“The grass is always greener on the other side.”
-Common English idiom
The other day I went for a walk. It is starting to feel like Spring again. I noticed the trees budding and I could already smell the pollen. But I noticed that the grass is still dormant. It is yellow. It looks dead.
When I returned home, I found that my lawn was patchy. It was part green, but it was mostly yellow. I thought this was odd so I looked closer. Why, I wondered, would the grass come in patchy? Why small patches of grass among the ugly yellow.
As I looked closer, I realized that I was not seeing what I thought I was seeing. In fact, it was just the opposite.
What I thought was green grass was really weeds. I only saw it because the grass was dormant.
It works like this in business too.
During the good times, it is easy to miss the weeds. They blend in and you do not realize that they are there. It is in the lean times when you clearly see the problems. That is when you have the clarity to deal with the problems.
What about You?
What weeds are growing in your business? Are they masked by profits or are they exposed by difficulties?
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Dr. Darin Gerdes is an Associate Professor of management in the School of Business at Charleston Southern University. All ideas expressed on www.daringerdes.com are his own.
This post was originally created for Great Business Networking (GBN), a networking organization for business professionals where Dr. Gerdes is the Director of Education.