A client k reader
wrote me,
asking me
how she could convince
someone to build a business
when he feels
it will fail
and
his efforts will be wasted.
Unless I absolutely need his help
to reach my own goals,
I don’t attempt to convince anyone
to try,
to write the book
he’s been talking about,
to build that business
he’s been dreaming about,
when he doesn’t truly want
that dream to be a reality.
That sounds cold
but I see it as a kindness.
Building a business
or writing a book
or taking on just about any other project
and making it a success
is damn difficult.
There will be a million things
that go wrong
and a million reasons to quit.
The folks unwilling to try
tend to seize one of these reasons
and use it as a reason to stop.
They’ll blame me for encouraging them.
I’ll have wasted my time
helping them.
We’d all be happier
if they didn’t even start their projects.
Instead, I concentrate
on helping the many people
who are willing to try
but need encouragement.
We can’t force people
to follow their dreams.
But we can
make that first step easy
and support them
when they take it.