Over the years, I have talked to a number of teachers who were on the cusp of launching their own educational consulting businesses. These newbie consultants are always full of excitement, but also always full of doubt.
Both emotions are understandable.
They’re excited because they’re starting a new adventure, one about which they’ve been dreaming for some time. And they’re full of doubt because they’re starting a new adventure, and they don’t know how things will turn out.
Well, as someone who’s “been there, done that” and seen others through this time of excitement and doubt, I have a few tips to share over the next few blog posts. But, for this post, I’ll let Leo Tolstoy (a much better writer than me) do a good bit of the work.
You see, Tolstoy published a short story/parable called “The Three Questions” in 1885, and in that story, he embedded three questions (and their answers) that I think offer wise advice to new consultants.
Here’s a short version of Tolstoy’s story:
The Three Questions
Once upon a time, a king decided that, if he could just find the answers to three questions, he would never fail in anything. Those three questions were: What is the right time to begin an endeavor? Who are the right people to listen to (and to avoid)? And what is the most important thing to do?
So, he sent out a proclamation that anyone in the kingdom who could give him the answers to these three questions would receive a great reward. All the learned men from the kingdom showed up to give their answers to the king’s three questions, but their answers were all different, and the king was dissatisfied and gave the reward to no one.
Finally, the king decided to visit a hermit who lived in the woods and who was renowned for his wisdom. The king dressed as a commoner so he wouldn’t be recognized, left his bodyguard some distance away, and walked to the hermit’s hut. When he arrived, the king saw the hermit struggling to dig a garden, so the king offered to help.
While digging, the king asked the hermit his three questions, but the hermit didn’t answer. Throughout the afternoon and early evening, the two continued to dig. The king again asked his questions, and the hermit again refused to reply.
Finally, as the sun was going down, a man stumbled out of the woods, bleeding profusely from a wound in his stomach. The king immediately went to help, washing the wound and binding it with his handkerchief. The king brought the man fresh water and then, with the hermit’s help, moved the man into the hut to rest.
The king was so exhausted from digging and from helping the wounded man that he fell asleep on the floor by the bed. In the morning, when the king awoke, he saw the wounded man looking at him. The man then confessed that he was a proclaimed enemy of the king’s, and that, hearing that the king would be traveling to visit the hermit, he planned to ambush the king as he traveled back to the castle and kill him. However, he chanced upon the king’s bodyguard in the woods, and they wounded him before he could escape.
The man told the king that, since he had saved his life, he would pledge his life to the king and serve him as his most faithful servant. The king was happy to have turned an enemy into a friend and said he would send his own servants and physician to tend to him until he was well.
As the king prepared to return home, he found the hermit outside, planting seeds in the garden they had dug the previous day, and he decided to try once more to get the hermit to answer his questions. But when he asked again, the hermit said, “But your questions have already been answered.”
“How answered? What do you mean?” asked the king.
The hermit replied, “If you had not pitied my weakness yesterday and had not dug these beds for me, that man would have attacked you, and you would have repented of not having stayed with me. So, the important time was when you were digging the beds; and I was the most important man; and to do me good was your most important business.
“Afterwards, when that man ran to us, the most important time was when you were attending to him, for if you had not bound up his wounds, he would have died without having made peace with you. So, he was the most important man, and what you did for him was your most important business.
“Remember then: there is only one time that is important—now! It is the most important time because it is the only time when we have any power. The most necessary person is the one with whom you are, for no man knows whether he will ever have dealings with anyone else. And the most important affair is to do that person good, because for that purpose alone was man sent into this life.”
Applying the Three Answers to Your Consulting Business
Tolstoy’s hermit offers sage advice to fledgling educational consultants.
For one thing, new consultants can find themselves worrying over hundreds of big and small decisions. How much money should I spend on office equipment? Do I need to put up a website before I start looking for speaking gigs? Or do I start networking and prospecting right away? Do I start writing a book so I can get wider recognition? Do I spend time contacting conference coordinators to try to get in the speaking line-up?
It’s important to map out a big-picture strategy for building your business, but it’s easy to get so wrapped up in planning ahead that you forget the most important thing: be doing something now, today, every day, that actually moves your business one step forward.
Don’t spend too much time mapping out the long-term strategy. As soon as you have a very basic plan outlined, put it aside to look over every once in a while (and tweak, because that long-term plan will undoubtedly change) and ask yourself, “What can I do today to move my business one step closer to my vision for it?” And then tomorrow, ask yourself the same question. And the day after that. Focus on now.
Second, as soon as you start working with new clients, make sure that you give them your full attention and full effort. Remember, Tolstoy’s king learns that the most important person is the one you’re with now—the client you’re working with today. If you’re always thinking about other possible clients while you’re working with today’s client, that client will sense that you aren’t giving him your undivided attention and full energy, and you’ll soon lose him.
Every client you work with, strive to always be present and give them your best.
Finally, Tolstoy’s hermit advises the king that the most important thing you can be doing is to try to do good for that person you’re with. An educational consulting business is a service business. Sure, you have to find a way to make money so you can live, but if you focus too much on the money, you’ll lose the client-centered focus you have to have to succeed.
So, there you are—some timeless wisdom from Tolstoy that you can apply as you get your business up and running:
- Focus on what you can do today to take your business one step closer to your vision;
- Remember that the most important person for your business is the client you’re with today; and
- Put all your energy into doing a great job for that client.
There’s a lot more to running a consulting business than this, but consistently applying those three lessons will take you far.
