Making sense of things . . .

"If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense"

(with a grammatically-related apology to Mrs. Dolan, my 6th grade English teacher)

Many years ago, when working with a corporate attorney and planning our company’s litigation strategy on a case, he advised me on proceeding forward with action, “If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make cents sense”. Since then and over the years, I’ve used that corny "pearl" to guide me and help others in navigating through the decision-making process on emotional issues. And somehow when I quote it, it always elicits humorous feedback and a brief sidebar on the subject.

But isn’t it just common sense? . . . “If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense.” Isn’t that kind of a guiding “North Star” when operating a business?

It should be, but organizational matters and business affairs can be emotional and multi-dimensional. When managing an enterprise, we deal with the markets/competition, staffing, finance, operations, logistics, governmental regulators, technology, the environment, and other items that fall under the category of life’s gotcha’s. As a result, we can lose focus on our main task and what we’re trying to accomplish – i.e., staying/flourishing in business, while bringing benefit to our customers/clients.

One of the lessons I’ve shared with entrepreneurs over the years is that if they don’t stay in business and take care of their organization and themselves financially, they’ll not survive to be there to help and to take care of their customers/clients in the future. And in that scenario everybody loses. It’s much like the warning preamble of the flight attendant, to put our mask on first before attempting to assist others.

By keeping an “If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense” mentality in the forefront while managing our organization, it provides us with a laser-type focus on the importance of survival and long-term sustainability. It also prevents us from meandering into unproductive areas or tolerating activities that just really “don’t make sense”.

There’s a popular book that was published in 1986 titled “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten”. It uses some rather simplistic mentality to guide us through life. I’d put the “. . . don’t make sense” quote in that same category for business.

Sometimes the important things are simple and right in front of us. But that said, often we’re still clouded and can’t see the forest for the trees. We’re constantly multi-tasking with seemingly everything taking priority. It is in those instances that we need to step back and reflect on our true mission. If needed, it might prove beneficial to reach out for help, to find a trustworthy resource with an independent and objective perspective, to someone who can view our challenge from the “forest level”. That way we can refresh and redirect our approach as we manage our organization so as to truly focus on what “makes sense”