Should we adopt a Stoics point of view for our eCommerce business?
Stoicism’s definition is the endurance of pain or hardship without a display of feelings and without complaint.
It’s a mind hack, a way to deal with the inevitable letdowns that will happen in your business. It’s the ultimate self control, the ability to “NOT” react in a negative way to issues as they arise.
Imagine getting that letter- “You are not authorized to sell our product-Cease & Desist!” Or the “You now need to give us $1,000 for the right to apply to sell xyz brand on our channel. Don’t complain just send the check as we know you have been selling this product for two years without an issue! Thinking, no big deal there are 2,000,000,000 other products to sell. I can liquidate the remaining ones on Ebay, Jet, Rakuten, Craigslist or Offer Up. Or even (insert new channel that will soon be here based on Amazons changes). Imagine that level attitude, the even feeling, the ability to Not react. Hmm.. sounds good doesn’t it?
Is it possible, can you just move past issues, forget the successes you had with the product? Forget the romance between you and the product? Maybe and maybe not but what’s the alternative? Make yourself sick over things you can not control? You can make veiled threats out loud to yourself. You’re the only one listening and the you’re the only one who cares! This is a business, it’s not personal even though you might feel like it is sometimes. Amazon, (insert any other business name here) will make decisions. Sometimes even mistakes. But they make them for their business model, not yours. They want more profits and more value for their stakeholders (Customers included!). Its business.
I know this is so obvious when you step back and look at it. Change is inevitable. In my experience whatever has happened will change again. And again and most likely again. You can pick up your marbles and go home. Or you can peel back the layers of your business and see what is working. Separate the wheat from the chaff and adjust. Adjust to the new norm, business as usual changed. Ok, it changed. There. Get it out, say it out loud. Scream it if you feel better. It has changed. Guess what you have changed. Look back to when you started your eCommerce trip, it looks different today, doesn’t it? I sure hope so. I know we made so many mistakes. Took so many wrong turns. Got stuck with so many bad buys, still have equipment that we had to have at the time and now sits idle on the shelf. Boxes of bags, labels, packing tape, etc… that will never get used. So many buys due to the low price that now looking back you realize the price was so low because no one wanted it! Got lot’s of those! So we have changed and yet we survive. All is not lost, all is not over you have not reached the end.
I love that famous quote from the great Philosopher John Lennon of Beatles fame:
“Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.”
Let’s set up a plan, let’s dig in and go deeper than ever before in your business. Let’s create a sustainable model that can be of value, that can has value! Let’s find a way today that we will know will change due to outside influences. A model where we can look at these changes without emotion and celebrate the great ride. They made you money. Let’s work toward success as it relates to what you want: a true Lifestyle business.
Let’s take the Stoic’s point of view:
It is what it is