Informed Pessimism is the point in your business that follows Uninformed Optimism. This is when you’re not as excited as you once were. Coffee is helpful to get you started on your day. You are worrying at times. You aren’t depressed or really scared – but you’re somewhere in between scared and excited. You’re just a little bit pessimistic now.
The great thing with this stage is that it prevents you from making careless mistakes from overly optimistic thinking. You’ve rounded the corner and have uttered the words, “Oh shit!” And unlike the first stage of Uniformed Optimism, you don’t want to be talking to the media.
When you’re at this stage and nervousness sets in, you want to start doing some planning! Some budgeting, too. When you’re nervous, you’ll make better and tougher hiring decisions. You’re going to be a lot more critical and discerning when you’re interviewing an employee and making sure that these people have really done what they say they’re doing and not just learned it in a textbook.
When you’re at Informed Pessimism you should be doing things like:
- Planning the next phase of your growth
- Strategic planning on how to make your future unroll
- Budgeting
- Hiring – you’ll be more cautious and interview better
- Purchasing things like advertising – you’ll be careful with where you spend your money and how much you spend and you won’t over–buy advertising based on potentially exuberant sales forecasts.
When you’re at Informed Pessimism, there are also some things you should avoid doing:
- Don’t talk to the media or do speaking events.
- Don’t work in roles where being excited would help you get a better result – wait until things turn around emotionally for you.
- Remember these stages are cyclical, and soon you’ll be on to yet another stage.
For more information on this topic, check out: The Emotional Roller Coaster of Entrepreneurs.
