New Business Owners: Treat Business Advice like “Bat Piss”

One of the best business lessons I ever learned came from a vat of Bat Piss.
 
Yes, I said Bat Piss.
 
You see, for a few years I used to work at a large Renaissance Faire in Southern California.  Each summer, we dressed up in heavy costumes and spent the entire weekend in-character, working long hours, and baking under the summer sun.  Needless to say, dehydration was a concern.  And before the end of my first weekend working the Faire, I had been led to the giant vat of day-glow yellow “Bat Piss” at the first aid station.
 
Bat Piss was the Faire’s secret-recipe rehydration drink.  Here’s how it worked: if you drank a cup of Bat Piss and it tasted really good to you… then you were dehydrated and needed to keep drinking the stuff.  Once that beverage started tasting, well… like bat piss, then your body had gotten all the salts, electrolytes, and other things it needed… so it was time to stop drinking and move on.
 
When it tasted good, it was because your body needed it.  And when it stopped tasting good, that was your body signaling that it no longer needed those elements.
 
I find this a particularly powerful lesson to apply as a new business owner.  Let me explain.
 
When I first started my business, I went to lots of networking events.  Mainly, I went because that’s what I thought I was supposed to do:  You start a new business?  You network!  And the networking groups were fun, and fine, and helpful.  For a while.
 
And then I realized that I didn’t really get much out of quite a few of them.  But I was supposed to go to these things, right?  I was supposed to hold memberships with these groups, wasn’t I?  Wrong.  These groups were my Bat Piss, and when they started to taste funny… or downright bad… I could take it as a sign that I’ve given and received all I was meant to with the group, and it was time to move on.
 
I now apply this idea to my business… particularly when presented with business advice or networking groups.
 
When the advice – or the group – feels good to you, it’s probably because your business needs what that advice or group is offering.  When that’s the case, feel free to drink it in.  And when you find yourself not really gravitating to the advice-givers any more, or when you don’t particularly feel called to go to the networking group meetings the way you once did, take that as your signal that your business body has gotten what it needs from those sources… and stop drinking.

I cannot wait to see what you draw forth,