Do you know the difference between surrender and defeat? As an insurance agency owner, and a leader you regularly make important decisions. Most leaders are ultimately judged on the decisions they make. The ability to make the right decisions at the right times can be the difference between success and failure. Eventually though, the most important decision you make may actually be a choice between success and failure.
As an insurance agency owner, you will have clear business goals that you want to achieve in your career. Your goals might be financial success, or strategic expansion; they may just be to keep the business running year on year. In an ideal world you will achieve all of your goals before you retire, or move on to new goals. This, however, is not an ideal world. It’s important to consider the possibility that you won’t achieve all of your business goals.
Will to Win is Important
Traditionally, heroic leaders have been generals who won battles against impossible odds or football coaches who claimed victory from the jaws of defeat. These kinds of glories are the things that most leaders aspire to, even if victory just means the achievement of a strategic business goal. There are leaders who relentlessly pursue their goals without considering the possibility of failure. This is often considered a valuable trait. A will to win and the desire to triumph over adversity is a powerful characteristic. There is, however, a fine line between bravery and being foolish.
Let’s take the example of a general in an impossible position. If you had to choose between storming the barricades and risking the lives of your troops or surrendering and saving those lives, what would you do? In movies, that choice is an obvious one. In movies, only cowards surrender. In reality, soldiers often die in vain.
Surrender Vs. Defeat
Let’s consider a similar decision in business. Imagine your agency is losing business; however you still believe in your agency and feel that you can still achieve your goals. You want to build a successful business with your name on it. However, things aren’t turning around and you may have to let some staff go to keep things running. What would you do if you received an offer to sell the business? You wouldn’t get to achieve your business goals, but you would save the agency, and those jobs. What would you do?
The first target of every business owner is to achieve business goals. Planning can help you to define these goals and define where you draw the line. As an insurance agency owner, you don’t need to be brave or reckless. You need to make the right decisions for the right reasons. You may need to choose between surrender and defeat.
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