When we say the word “lie,” our imagination pictures crooks fooling naive Pinocchio, or the politician who “promises to build a bridge where there is no river. Far more often a person deceives himself, though this is less obvious. I am talking about false assumptions. Like a layer of grass on a swamp, they create the appearance of solid ground while you make a path with your eye, but fall through beneath your feet as soon as you step on it.
The lie can’t stand contact with reality. But until then, it looks like a monolith. Some assumptions have been instilled in us in the family and are therefore sacred. Others are subtly sewn into the subculture in which we grew up. Others literally saved us when we found ourselves defenseless in a difficult situation. Since then, however, the world, the culture, and, of course, ourselves, have changed greatly. Many assumptions have long since become irrelevant, or even hinder us, like a welder’s mask after dark. The mask is at least noticeable, but it is easy to forget about the sunglass contact lenses. Our perception of events is distorted, but we get annoyed at a “corrupt” and “unfair” world.
In business it is noticeable, for example, by chronic problems, which, like the heads of the Hydra of Lernaeus, stubbornly grow back after the strike of the sword. Or when the founder complains about the lack of reliable partners, because everyone he has met before for some reason tried to deceive him. Sometimes it seems as if an evil fate destroys any entrepreneurial venture at the stage of rapid ascent. But analysis reveals that he is right-handedly breaking what he left-handedly creates.
There is good news in this. The more false assumptions hold your business back, creating tension inside, the more the business accelerates after it is released from them. Just like a bolt finally released from a crossbow.
Yours sincerely,
-Alexander
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