Course Corrections - Chapter Two - Checklist of Delusion
- John Ekman
- Jul 14
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 19
When business gets offtrack, a small shift can change everything. Course Corrections delivers sharp insights, strategic advice, and real-world stories from the frontlines of business — helping owners navigate with clarity, confidence, and control.
Chapter Two
The Checklist of Delusion: When Business Owners Believe Their Own Bullshit
Busy doesn’t mean successful — and silence isn’t a sign everything’s fine.
This is your call to stop believing the lies you tell yourself about your business.+
Busyness Is Not a Strategy |
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Let me start with a warning: this one might sting.
This is a conversation I’ve had more times than I can count — sometimes with clients, sometimes with colleagues, and occasionally, with myself.
It always starts innocently enough:
“Yeah, things are pretty good. Busy. You know how it is.”
There’s usually a laugh after that. Nervous. Dismissive.
A sound that says please don’t look too closely.
Then comes the second beat:
“We’re making it work. She’ll be right. We know what we’re doing — more or less.”
And look — sometimes, they do.
But just as often, they don’t.
And worse — they can’t see that they don’t.
Or won’t.
And that’s when it shows up.
Not in the numbers — not yet.
It shows up in the attitude.
This is where toxic positivity and toxic negativity creep into the mindset of business owners like a slow leak under the floorboards.
Toxic positivity is the blind optimism that insists everything will sort itself out — eventually. It's the "she’ll be right" even when the books are bleeding red, the staff are exhausted, and the future plan is no more than tomorrow’s to-do list. It’s the smile through clenched teeth that says, “We’re fine,” when everything's screaming otherwise.
Toxic negativity, on the other hand, sounds like defeat disguised as wisdom and realism and accepts the status quo without question. “This is just how it is in our industry.” “Nah, that doesn't apply to us.” “We’ve tried before — it didn’t work.” It’s the folded arms and shrugged shoulders that say: hope is too expensive to risk again suggesting the emotional cost of optimism is too high, leading to cynicism and despair.
Both are rooted in the same thing: denial.
Both are incredibly destructive.
And both lead to business owners accepting chaos as a fact of life — rather than a symptom that something’s fundamentally broken.
I call it a self-licking ice cream:
Dysfunction feeds denial. Denial feeds dysfunction. Ad infinitum,
Before long, the abnormal becomes the new normal.
And by the time the alarm bells start ringing —
the business is already on fire and no one pays it any attention anyway!
The False Comfort of Activity |
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This is where the delusion really kicks in.
Business owners start building narratives around misleading evidence — and it becomes a dangerous echo chamber of their own justifications.
They say things like:
“We’re flat out — so we must be doing well.”
“The team hasn’t complained — so they must be happy.”
“The ATO hasn’t said anything — so we must be compliant.”
But busyness doesn’t equal profitability.
Silence doesn’t mean satisfaction.
And compliance isn’t something you assume — it’s something you check.
What’s worse, the language used to describe the business becomes a mask:
“It’s just a rough patch.”
“It’s always been like this.”
“That’s just the nature of the industry.”
Translation?
“I know something’s wrong. I just don’t have the time, or the headspace, to deal with it.”
If the words you're using to describe your business aren’t the ones you want to be true — then that’s your signal.
That’s the flare in the night sky
- the call for help -
the locating beacon pointing straight to your problems.
The Real Cost of Pretending |
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Let’s cut to the chase.
Telling yourself things are “fine” (Feeling Irrational, Neurotic, and Emotional) when you’re drowning in dysfunction isn’t resilience — it’s denial.
And that denial has a cost -
It’s expensive.
It costs time.
It costs opportunity.
It steals time from your family.
From your health.
From the version of the business you actually wanted to build.
And ultimately — it can cost you the business altogether.
I’ve seen it. First-hand.
And truthfully — so have you.
You’ve read the headlines.
Businesses collapsing, going to the wall, owing a fortune to staff, investors, and the tax office. The issue is that the writing was on the wall for a good while, but the owners weren't paying attention or refusing to pay attention!
Talented, brilliant business owners with incredible products or services … running their business into the ground because they refused help, ignored the signs, and stubbornly clung to control — even as the whole thing flushed itself down the gurgler, picking up speed the whole way.
Sometimes it’s pride.
Sometimes it’s fear.
Sometimes it’s shame.
Sometimes it’s simply never having had a model for what a well-run business actually looks like.
Honesty Is the Pivot Point |
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This is where Lost Digits steps in.
We’re not just here to clean up your books or straighten out your payroll.
We’re here to hold up a mirror and say:
“Here’s what’s actually going on. Now let’s deal with it.”
That might mean:
Building your first budget.
Redesigning your systems to stop the bleed.
Setting clear leadership and accountability in your team.
But above all — it means restoring honesty.
Because if you can’t be honest about where you are, you’ll never get to where you want to go.
So here’s a challenge:
Describe your business out loud.
To someone you trust.
Then ask:
“Are these the words I want to be true?”
“Do they reflect the kind of business I’m proud to own and run?”
“If someone else described my business this way — would I be impressed or concerned?”
If not — that’s your moment. That’s the course correction.
But what matters most - is that you take action.
Because you can talk till the cows comes home - it means nothing if you don't take action!
Burn the checklist and build something real! |
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How long is your checklist anyway?
If you’re clinging to a mental checklist of reasons why everything’s “okay”… but ...
Your cash flow’s a disaster,
You’re exhausted,
You don't know your costs,
Your logistics are a mess,
Your governance is non existent, and
You couldn’t sell your business tomorrow if you had to.
Then that checklist is broken.
It’s not a measure of success.
It’s a checklist of delusion.
And it’s time to burn it. With fire! Lots and lots of fire!!!
That’s where our Business Health Check (BHC) comes in.
Our BHC is a diagnostic built on tailored, industry - and region - specific questions designed to uncover the real state of your business.
We guide the conversation — you share your story.
We listen closely,
then we analyse what’s working,
what’s not,
what needs to happen next
and how it might happen.
You didn’t build your business to feel trapped in it.
Let’s get you running it — properly, confidently, and with clarity.
👉 Ready to take that step? Book your Business Health Check now at lostdigits.com.au.
Not quite ready for the full dive?
No worries - start with a free 20-minute consult - get the ball rolling - see how we can help.
📞 0417 448 998
And if you’re still justifying why everything’s fine…
Let me leave you with this:
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If you’re hearing your own story here — it’s already time to act.
Till next time, cheers!
John
Lost Digits
Navigating Business.
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