In business, chewing on one bone at a time will break your heart. What I am talking about is in business, when you get momentum, you cannot afford to just focus on one project. You must have several projects going at the same time to balance out your expectations.

I learned this the hard way in 1996. We were selling a 17-hotel portfolio and while I knew better, I let myself get focused on that one deal and didn’t go out and get new business. Long story short, that deal didn’t close, and it just about broke my heart. See, I let myself imagine, expect and envision that one deal closing. When it didn’t, it was a heartbreaker.

I call this the Dog Bone Theory. A dog will get one bone and go off and chew that one bone until he is finished. I know some hotel brokers in our line of work that think like that. The point is that when something good is happening and the momentum is shifting your way, you need to go get as many deals as you can so if you should lose one or two, you still have the others to look forward to. It is a mind game, and you almost have to force yourself to ramp up your efforts when things are good because human nature says to lay back and coast. I am not a very smart guy, but I do know that the only way you can coast is downhill.

Working on more than one client, deal, or project is like insulation for your heart, and it will actually allow you to be smarter and sharper on all projects. When you have only one thing and one project to work on, you pour yourself into it and can’t understand why everyone else isn’t as focused as you. When you do this, you actually hurt your chances of that deal closing, getting that project completed, or landing that job. It is like you need to fool your own mind so that one deal doesn’t become all-encompassing in your life.

So, when you feel the momentum is shifting in your work or your business, it could very well be God talking to you and telling you to get busy, get focused and use that new-found momentum to go get more business.

So in summary, the theory is to get a stack of bones you can chew on and not just one. That way if you lose one or two bones it doesn’t hurt as much. KT