Page 17 - Benjamin Franklin\'s The Way to Wealth: A 52 brilliant ideas interpretation - PDFDrive.com

4 NO PAIN, NO GAIN

And you thought that saying was invented in the age of lycra, right? As
it happens Benjamin Franklin beat Jane Fonda to it by a couple of
hundred years when he pointed out that ‘there are no gains, without
pains’.

DEFINING IDEA…
Don’t fear change, embrace it.
~ANTHONY J. D’NGELO, EDUCATED WRITER

While Franklin’s reaction to spandex-sheathed aerobicisers can only be
imagined, the association of ‘no pain, no gain’ with exercise has at least
helped clarify his point for a modern audience. You might personally jeer at
joggers but you’re almost certainly the idea that out of suffering comes a
better body, increased familiar with the idea that out of suffering comes a
better body, increased fitness and decreased blubber.

What you may not be doing, however, is applying that same understanding
to business. The fitness freak knows that it’s not going to be easy and so
accepts, even welcomes, the discomfort and short-term agony of working for
the burn. In business, however, we’re often so focused on breathless
expansion that we fail to prepare for the pain that will inevitably come as
part of the package.

When planning on expansion or change, businesspeople often focus solely
on more obvious pains such as increased outgoings and management
overheads. More easily overlooked are the personal and cultural pains that
accompany almost every business gain, which is where our gym bunnies are
so helpful. They focus on the gain and accept the pain as the only means
of getting there. Business, on the other hand, often forgets to do so. Here’s
an example of what I mean. I can remember when computers made their
appearance in business and, as a journalist, I was one of many encouraged
to switch over to them. The journalists’ union was up in arms, proposing
extra payment for being forced to use this new and daunting technology and