Mike Andes records a short, informal video from a trail run reflecting on a common dilemma entrepreneurs face: social expectations to deflect praise to their team when business is doing well, yet to accept blame personally when things go wrong. He explores how this dynamic affects owners differently—those with pride struggle to defer praise, while those with low self-esteem struggle under blame—and urges self-awareness about which cycle will be harder for each person.
Chapters
Hey, everybody. Mike Andes here. I just finished a trail run. This is a place called Point Whitehorn, not far from my house in Birch Bay. Beautiful place to run. It's almost dark. About an hour till darkness. But I was running in. Well, that's my car, by the way. But I was running. And I was thinking about something last night as well as while I was running today, something that I think is something a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with, but it's kind of a reality nonetheless. Like a beautiful pasture back here, whole bunch of fields out next to a refinery, so they can't build out here. But I was thinking about something, and that is as entrepreneurs and business owners, leaders in your business, one of the things that's very hard for a lot of people is when times are, like, really good, when your business is growing, it is societal norms that says we, as a business owner, we should be deflecting the praise and kind of glory to our team. And I believe that. I believe that a great entrepreneur is made by their team, and I believe that there's no one person that can build a great business or successful company. And so the thing is, though, it's expected of us that when times are good and the business is growing and everything is going well, and people maybe say you're doing really well, or they'll congratulate you, sort of the accepted thing to do is to defer that praise and say, well, I have a great team. I have great employees. I've been really fortunate to have all these great people working for me. And that's all good. And I agree with that. The challenging part for a lot of people is when times go bad and when things aren't going well, maybe the economy turns, maybe the businesses having a bad year, maybe you have to do layoffs, maybe you have to go bankrupt personally, you have financial issues, something happens personally and it affects the business, and things start going wrong. The hard part about being a business owner is we're then expected to take the blame and take ownership of our faults and the issues in the business. And so that can cause a really hard thing for a lot of people, because when times are good, we're expected to defer all the goodness, supposed to praise our team. And then when times go bad, everyone's looking at you, even the employees that you were praising maybe a year before, when everything was going good. Now when times go bad, it's your fault. And you're the one as the leader that is expected to take the brunt of the criticism and the blame for things that go wrong. And again, I'm not saying that's a wrong or bad thing with society. I'm just saying that it makes it challenging for a lot of people to, as they run their business to deal with that. And what I find is for someone that has a lot of pride or is just more inclined to have an ego, which is not necessarily a bad thing in business, but for someone that is that way, it can be challenging because when times are really good, they want to take some of the accolades, they want to take some of the praise, they want to take, you know, they want to accept some of the recognition for their hard work and the hours they put in and all the years of, you know, not making money and working all night and working on the weekends. And so it's tough for them just to like defer all of that, you know, accolades and praise and awards and all that during the times when they're good. So those, that people who are, who are proud.
I found people who struggle with self esteem or stroke, like on the opposite and they feel like they're not really worth a whole lot and they're not really deserving of the success that they've achieved. During times when it's really good, they do well because they're great at deferring and oh, I'm not, you know, it's not all, it's not because of me. And they're really good at deferring the praise and the accolades. But what I find their fault is, or where they begin to have problems is when times get bad and everyone is looking at them and is pointing fingers at them and, and blaming them and they're in the hot seat. That can be really, really difficult. And that's when you find people that go into depression or that quit prematurely because of the pressure of the blame of people saying that they did things wrong or that everything's their fault or that the business not doing well is all because of them. And so it's not. Nothing I say just right now is to say that society is wrong in thinking that or that entrepreneurs are wrong to have pride or be unconfident. It's just an observation. I had an observation that I've seen time and time again with different business owners and business owners that talk to me in confidence and say, hey, look, I'm going through this.
Literally, it's crazy. Businesses that are doing fantastic that everyone would say that that business owner is successful and making money and the business is succeeding. Sometimes that's the hardest time for a business owner because like I said they have pride, they want to take ownership of the success of the business and yet it is expected of them to push that off to someone else and deflect those comments of praise.
And so I just think it's really interesting, something I've been thinking about and I think being self aware and knowing.
What type of entrepreneur you are and which of those cycles you're going to have trouble with, whether it be the time when you're doing well and you have to defer those accolades and the praise and the admiration, or are you going to have trouble when times are not doing good and everyone's blaming you and you don't have the confidence to stand up for yourself or to push through or you take things too seriously when things are going bad. So just some observations, maybe comment below what you think about that, if you've seen that in another entrepreneur, fellow business owner, what you kind of thought about that. But some of my musings I've been running hopefully just helped you out a little bit while you're running today or out walking driving the car. But I hope you have a great day. I wish you all the best. Take care.
