Business owner/CEOs can get so wrapped up in our own plans and worldviews that we miss our full potential -- or worse, we can be heading for a ditch without realizing it! Physicists call it a closed feedback loop. In lay terms, if we only talk to ourselves, we will only hear our own voices.

One of the essential roles of a board of directors or board of advisors is to challenge and vet the ideas and plans proposed by management. The end result should be that good plans are strengthened and poor plans are discarded or significantly re-worked.

My best investor relations meetings were the ones with the toughest analysts who asked the most difficult questions. They were experts at ferreting out the weak spots in our story, in effect telling us the areas we needed to work on going forward.

Customers and clients are often the best sources of real world feedback. Don’t fight them; embrace them. Your future may depend on it.


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