We were having a cup of coffee and some breakfast at a great little coffee shop-bakery-café in Bozeman, MT before going on a hike. Next to us were three ladies, also dressed for a day in the outdoors. and I couldn’t help but overhear one of them say:
“People from cities really don’t understand the environment. And getting off the ship on an Alaska cruise to spend two hours in shops looking at tchotchkes isn’t getting into the environment.”
A stereotype of city people and I’ll admit many city people aren’t all that knowledgeable about the outdoors. Our fishing guide, who we use every summer, loves to tell (everybody) about the lady from New York city who asked (when seeing a minnow put on a hook), “Do fish really eat other fish?” *Realize fishing guides love to tell the same stories and jokes no matter how many times you’ve heard them, so we just pretend they’re new.*
But knowledge and caring are two different things. Most people, city or rural, don’t want chemicals dumped in their water or on their land. Most want to breathe clean air. Very few if any want their local resources, whether a lake or river in the wilderness or the Hudson river in New York, to be like a man-made lake in Novosibirsk, Russia nicknamed the “Siberian Maldives” because of its turquoise color. Unfortunately, the color is a chemical reaction from ash runoff from a power plant’s industrial dump site.**
So what stereotypes do you have? Some I hear include:
- You can’t buy this business because you don’t have direct industry experience. (False, very false and tied to the misnomer “Nobody else can run my business because it’s so special.”)
- I’m starting an advisory business but don’t have any references or testimonials. (Sure you do. You just did the work for another company.)
- My business can’t grow. (Yes it can, maybe it’s you.)
- I have to do menial tasks like payroll, HR, reviewing every bid/proposal, etc. (No, owners don’t have to do those things way below their paygrade, you have to trust others and get over being a control freak.)
So, what stereotypes are holding you back from growing, starting a new business, buying one, selling yours and moving on to your next great adventure in life, or anything else?
“Knowing what must be done does away with fear.” Rosa Parks
Stereotypes Can Be Deadly** This lake has become an Instagram phenom and even though people are warned not to go in the water they do. One man who floated on the lake (on a floatie) said, “The next morning, my legs turned slightly red and itched for two days; the water tastes a bit sour, looks like chalk.”
