Over the past month, I have been having conversations with a business owner about whether he should buy-out his business partners.   Whilst the buy-out makes financial & commercial sense, the business owner is highly stressed about the consequences arising from that buy-out going forward.

My response is to remind the business owner of the brutal truth that, as it stands today, he has no control of what will happen in the business and his life once the buy-out is completed.

The business owner is creating a movie in his head about the catastrophic outcomes that may arise from the buy-out and dwelling on those outcomes.  His thinking about the buy-out is being driven by the FEAR of what might happen.

Our conversations have been about:

• Acknowledging what would happen in the worst-case scenario and look at what he would do if that came to fruition; and
• Accepting there are many things in life he has zero control over.   The only thing the business owner can control is the effort and attitude he brings to any situation.

I am encouraging the business owner to follow the advice in the following Buddhist proverb:

“If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking”