Small Biz. Guru: With no sign of land

Following the destruction of their ship, Shackleton and his men remained stranded on an Antarctic ice floe, twelve hundred miles from civilisation, for almost two years.

The year was 1914. Apart from the men themselves, no one of the outside world was aware of their plight. There were no satellite phones. No Internet. Hey, these guys didn’t even have electricity. In today’s terms, they might have well been stranded on Mars (the planet, not the chocolate).

Death for all 27 men seemed inevitable... Yet miraculously, they all survived. Against near impossible odds, Shackleton and his men managed to turn almost total disaster, into a tale a human triumph. Shackleton’s story of survival and eventual rescue from Antarctica is one of the most powerful and inspiring ever told.

Its lessons are universal and timeless.

In the movie, The Edge, during a time of total desperation, a character played by Sir Anthony Hopkins re-assures his companion that, "What one man can do...Another man can do". What Shackleton did, we can do too.

So what do you do when you experience set back after set back and an end to the tough times seems no where in sight? What do you do when you feel as though you’ve lost direction, or that your dream has stalled? How does one find the resources that lie within and that will enable themselves to get back on track?

Start by being honest with yourself. As business leaders, it is seldom that we allow ourselves the luxury of being afraid, or worse still, of questioning our abilities. It’s okay to admit that you are scared and it is more than okay to ask for help.

Find someone to talk to who you respect. Ideally, that person should be objective, yet non-judgemental and with a positive, "can-do" mindset.

Don’t feel guilty about asking for help. Being chosen to help another is a privilege. Understand that, to the person offering an outstretched hand to a man dangling off the side of a cliff, the act in itself will not require much effort. On the other hand, the gesture will often make all the difference to the person who hangs in peril.

Assemble a written list of all of your greatest challenges at the present moment in time. Failure to do this will keep the problem within your mind in an endless repetitive loop. By writing down your problems, your outlook towards each problem will often take on a totally different perspective.

Make a list of all of the resources that are available to you and get creative. Ask yourself, "What could we do differently?" Play out different "what if" scenarios on paper or better still, on a large whiteboard. Clarity will follow and solutions will begin to emerge.

If the challenges you are facing concern your business and the directions it is taking, return to your original vision and re-focus. Remind yourself as to what was about that vision that excited you, made you feel alive, and drove you when you first started. Re-visit past successes and achievements. Remember what it was like when you felt totally resourceful. This process will re-energise your spirit and commitment to keep going on.

Compile a list of all of your goals for the next 90 days, 6 months, and year. Break each goal down into small separate parts and schedule actions towards each part’s completion. Look back over your goal list every morning and every night. As you complete each task, your confidence will not only return, but will flourish.

If by now you’ve worked out that it sounds like I’m speaking from experience, give yourself full marks. In the spirit of Shackleton, at some time or other, all of us must face our own Antarctica.

Patrick Lumbroso Is A Management Enterprise Development Specialist And Corporate Presenter. To contact Patrick, send him an e-mail at patrick@thementorprogram.com or visit www.enterprise-mentors.com