Are you in the self-storage business? Are you getting in the self-storage business?
For a long time, I related to myself as someone in the self-storage business. For a couple of years in the 1990’s I was someone getting in the self-storage business.
But really? Am I really in the self-storage business?
On one level, well… yes. I happen to be an owner in self-storage.
But I really invite you to stop and ask yourself some questions.
Tony Robbins has engrained in me and anyone who has ever attended any of his events, that the quality of your life is a function of the quality of the questions you ask yourself.
My experience is most of us ask week questions of ourselves.
If you want to change the direction and quality of your life, start asking different questions.
If you want to change the direction and quality of your business, start asking different questions.
Or at least deeper questions.
What Business re you REALLY in?
So if I were to ask you, “What business are you in?” …most of you would sat something like, the self-storage business. Or perhaps you would say, “I’m getting in the self-storage business.”
Valid.
But not very helpful.
Now ask yourself, “What business am I really in?”
By starting to go a level deeper (don’t worry, before this is over, we’ll go much deeper than this), you can begin to see that you can actually create the core benefit you want to be known for, or are currently delivering.
The more you begin to relate to what you are really up to, the more you inspire yourself and others.
I realized that I was not in the self storage business, but what I did day to day was help deliver above-average returns to investors who saw the vision of what our self storage company could become.
I have partners who are actually in the self storage business and run it. For us, self-storage was just the vehicle for the delivery of our core benefit.
My partners and team members are delivering above average customer service and turning self-storage from a perceived commodity into a recognizable and distinct customer experience, where our customers use our brand of self storage to create more space for a better life.
For us, this is a vision we can enroll our employees, investors, and customers in. It guides our decision making, who works with us, who stays working with us and on and on. Every decision.
But don’t stop there.
More and Better Questions
Questions like the above helps us know where we are now, or where we are going in the immediate future.
Go one more step and ask something like “What business SHOULD I be in?”
This is a critical question I am beginning to realize few people ask.
Think of the many companies you are aware of that apparently never asked this question, or asked it too late. Here are a few I can think of:
Blockbuster
Kodak
Circuit City
I am sure you have a few companies you can name.
The point here is that you are where you are now, but given the pace of change in the business landscape, if you are not evolving, you are irrelevant, or soon to be irrelevant.
I realized that for our company’s evolution, if I am in the business of delivering above average returns to investors, how we have been doing it over the past decade is becoming very slow and cumbersome.
Because self storage is such a great vehicle for delivering these above average returns, it is my job, no my duty, to create the best type of company for this delivery. Doing one off or two to three off transactions is not very efficient. It is the slow road to the fulfillment of the vision we have created.
So we are re-organizing our current company in such a way as to get into deliver to more investors above average returns faster and be able to put more product into service faster.
After we do this transformation, I will share the experience and how we did it.
But this is just where we are now. Where are you?
The point here is to start asking different questions.
If you want a different life, if you want a different business, ask different questions.
The next time someone asks you what business you are in, see if you will have a compelling answer that inspires you and perhaps them as well.
