A few weeks ago, we spent the day at the beach. Hubby and I both need vitamin sea to nourish our souls regularly, so we make sure to go a handful of times a year, whatever the weather. That day was a hot one; perfect beach weather. While we were lounging at the water’s edge, a young man approached. He dipped his hand in the water, then came back and asked if we could watch his beer and his phone while he went into the water – explaining that he’d told himself he wouldn’t do this, but that the water was warm, so he felt compelled. He told us he was here on tour with his band from South America. We warned him it was a bit chilly a little farther out, but he shrugged that off and went in. When he got about knee-high, he said, “Oh! I see what you mean!” When he emerged, it was time to decamp a little ways back, with the tide coming in. This spurred a conversation about tides – he explained that when he lived in the Caribbean, there was no tide, but when he moved to South America, suddenly there was tide, and he didn’t know what to make of it. Well, you wouldn’t! That made me curious, so I came home and read up on the tide. Tides are not just caused by the moon and the sun, but also by the complexity of the coastline, the topography (shape of the land) under the sea, wind, atmospheric pressure, and more. Since we have an especially complex coastline in the UK, we have some of the highest high tides and the lowest low tides in the world. R. Ray at NASA made this nifty map – deep red shows places with the highest highs and the lowest lows; dark blue shows places with very little tide change.

And yep, the Caribbean is dark blue – as is the Mediterranean, if you’ve ever been there. It’s so natural to assume that what you experience is the same everywhere. But it can have dire consequences to do so. Separately, I learned recently from Our World In Data (fab website, highly recommended), that Nepal has made great strides in reducing childhood mortality from pneumonia. In 1980, it was the leading cause of death by far.

This chart is difficult to match the lines to the causes of death in 1980, because they’re in order of most prevalent in 2021. In 1980, the top one was pneumonia, with 39,165 deaths per year. Next was diarrheal diseases with 17,469, less than half as many. Through a whole host of interventions, Nepal has massively reduced those deaths. Hooray! But what if Nepal didn’t know in 1980 that pneumonia was the number one thing to tackle? What if they decided to look at the data available from other countries, and tackle those problems, as an approximation? For argument’s sake, what if Nepal used data from the UK?

In 1980, the top causes of child mortality in the UK were congenital birth defects and neonatal preterm birth, nearly tied, with 2,837 and 2,834 respectively. Pneumonia came in 4^th place, with just 746 deaths, about one-fourth the top two. I’m not a public health expert, but I’m gonna guess that tackling birth defects and preterm births require entirely different interventions than tackling pneumonia. I also suspect that you won’t reduce pneumonia-caused deaths very much from those interventions aimed at birth defects and preterm births. So clearly, you’d never do that, right?

And yet, this is what I see happening all the time in business. So often, small business owners read or hear an inspirational entrepreneur sharing their story, and they begin implementing exactly the same steps in their own business. Because, of course, it’s natural to assume that what you experience is the same everywhere. But they don’t check their own data and realise that what ails their business is completely different from what ailed that inspiring speaker’s business. They implement the solution for the wrong problem – a solution that doesn’t help their actual problem. I love an inspirational story as much as the next person. Do keep reading and hearing them. They spark ideas and new ways of thinking that you’ll never get by staying in your own echo chamber. When you turn back to your business, don’t assume you can apply their story like a blueprint. Instead, check your own data. Be inspired to jump your own hurdles – but use your own data to identify where those are. Don’t be intimidated at the idea of using your own data – it’s really not cumbersome. You can get some big wins with some simple interventions. Using your own data can mean the difference between your business thriving or dying. When you’re ready to dive into your business’ data, I’m here to help.   Empower yourself!

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