Lessons From the Horse

When I first learned about horses, all I knew about them was the flies, the smell, and the sore rear-end after spending time in the saddle. My wife has always been interested in them (as the line in the movie goes, "What's the deal with chicks and horses??") so I thought I'd at least give it a try.

I'm glad I did.

I first got acquainted with them at a ranch not far from our home. On one of my first rides we were with Joyce, the owner of the ranch, and we could hear an off-road motorcycle in the distance. My horse started to get nervous and was prancing around, which made ME pretty nervous because I had no idea what I was doing and the last thing I wanted to do was get off the horse "unintentionally", if you know what I mean.

As the motorcycle got closer and the horse got more nervous, I thought it would be best to turn the horse away from the sound so he wouldn't be frightened when it came into view.

WRONG.

Joyce yelled out, "Turn the horse TOWARD the noise. Face the danger; when he sees what it is he'll be okay." I did, and he was.

"Face the danger." Think about that; there are some words for all of us to live by. When there is something we are afraid of it is critical that we face it head on; trying to ignore it will only make things worse. No matter how frightening it may seem at the time, the more you know about a problem the easier it is to deal with.

Let's say you're worried about your cash flow. (If you're in business for yourself, you probably ARE worried about cash flow!) The more you think about it and all of its ramifications, the scarier it seems. "All of these bills to pay I've got to get these invoices out when will they pay me I have to wait for their checks to clear maybe I can get one of my vendors to give me a little more time " and on, and on.

It's way too easy to say to yourself, "I'll deal with this tomorrow" but then you have a gut-wrenching day worrying about it. Don't do that to yourself.

Face the danger. Make a cash flow spreadsheet.

1. Divide the spreadsheet into two sections; money going out (your bills), and money coming in (your income).

2. Make columns from left to right for each month.

3. List everything you can think of under the appropriate headings and put the dollar amounts in the column(s) for the month(s) in which those dollars will be coming in or going out.

4. Total each section.

5. Subtract the outgoing dollars from the incoming dollars in each column.

BINGO! You now have a cash flow, and you can see which months you will be short, and by how much. It's a funny thing; no matter how bad the news is it isn't as scary when you can look at it in black and white. And, the more detailed you make the cash flow the less scary it gets. You can download a free sample cash flow worksheet (Microsoft Excel format) at

http://www.TheStayAtHomeCEO.com/cashflow.htm )

Face the danger. It works for the horse; it will work for you too.

Regarding those other things: the flies can be controlled, the smell is actually quite pleasant when you begin to enjoy the horses, and the sore rear-end isn't so sore after you've done it a few times. Hmmm... there are a few more lessons right there...