It’s official: Our elected representatives have lost our trust—they’ve thrown up their hands and proclaimed they couldn’t find a way to prevent the sequestration. It strikes me that if our government were an entrepreneur, it would be out of business. Congress would be just another statistic among the many businesses that fail to gain the market’s trust, fail to survive. In some ways, the dysfunction and brokenness we see in our nation’s capital mirror the problems that plague companies; by the same token, we can find lessons in Washington on how to do better.
For reasons more discouraging than encouraging, this period in our nation’s history is monumental. Congress’ productivity and popularity (trustworthiness) are at all-time lows. According to The Washington Post, the 112th Congress passed the least laws of any Congress on record. This group was at the wheel during the threats of the federal government shutdown, the debt ceiling breach, and the fiscal cliff. When we think about our vision of what we want Washington to be, we see the opposite. We see Congress’ inability to find the common ground we need to move forward. For all of us watching the failure unfold, the feeling is one of being stuck, mired, immobile. We aren’t going anywhere, except maybe down.
My call is to the entrepreneurs and the business owners—those who cannot afford to get stuck, give up, throw up their hands and say, “Sorry. I just couldn’t figure this out.” Our mission is to go regardless—regardless of the lack of progress that has become acceptable in Washington. Business owners make up one of the most powerful sectors of the economy, because we move forward. We build, we contribute, we create. We move because we have to. I don’t believe entrepreneurs have time to waste on things we can’t control, and that includes government and media alike. Both, in my opinion, spend too much energy on what we “can’t” do instead of what we “can” do.
If I were speaking to Congress, I would urge our representatives to think like entrepreneurs: Take action. Let go of black-and-white thinking and get comfortable with gray. Make small bets, knowing we can revisit decisions and change course. Take the U.S. Postal Service. In the old days, we needed mail delivery six days a week. Today, we don’t. How long has the government been sitting on that decision? For an entrepreneur, it would be no less than self-destructive to do nothing for so long in the face of evidence to the contrary.
Take Action
When you look at what’s happening—or not happening—in Washington, it’s clear that our officials have a hard time taking action. I believe choosing to do nothing is a form of choosing something. In this case, the ramifications of “nothing” are not negligible. Among many other consequences, the sequestration will cut Small Business Administration guaranteed loans to the tune of $540 million this year.
Representatives left and right bemoan the situation, describing it in terms of being “unable” to take action. Call it what it is: lack of momentum. For entrepreneurs, I would liken this to getting stuck in research and development, delaying a key hiring decision, or endlessly tinkering with the new website until it’s perfect. Entrepreneurs know the old adage: Don’t let perfect ruin good. Don’t fail to take action when everything around you is screaming for somebody, please, to just do something. Most business owners know the importance of decisive action, and the sequestration is a great reminder that doing nothing has real consequences.
Peter Sims has an excellent book, Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries. He argues that to move forward, we must be willing to make small bets. The alternative, waiting months and years until everything is guaranteed, is a path to stagnancy and even regression. Just move forward. Of course, Sims advocates for the smart bet and the savvy judgment. But willingness to make the little bet can be less risky, in the long run, than staying frozen in place until every single sign says “Go.”
This, too, applies to our government. If we seem to be hurtling toward a crisis, do something! Entrepreneurs know this instinctively. If your company is running out of money, you’d better make a decision because if you don’t, you will soon find yourself without any options. The lesson? Take action. Go, regardless.
Learn to Love Gray
Entrepreneurs and elected officials often fail to take action because the path is less clear than they would like. It is reassuring when the fork in the road is unambiguous; of course you should go this way. Ambiguity is uncomfortable, so it is tempting to hide out in the clarity of black-and-white thinking. The problem is that black-and-white thinking is out. Gray is in and gray is good. There’s a place for absolute certainty, but for entrepreneurs, few issues are that simple.
Let’s put aside the obvious—lying, cheating, stealing—and focus on dilemmas of competing priorities. That’s the dilemma our leaders face. With many needs, potential solutions, and competing interests, how should we achieve the highest good for the highest number? As Congress has found, either-or thinking just doesn’t cut it. We must get comfortable with gray. Philosophers wrestle with the gray areas of ethics. In theory, the right action is clear, yet in practice, real life is complicated. More often than not, “the right action” today demands strategic thinking, consideration of alternatives, crafted solutions and innovations. Gray can be good, because that’s the level of inspiration that gray inspires. In a black-and-white world, answers may come more easily, but they are less rich and less nuanced.
Gray is the landscape of compromise and reconciliation. Often, it is the starting point for movement. Ingenuity and imagination thrive in an environment that accepts gray and works with what is, not what we wish for. I believe American workers know this intuitively, even if our leaders may forget it. In 2011, the labor and manufacturing productivity of our country’s workforce rose, against all predictions, according to The Economist. Experts said Americans were tired; they could not work any harder. We proved them wrong. That’s the spirit of the business owner: persistence, grit, and the willingness to challenge yourself and find a way.
People wedded to black-and-white thinking often view gray as a compromise of principles. I would argue that when we fail to take necessary action, we compromise our biggest principles. We compromise our nation’s ability to take care of our citizens, to build an environment in which all can thrive. It is time for our leaders to take a page from the entrepreneur’s book and say, “When faced with competing priorities, you find a way to do what needs to be done.” Entrepreneurs confront these dilemmas daily. What do you do when you can afford to pay yourself or your employee, but not both? How do you service two big clients who walk in the door? The entrepreneur’s mindset is simple: You find a way.
Make Small Bets
Decisive action is important. Equally important is the willingness to revisit that action to check in. The conflict in Afghanistan is a great example. This past March marked 10 years since the first fighting in Iraq. Now, we are entrenched in Afghanistan and we are still deeply conflicted. We were willing to make the initial decision, but less willing to revisit it.
For entrepreneurs, the stakes may be lower, but the thought process is the same. What are the dangers of sticking to a path simply because that’s the path you are on? As a business owner, you may hire someone or take on a new client and discover there is not a good fit. In those cases, we know it is best to address the situation directly for the benefit of the company. Be candid, courageous, and honest. Be willing to revisit decisions so that you are not living with bad ones.
That mindset is important for entrepreneurs because we must adapt to change and to the unexpected. Flexibility is everything. Flexibility is not a word we often associate with government. Its discomfort with revisiting decisions may stem from politicians’ fear of hurting their chances for re-election, or the difficulty of turning the behemoth of bureaucracy, or the stubbornness of partisanship. Yet, our country cannot progress unless it is willing to revisit decisions, either because initial calls were wrong or simply because conditions have changed.
Overcoming that discomfort would enable Congress to make the small bets¾to take action, to move forward in the gray. When you know, like entrepreneurs do, that you might have to shift gears, you are more willing to decide and to act because you know it doesn’t mean forever. Congress’ all-or-nothing stance stems from the unrealistic belief that nothing is better than something. Something is better, even if we have to come back later and tinker to get things right. So to our leaders, I say: Think like an entrepreneur, and do something. Move forward. Go.
These lessons are powerful, whether we learn them in Congress or business shops and offices. America’s entrepreneurs have proven, time and again, we have the persistence and the ingenuity to overcome some of our nation’s biggest challenges. We have taken action, navigated complex conditions when the path was unclear, made and re-made decisions, one small step at a time. It’s an approach that could uplift the rest of the country, moving us forward to achieve something you might even call monumental¾in a great way.
Joe Mechlinski is the bestselling author of Grow Regardless, CEO of entreQuest, and has partnered with countless leaders to effectively improve their team’s performance, their clients’ experience, and their company’s profits
