Assumptions

Are you making assumptions? Photo by AlphaTangoBravo / Adam Baker

Are you doing stuff today based on assumptions?

We make many decisions based on our own assumptions. If your like most people your daily actions are driven by these assumptions.

Now more than ever it is important to continually question what you assume.

“We simply assume that the way we see things is the way they really are or the way they should be. And our attitudes and behaviors grow out of these assumptions.” – Stephen Covey

Are You Testing Yourself?

Assumptions are not bad but they do need to be kept in check. Many of the breakthroughs in science and business came from testing what everybody assumed.

It was assumed that there were only 109 Elements in the Period Table… since 1994, six new elements have been discovered.

Here is a list of some business assumptions that you should check often:

Everyone will love my product/service as much as I do.
A good product/service will sell itself. …or… If I build it, they will come and buy it.
In this business, I must purchase (build, own, have rent, show, etc.) _______________.
My competitors have ______________; therefore I must also.
My customers expect me to have ___________________.

Operating daily on false realities without the benefit of reality testing is a recipe for failure.

Social Media Assumptions

You can’t go anywhere online without seeing someone mention that you should be engaging social media. I’ve noticed something though. It seems for every glowing success story in social media I can point to 7 or 8 examples what I would consider failures.

Everybody is assuming that social media will make a difference in their business. They are assuming that if they get in twitter, facebook, and youtube that this will drive sales. Is this really true?

That is one of the problems with social media. People and companies dive in assuming that their prospects or customers want to connect with them in social space. Many times they find that’s not what people want.

How to Test Assumptions

Look to see what has worked. Do a thought exercise and take what you are doing to the conclusion. Do you have numbers or proof that these assumptions are true?

Here is an example. Everyday you get up and you login to Facebook and Twitter. You check your messages and you maybe send a few messages back to some people. Now you assume this is great time spent but if I asked you right now how many leads or prospects you received from these efforts could you tell me? Many people could not. I’m not talking about a guess, I would want an exact number.

The key assumption here is that if you continue down some path you are expecting some result. Although right now you probably have enough data and experience to make an assessment. Often times people wait too long to make an assessment on thier assumptions.

Assumptions cloud our judgment and allow us to stay in that comfortable spot. It’s time you start to challenge these daily. Tear them apart and take what you are doing today to the conclusion. Did it end how you assumed?

Bonus Assumption…

It’s important that I not make mistakes.

Wrong! It’s important that you not continue to make the same mistakes — that you identify your mistakes early and “correct” them (i.e., try a different approach) before they become costly mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes. In fact, you want to make mistakes. You learn more from your mistakes — than from your successes. By not making mistakes, you’re have no way to gain “opportunity loss” — which can be just as detrimental to your business as any cash flow or core financial problem.