On Yom Kippur, Jews pray their way through several different catalogs of sins, asking for forgiveness for long lists of human failings. The mistakes I’m talking about here don’t necessarily have any spiritual significance, they simply have the capacity to stall or even shut down a business. The following are ones I have personally seen in action; perhaps knowing about them can help you avoid their calamitous consequences.
1. Going after the trappings rather than the essence of business. In my one very mistaken attempt at a business partnership, a big source of friction was my partner’s delight in meetings that, to me, accomplished little or nothing. She equally couldn’t understand why I took no pleasure in sitting around a conference table going down an agenda of to-do’s that we’d already discussed. “Haven’t you always wanted to have a business?” she retorted once when I objected.
We spent too much time on unproductive tasks. I’ve seen others devote so much fuss to their logo, office decor, computer setup or long-range strategy that they don’t have energy left over to deal with finding and keeping...