I first heard this story from William Ury a world-renownedpeace negotiator. There once was an old man who had three sons and 17 camels. Upon his passing he willed half of his camels to his 1st son, one third of his camels to his second son, and one ninth of his camels to his third son. As the sons contemplated the problem of dividing up the camels, they reach an impasse and finding no way to solve their inheritance, they seeked advice from a wise old woman in the village. After listening to the sons and contemplating for a moment she said, I am sorry, but I can’t give you an answer. But I do have one camel that you can have. The sons took the camel and now had 18 camels. Son number one took half of the camels (9). The second son took one third (six camels) and the third son took his inheritance, one ninth of the camels (2). 9 + 6 + 2 = 17 camels. They had one camel left and they gave it back to the old wise woman. The solution was simple… but not easy.
Answers usually lie in the ability to take the third view. There are two natural sides to every problem, conflict, or challenge. Beyond the pro and con sides, the act or don’t act, the close or open, of every debate is the third side. Usually problems are solved by stepping back from the problem and taking the long view. Mr Ury calls it the view from the balcony. The big picture gives perspective to the smaller more acute challenges of the moment.
There is little in life that is not a decision. Even tragedies that befall us and seem insurmountable offer us the opportunity to decide how to react. I am fortunate that I am able to view the pandemic from many sides. My roles in life vary. As an executive of a multi-million-dollar company I ultimately answer to one of the richest men in the country, Warren Buffet. I need to make decisions that impact hundreds of employees, large raw material purchases, and work conditions and motivation. Hiring, firing, budgets, forecasts, and succession planning are all part of everyday life. As an entrepreneur of a family owned family entertainment center I need to make daily detailed decisions that affect my customers, employees, my community, and my family. In both roles I believe its important to get the view from the balcony.
Using a simple example of a million-dollar business I can illustrate the view of the pandemic from the balcony. I will use some simple generalizations to illustrate my point. If the closures and regulations from Covid 19 in 2020 causes this business to shrink by 50% the myopic view is one of doom and gloom, but the view from the balcony is of a the next 20 years of business which should be at least 20 million in gross sales even without growth or inflation and we are looking at a 500,000 loss in revenue a 2.5% percent loss in top line revenue.
I am not saying it’s not a loss, but I am saying it requires an adjustment, not a panic. This loss in business, requires re-budgeting, re-staffing, re-scheduling, and maybe even re-imagining your business. You should keep your eye on your financials, spending, hiring, marketing, and management. It may cause you to change hours of operation, size of classes, scope of class, staff pay scale, class offerings, operational procedures, traffic patterns, methods of communication. It may even cause you to re-examine your Vision, Mission, Passion, Business Plan, and Strategy; but to be perfectly transparent, as a responsible business owner, these are all questions that should be evaluated every year, not just in years of pandemics, depressions, wars, terror attacks, or political upheaval.
In years to come, the view of the pandemic from the balcony at least “my balcony” will not be of closures, masks, layoffs, or sanitizer. Just like my view of World War II, Vietnam, 911, or the 2008 recession, the view from the balcony will be one of resilience, flexibility, creativity, and survival. My advice is not to ignore the current challenges, but to use this opportunity to re-examine your business, adjust, and move forward. Regardless of this challenge, there is no other time in history that I would rather be living or working in and my passion for children’s activities and health has not waivered. The value in what you do has not changed other than to become even more critical. The future is bright.
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