Stress comes in many forms. It’s sometimes caused by problems or challenges we face and the way we react to them. One of the challenges that digital entrepreneurs or in fact anyone who routinely relies on technology faces is the unavoidable truth that technical stuff breaks. This is definitely a stressful situation so how should you go about dealing with stress caused by machines?
Fortunately technical problems can usually be fixed. Machines are made of replaceable parts or if all else fails, can be replaced completely. Granted not always in the time frame we would prefer but if we can take emotion out of the situation in the way we react to broken machines, we can remove the stress from the situation to a large extent.
When I attended the SFM momentum day earlier this year I was pretty excited at the prospect of meeting Jay Kubassek. When the door to the event opened, there he was: Standing on a chair fiddling with the projector on the ceiling. “Just a few technical problems guys” he said “but hey – I’m an entrepreneur so I’m fixing it – that’s what we do – we solve problems right?”
An Exercise In Managing Stress If Ever There Was One
This reminded me of a situation I was in some years ago. I was an audio-visual technician working on sound for a high profile event in Edinburgh where the special guest was Prince Andrew. Just before final rehearsals and some 2 hours before the event was due to kick off, all the equipment, ALL of it – broke down. Now that’s an exercise in managing stress if ever there was one!
It turned out that someone backstage had stood on a mains distribution socket causing everything to short out or go into standby. Except for the show projectors, which were actually smoking. What did we do? Well, we fixed it. By not panicking the senior techs identified the problem, fixed it and sourced 2 replacement projectors, which, were delivered and installed, and the show went ahead as scheduled.
It was a skin of the teeth situation and it left me and everyone else pretty rattled. The rehearsal was more of a quick stumble through but it all went OK. No one died. The big lesson was that in these sorts of situations it’s important not to buy into anyone else’s reaction. Organisers and non-technical people have a tendency to panic when machines break down and if you’re not careful this can be contagious. It can spread like wildfire leading to a headless chicken type of scenario that just gets worse and worse.
How to Deal With Stress
Bear this in mind if you are having a technical problem or in fact any kind of problem that has the potential to be stressful. The scenario above is just another day in the AV industry and at a level you are not likely to experience in an online home business but its worth remembering in terms of how to deal with stress. If it’s technical you can get it fixed. Do something else meantime. Do not panic.
Dealing with stress like so many things in life is a choice. We might not think so because it’s all too easy to get caught up in the heard mentality when dealing with stressful situations but can actually step aside from that and work through it when all around us are losing their heads.
Although digital marketing might not seem like an industry where you’d often wonder how to deal with stress, it can happen and it can make you do some strange things. That’s why it’s good to be involved with people like Jay Kubassek and to benefit from his experience on dealing with stress amongst many other things. Check him out on video below.
Jay Kubassek (centre) at SFM momentum day 2014
