Use More Alert When Things Are Going Well

Japanese swordsmanship is called "Kendo". Among the principles and techniques in this martial art, there is thing which a beginner must learn. It is "zan-shin" in Japanese. The literal translation of the words is "Leave Heart". It means, "Continue to be alert until you are 100% positive you completed your enemy." In case you have watched any match of a martial art, you must have seen that a winner would not release his guard until they found his enemy admittedly lost, or the judge declared his victory. They is using "zan-shin". Lots of fighting ideas from martial arts are useful for life or business. I found this idea of alertness useful for business in general.

Koji was an owner of a application business. They needed to go through all the hardships and issues because they started his business in recession time. They called all the banks, investors, and the financial institutions. They could not find somebody who could provide him the capital they needed to start his business. They could manage to start his business collecting small amounts of money from his relatives and friends. They could not hire any application engineer. They designed the application all by himself. They had excellent clients' contacts when they left his former employer, but they did not deal with the new and start-up company due to recession.

Koji was relaxed now. They began to leave the application development method to his engineers, and his company began to receive orders from major companies.

 day, when they was looking for a chance to expand his company, his phone rang. It was the vice president of general affairs, calling to tell him that their key engineer had left the company, taking with him all of his intellectual property. The engineer had started his own business, competing against Koji's company. Koji regretted that they had not paid closer attention to the behavior of his worker, but it was late. The destroy had been done. Koji tried to sue the engineer, but they did not have money to pursue a lawsuit. The engineer deprived Koji's company of over half its customers and revenue.

They had worked like crazy. The economy began to pick up, and his projects gradually brought money to his company. They hired engineers first. They could recruit more engineers later that year. They could finally have a breathing space. His company's financials were getting better.

Koji could have used the idea of "zan-shin" in order to feel more relaxed. They might have been more aware of the outside and internal affairs occurring in his company. Koji could have saved a quantity of his excess revenue for times such as this. They could have pursued the lawsuit against the engineer. The lesson they can learn from Koji is that an entrepreneur ought to seldom be relaxed, even in nice times. They ought to be aware of what is going on, even when everything appears to go well. Being an entrepreneur is not simple.