An Introduction to Shiny Object Syndrome

We will keep this post short. That is for two reasons.

We respect yout time, and we know how valuable that time is to your business.
If you are like most business owners, it might be easy to distract you fro—
Ooh, what’s over there?!

We cannot speak to the legitimate diagnosis of ADHD in business owners, but we can
say that in our observations we have seen case after case of something remarkably
similar that we refer to as Shiny Object Syndrome.

An example: A business owner who is knee deep into a significant project, such as
opening a new store, reads an article about the benefits of implementing handheld
barcode scanners (bright, shiny object) to track stock and thinks, “Now wouldn’t that be
interesting.”

Suddenly the owner is devoting countless hours to researching vendors for the new
technology, preparing cost-benefits and redesigning product packaging. The owner’s
energy is split between the two major undertakings, in the best-case scenario, or it is
completely diverted from the original project to the newer, sexier project…until
something even better comes along.

On the bright side, it is exactly this tendency toward distraction that makes so many
entrepreneurs good at what they do. Viewed from a more positive angle, this trait is
telltale of great curiosity, of a mind that searches relentlessly for new alternatives, and
of a flexible nature that can change direction on a dime when necessary. (Think Ben
Franklin, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford.)

On the dark side, losing focus on the most important things can lead to missed
deadlines, neglected customers, lost profits and unproductive employees.

We know you need to get back to work; in the next posts we will talk more about
identifying and wrangling Shiny Object Syndrome.

Can’t wait that long? Give us a call today to talk through it!