"The Nuts' Manifesto": 5 Radical Business Rules That Fly in the Face of "Sensible" Thinking

In the world of small business — or any kind of business building or creative pursuits, for that matter — there are two schools of thought:

A) You have to know everything, research everything, plan everything, measure everything, analyze everything, evaluate everything, anticipate everything, budget for everything, and have the means to finance everything...BEFORE you start.

B) You don't.

"Group A" types are the Sensibles. "Group B" folks? The Nuts.

To the sometimes dismay of my husband/business partner, a Sensible who likes to operate in the world of concrete deliverables and see nets before he leaps, I happen to be in that "Group B" category.

Sensibles aren't stupid or unimaginative. On the contrary. They're often bright, reasonable, practical professionals. More often than not, they have read the text books, know the elements of growing businesses and bottom lines, and have sound, informed advice to offer on the subject of what works and what doesn't.

Many brilliant, wonderful, seasoned SCORE counselors are Sensibles. They've owned and managed all types of businesses for multiple decades, so they've made their mistakes and purchased countless hard-won lessons with their own sweat equity.

Nuts understand and respect Sensibles (though we can be delinquent in showing it). Whether Sensibles believe this or not, Nuts listen to their input, value their point of view, and often think they're probably right.

Why, then, do Sensibles usually see us doing exactly the opposite from what they recommend? Because we, too, know — or think we know — a thing or two about business ourselves.

Right or wrong, here's what we believe, whether we admit it or not:

1. Perfection Is for Sissies

The widely-held assumption is Perfectionists operate with a higher set of standards than most of us. To that I say "Phooey!" Perfectionists gouge ideas, scrape up strategies, and poo-poo planning docs until all the lifeblood is drained out of them. Why? They're frozen with fear! It's scary to put your stuff "Out There," to the discerning public, where critics lurk, markets speak, and well-meaning friends and relatives tell you exactly what they think of your ventures, whether their feedback is positive or not. I've seen some very smart and talented people wait for decades to act on an idea or passion because the timing, environment, circumstances, and/or equipment weren't exactly perfect. Oh, it hurts to watch!

2. Failure Is ALWAYS an Option

We've all heard the allegedly hard-core creed "Failure's Not an Option." Au contraire, my friend. Failure is not only an option, it's a statistically high probability. Next time you have lunch with Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Albert Einstein, or any of the countless other inventors and innovators who lived on nothing but failure with a side of "Oops!," just ask them. They'll tell you if you're not failing, you're not doing enough. Failure pushes limits, forces unconventional solutions, and tests mettles without kid gloves. Are you serious about success? Then you better love the smell of Failure, because it's part of the entrepreneurial experience.

3. You CAN Build Your Wings on the Way Down (and It's a Downright, Rock 'n Roll Rush When You Pull It Off!)

Comfort Zone? No, not for Nuts. I wouldn't say we're all adrenaline junkies, but our closest Sensibles may tell you otherwise. Still, when the luxury of looking back at an unlikely victory presents itself, there's definitely something very cool about replaying the scene. Back against the wall, warnings everywhere, total annihilation just millimeters away from every move and decision you make...Yeah. When you have no choice but to remove life's distractions to avoid a physical or metaphysical SPLAT, those wings get built. They may not be pretty, but they flap like heck and carry you somewhere you can pause to catch your breath.

4. Ignorance CAN Be Bliss

Look. We don't want to appear or admit to being - for lack of a better word - stupid. But the truth is, the less we know, the less we're bullied by total downers like "What's Possible," "What's Realistic," and that pesky tagalong, "Our Limits." Let's face it: Sometimes "The Facts" can really squelch a person's creativity. So sometimes we ignore them. Or choose to do things without the proper due diligence. Or skip along like the village idiot while our profit and loss statements are making our bookkeepers weep uncontrollably. Sorry. But sometimes - only sometimes - those numbers have less meaning to us and our plans than a petrified legume has to a carnivore. Tra-la-la...we can't hear you...

5. Life's Short. Play Hard...and for Cryin' Out Loud, LIGHTEN UP!

Mortality. Ugh. Yet another buzzkill to deal with. Sadly, though, we can't seem to kick this one to the curb. One of my favorite poems, Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress," does a good job in putting the whole Mortality thing into perspective. The poem is one giant, beautiful, exquisitely hilarious pickup line. He's trying to convince a young maiden to sleep with him, and tells her if he had all the time in the world, he'd admire each of her body parts for thousands of years, and wait patiently for her to come around. But that's not the case, is it? So with his last six lines, he says:

"Let us roll all our strength, and all

Our sweetness, up into one ball;

And tear our pleasures with rough strife

Thorough the iron gates of life.

Thus, though we cannot make our sun

Stand still, yet we will make him run."

The Nuts say, "Ditto."

So the next time you see us across your conference table, nodding politely in response to your very rational and comprehensive list of why our ideas, suggestions, and solutions would never work for your business or anybody else's, look more closely. Odds are, while our eyes are on you, our brains are somewhere else in our own indexed resource library of "What's Possible" and "What's Realistic."

While you're citing statistical probabilities and telling us about industry expectations, existing norms, and outdated rules, we're off in our wild 'n wacky fourth dimension. That's the place where we twist words, scour success stories, flip visuals, and mash up mountains of our own data.

It's the place where we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that more things are possible and realistic than most of us dare dream. And if everyone remained governed by the keen and well-intended Sensibles, most microbusinesses, solo-preneurs, and small business owners would never even attempt the impossible and ridiculous — i.e. going into business for ourselves.

What a shame that would be, because it's REALLY fun out here in Nutty Land.