I love this quote from Mark Twain:
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
But, that’s a tough pill that most people won’t swallow.
With a free and open internet in front of me, I can fill the gaps in my knowledge pretty easily, quickly, and inexpensively. If there is something I don’t know, I can go learn it.
Need to learn how to advertise with Google Adwords? You can go do that. Google itself produces a lot of FREE resources to teach you how to do it, and there are a thousand other people willing to teach you.
Want to learn more about negotiating real estate for your dance studio? Tons of resources found through Google and Youtube . . . for FREE. Sometimes it’s even frustrating to deal with the sheer volume of information available.
Mark Twain probably never imagined a world where so much information was so readily available to everyone. But, his quote holds true today as much as it did when it was first penned.
We all lie to ourselves. We tell ourselves stories about “how the world is” when there is ample evidence out there telling us it’s not true. And this is where we really get into trouble. We can put our dance studio businesses in serious trouble by not accepting the realities that they exist in.
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.“
The Solution
The solution to keeping our businesses out of trouble involves at least three steps:
1. Remain constantly vigilant
2. Experiment and trust results (measurement)
3. Be humble and teachable
We have to be constantly vigilant for the holes in our understanding of “how the world works.” Especially when it comes to our studio businesses. We need to keep our eyes on the horizon for the next opportunity, even when it’s disguised as hard work.
Experimenting means doubting the “way it’s always been done.” We try new things. We MEASURE the results we get, and then we test again to make sure the results are repeatable and not just a fluke. When we find something that has measurable and repeatable results we stick with it. We implement it massively, and we trust it. Then we move on to the next thing.
Being vigilant and experimenting will never be enough if we’re not humble and teachable. We do the best we can, but when something better comes along we admit that it’s better, and we change.
This last point is why I think CONFIDENCE and MOTIVATION are way overrated. You can be confident in the wrong things. Motivation is fleeting. We need something more reliable. HUMILITY and DISCIPLINE are just simply better tools.
What beliefs about your dance studio business do you have that might be wrong? How might those incorrect beliefs be holding you back, or worse, driving you to failure? What can you do to change that?
I hope you find the wisdom in Mark Twain’s words the way that I do. It has made a huge difference in my own life and businesses.
As always, good luck in all you do,