitating my annual Thought Leadership Conference.

For ten years or more, I’ve run very high-end experiences all over the word: Million Dollar Club, By Invitation Only, Million Dollar Consulting® College, Million Dollar Consulting® Convention, Thought Leadership, and so on. In so doing, I’ve worked with elite talents—creative and smart people, from whom I learn a great deal (and maybe more than anyone in the room).

I’ve recognized that when faced with significant problems—loss of business, loss of key employees, new competition, new and demanding buyers, a spouse or partner who is nervous about a lack of guaranteed income, etc.—people tend to either charge or retreat. Those who charge see the issues as challenges and even new opportunities and try to leverage them for further success. Those who retreat tend to isolate themselves, believing that rapt attention to a few specific endeavors will help them to survive the turmoil. (People who aren’t at this level often resort to “get rich quick schemes” that try to make money without providing real value—multi-level marketing, participation in massive programs to learn how to, well, run their own massive programs.)

The Battle of Gettysburg, which helped turn the tide of the Civil War in the North’s favor, was itself perhaps turned by a lone battle on the strategic Little Round Top, where the colonel of the 20th Maine, Joshua Chamberlain, out of ammunition and faced with another enemy charge to take the heights and flank the Union Line, uttered a single order: “Charge!” That bayonet charge scattered the attackers and provided time for reinforcements to arrive, saving the hill, the Union position, the battle, and perhaps, the war.

In this profession, you have to “charge.” You can’t retreat because you feel pressure, because that retreat becomes an undertow that will drag you far away from your business and personal goals. This is not a business for the feint of heart. This is a business for people who believe in themselves and are bold, who mix it up with colleagues and contribute, sharing their victories and defeats.

It’s easier than it might seem because, unlike Little Round Top, no one is shooting at you.

© Alan Weiss 2015