Irrespective of how careful a man plans, external factors can still pose serious threat to the success of a venture. At such time, feelings of frustration and anger can make an optimistic entrepreneur want to throw in the towel. If care is not taken, it may even cause the premature death of a lofty dream. I just had an experience that shows that such situations are common in life but how an entrepreneur handles it is what matters.
For some days now, I have been having serious technical challenges with my website. Some of you (my loyal readers) may have suffered as a result. I lost some posts and comments that you made on my blog (I apologize if I lost your comment). The fault was not due to carelessness or bad planning on my part, I did my very best to keep the website running as per plan, however, the servers at my hosting company decided they needed a break. So, they hijacked the websites and converted them for placards. Visitors were greeted with differ kinds of gibberish error messages (it was not a funny situation).
It was a terrible time for the hosting company employees. While the technical staff were working round the clock to troubleshoot the problems with the servers, their colleagues at customer service had to cope with angry customers who were complaining and threatening to withdraw their subscriptions. They received S.O.S calls, emails and IMs from customers. Hey did I join the bandwagon of the complaining customers? Yes, I did, I was quite upset and I sent all manner of messages and even woke a staff up with phone (I got the guy’s number and out of frustration called him while he was yet sleeping, afterall the customer is king). The hosting company employees must have had a terrible time while the crisis lasted. I won’t like to be in their shoes.
Well, at the end of the day, the issue were resolved one after the other. Everyone is happy and all the threats are gone. However, this incident set me thinking. If I were to be the one in such crisis, what will I do? After a little brainstorming session, I came up with the following:
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A quick reflection – I will reassure myself that problems are necessary part of life, so there is no need wasting energy complaining or throwing blames.
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I will examine what has happened and describe it on paper as much as I can – I enjoy writing things down. It helps my mind to work better. That may not be the case with some people, but it works for me.
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I will tell everyone affected the whole truth (even though some will prefer a lie) – I was upset and quite angry when I did not understand the reason why my website was down. But after being told the truth in lay-mans language, I was able to see reason with the hosting company that they were doing their very best and there was no need to threaten them (why add heartache to the headache the servers already gave them).
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I will outline the steps necessary to resolve the crisis – No matter how complex a bad situation looks, outlining what needs to be done makes the task ahead less intimidating.
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I will start working at the solution and call for help where needed – I tried my best to back-up my files and download them. Unfortunately, I was unable to download some, due to poor internet connectivity, so I lost them during the crisis. Those I downloaded were quite useful in restoring a substantial percentage of my data. So the loss was not as terrible as it seems at first.
This approach may not work for everyone, but that was exactly what I did when my website was down. I told myself that there was nothing I could have done as a human being to prevent it, so why worry myself sick. Instead of getting myself depressed, I settled down to learn how to cope better with such occurrence. If you enjoy this post, subscribe to my feeds. How do you cope with crisis? Your comment will be appreciated. Cheers.
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[…] When Things Go Wrong, What Do You Do? For some days now, I have been having serious technical challenges with … outlining what needs to be done makes the task ahead less intimidating. […]
will just analyze and solve!
@narendra
That is about the shortest comment I have ever received. It is interesting to note that even though it is short, it convenes your message without ambiguity. Thanks for visiting.
As usual, I find your post very interesting. Crisis management experts say that there are four main types of crises: sudden crises, such as the web server experience (I was hit by the same problem) are more difficult to deal with. On a personal level, I find that once I am able to keep calm for five minutes after something bad happens, my mind allows me to handle the crisis rather effectively. In crisis, DON’T PANIC! you usually find a way, even if it kills you!
Thanks for your comment on my blog, by the way.
David Agogos last blog post..Challenges : Built for Bodies
I work in crises in the same way as you do, Nija, I write it down – and in each time I writing already can see the opportunity to solve the problem. That’s, what narenda wrote: analysing (writing) – and solving.
Thank you for your blog.
WOW!
Well, for me when things go wrong I often loose control and think nothing other than the problem!
Thank god I am not the type that easily giveup! – Always work towards finding solution no matter how complex it might seem.
Another thing is that if I dont find solutions instantly, I take a brake and give it another try after. Thats how I treat my problems.
Nice post, it made me think!
Ahmad Mukoshys last blog post..How to Maximize your Potentiality and Attain Success in No Time