As Much As THEY Can Handle, Part I

"...as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby..." - I Peter 2:2 NKJV

If you've ever raised children I'm sure you've learned a quick lesson starting from Day One. When it comes to feeding little ones, there are few foods they can eat. Food that appears dull, bland, tasteless to grown ups is ideal for a babies; it's just right. You wouldn't feed steak, chicken, hot dogs, pork chops, fish, bread, rice, potatoes, or any other food you would normally eat to a baby at such an early age (fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, whatever) for a very obvious reason: their system can't handle that type of food yet; it isn't developed enough, not strong enough to digest anything like that. They would be overwhelmed. Babies need pre-digested, already broken down food in its simplest form so their newly developing system can handle the process of converting that food to useful energy, allowing them to grow strong enough to eat food that their bodies can handle more easily as they get older.

Nobody questions this logic when it comes to raising little ones. We all know there is very little they can do at that stage, they're just not ready. They have to be brought along slowly, gently, with tender loving care until they reach the point where they can handle bigger challenges. You don't give a youngster something you can handle, you have to give them something they can deal with.  Makes perfect sense, right?

Now what I'm about to say may be a stretch, but stay with me, I'm going somewhere with this. We know a baby can't eat what we eat, because it is not ready to handle that type of food. So why is it that when we welcome a new person into our business, a "newborn," so to speak, we expect them to handle all manner of advanced concepts, mindsets, relationship approaches, and mentalities right off the bat, as fast as we can throw it at them, many of which they've never seen or heard before in their entire lives? It's the equivalent of pouring someone a drink of water with a fire hose, or worse, lighting their cigarette with a blow torch. 

Is it any wonder that they get stuck? Frozen with fear? It's a lot to take in at one time, and just like babies with "grown up" food, business newbies can be overwhelmed by a severe case of information overload, aka "paralysis by analysis." There's so much coming at them at one time, they don't know which way is up.  Point blank, it makes no sense to expect someone with no experience at all to handle something they clearly aren't ready for. Someone with absolutely no business experience of any kind is not going to take the ball and run with it the very first time it is handed to them.  Chances are better that they'll run away from you as fast as their legs can carry them, you'll watch them leave, wondering what went wrong, and scratch your head in amazement when they do all they can in the future to avoid you like the plague.

May I suggest something to you?

Before you blame your would be prospects for deserting you, ducking out on you, not having a spine, guts, courage, "backbone," or whatever you want to call it, before you call them "stupid" for not seeing your opportunity the same way you see it, and before you call them every name under the sun "...but a child of God," as some folks said back in the day, take your eyes off of them and instead take a long, hard look in the mirror and ask yourself:

Am I responsible for what went wrong?
Did I cause them to reject me, and my business?
Did I say or do something to turn them off?
Did I try to give them too much information, too soon?
Could I have handled things differently?

Chances are, if you are chasing more people away from you (and your business) than you are attracting, the answer to all of these questions is an unmistakable YES. Hands down...no ifs, and's or buts.

So what do you do?

I'll give you the answer next time...

That's all for now, gotta run.  Until we meet again, remember...

Keep it simple...   See ya!