Why are so Many Adolescents in No Man’s Land?
The reason is: No Man’s Land is the home state for all business adolescents. I only described half the story when I stated that over 90% of all companies fail; I know, I know you don’t scare that easy. The “rest of the story” (as Paul Harvey used to say) and the Freakonomics of the reason behind such an outlandish percentage, is what my 4M Navigator partner, Doug Tatum describes in his best-selling book as No Man’s Land:
It’s adolescence, the stage we all go through when we’re too big to be small and too small to be big. We’re confused and unfocused, and we’ve got significant transitions ahead that are hidden like mines in a minefield. Imagine your business is a Ferrari 575 M Maranello. You’re plowing down the Autobahn at 145 mph and you’re increasing speed. Here’s the good news: you’re driving the vehicle of your dreams, you’re moving at a fast and reckless rate, and the road is clear. The bad news: there’s a 1500 foot wide bottomless ravine hidden in the fog about ¼ miles ahead. Are you ready to jump it? We should call this chasm DeadCo Drop because all companies must, at some point in the second stage of growth, jump it.
I’ll discuss DeadCo more in my next post, even though I know a bottomless drop doesn’t scare you.
Brent Sapp
