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Asking WTWTTCH Helps to Overcome the Paralysis of Analysis
Having just returned from the APHA Business and Marketing workshops in Tampa, and in reviewing my notes and questions from attendees, I’ve come to a new conclusion about why many people have so much trouble pulling the trigger to actually SAY they are in practice – the formal hanging of their shingle, as it were…. Regular readers know I call this the “paralysis of analysis” – that inability to take the last steps. I’ve written about it here, and I’ve made recommendations here, and in both those cases, I’ve made a pretty thorough case for why advocates should not be so afraid to take those last steps. My new thinking actually shifts the direction a bit… whittles it down to a singular fear that I think represents the great majority of paralysis of analysis…. that is, that…. Most almost-practice-owners can’t get past their fear of asking for money. It’s not about their ability to perform those services and help their clients. It’s about putting a number on those tasks to represent the work they do – then asking someone to hand over that number. Now – I could go into all the very logical reasons that’s foolish (which it is.) They would range from the fact that your reticence stems from being socialized as a child to be afraid to ask (and you are no longer a child) – to – if all businesses were afraid to ask for money, we would have no businesses (imagine if Ford didn’t ask? Or doctors didn’t ask? or the supermarket, or the phone company didn’t or ….? You get the picture… ) What we really have to do to get past it is to ask ourselves this: WTWTTCH – What’s the Worst Thing That Can Happen? (if we ask for money) Well? What’s the answer? (tap, tap, tapping my foot, waiting for you to answer…. ) The answer is simple and it won’t bring the world as you know it to an end, it won’t register on the Richter Scale, it won’t even make your heart skip a beat. If you ask someone…
