What are Business Sirens you ask? First let me share that every year around May, as I prepared to close out the school year, I dusted off The Odyssey books in the back of the closet and introduced my students to one of the most beloved and flawed heroes in literature: Odysseus. What I loved about Odysseus is how much my students could relate to him as a person. You see, Odysseys was a war hero, boastful, confident, cunning, smart and incredibly mission driven.
Are you familiar with the story? For 10 years Odysseus and his men ships sailed in circles on the journey home to Ithica.
As a business owner, can you relate to the story? Do you ever find yourself slightly off course? Do you ever find yourself turning circles and tiring yourself out while working towards the goal? Like Odysseus, we can find ourselves off course ,and a little lost. This can tempt us to settle for less than we set out to achieve.
My 7th grade students rolled their eyes as I would set out to tell the tale of the great homeward bound journey of war Trojan War Hero, Odysseus. They loved the adventure of Odysseus’ travels. The journey that always raised the eyebrows is that of the Sirens.
On one occasion I remember one of my students, Zack, sitting quietly reading the to himself the words I’d just read aloud. Now this particular student wasn’t one who loved literature. Quite honestly, I think he loathed my class. He was a class leader and a respected peer to his classmates. Zack was a 7th grade Odysseus of sorts.
He said to me, “Hey Ms. Ursta, I think I kinda like Odysseus. I mean I get the sirens and what they’re doing. I think I get why you want us to read this book. Thanks.” I loved that about my job as a teacher. I could walk in with a book and they could leave with exactly what they needed from a character’s struggle to apply to their own life.
You see the Sirens, the particular part of the journey Zack approach me about, were this two headed sea creature disguised 
as beautiful women who lured Odysseus’ men away with their misleading melodies. Sound familiar? Odysseus protected his men from their lure by tying them tightly to the ship’s mast and shoving bees wax in their ears.
Friend, I am here to remind you, that as the hero of our own businesses, we are all flawed. All business owners have moments of circling the waters, drifting from our purpose, and being tempted by the lure, of easier, shinier and quicker. Like Odysseus, we must ask, are we tied firmly to the mast of our ships? Are we able to remain focused on our own journey even through the drowning lure of the sirens? Are we steering the ship in the direction of our goals or are we taken off course with the scroll of the mouse? Or are we deafened by the lure of someone else’s journey?
I was having a conversation with my best friend about these “business sirens,” and I casually asked her, how she was protecting herself from the lure of the shine. She said “I simply focus on my own work. I don’t have the time to focus on what is going on around me. I protect my business, my journey, and my own reputation by creating a newsfeed that empowers me. If it doesn’t do one of those, I drop it. I leave it. I let it go.”
As a social business owner, our waters are rough sometimes. It’s easy to lose focus and to assume the highlights of someone else’s feed tell the entire tale. Business sirens have one job- to make us forget that our own journey matters. Sweet friend, you’re going to steer your ship where you stare. My advice is to steer that ship in the direction of your goals, not in the direction of someone’s highlight reel.
The promise of faster, shinier, and easier can easily lure social business owners, but this is when we need to stay focused on the journey and not the shiny objects.
If we want to protect yourself from the business sirens, remember what you are working towards.
Your journey matters.
Rooting for you.
XOXO,
Katy
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