6.  Going against your intuition.

Intuition is just as important in business as it is in other settings.  You’d be amazed at how many gigantic corporate deals are green-lighted or red-lighted because of some CEO’s gut feeling.  While you might think that logic is the language of business, that’s far from reality.  If you base all your business deals on hard logic and ignore your intuition, most likely you’ll be in for a world of hurt.

We humans aren’t very logical to begin with.  We simply don’t have enough data to make truly logical decisions because business deals depend on human beings, and we don’t have a logical system for accurately predicting human behavior.  Not being able to predict how other humans will behave is a pretty big gap in our logic.  And intuition has to fill that gap.  The real performance of human beings is what makes or breaks business deals.  But to assume everyone will perform as expected is unrealistic in the extreme.  No deal ever goes perfectly.

It’s hard to say no to a deal that seems juicy by the numbers when my gut is saying, “You’ll regret it,” but more often than not, I later see evidence my intuition was right all along.  Sometimes I just get a bad read on someone, and then years later, several people I know are complaining about being ripped off by that person.

Intuition is a critical part of the decision-making process in business.  Since business deals depend on relationships, you need to get a read on the other people involved in any deal you consider.  If you get a bad read, walk away.  If you get a good read, proceed with caution.

7.  Being too formal.

I’ll say it again.  Business is built on relationships.  In some settings a certain degree of formality is appropriate, but in most business situations being too formal only gets in the way.  Business relationships work best when there’s a decent human-to-human connection behind them.

I think it’s a mistake to be too formal even when looking to establish new business relationships.  If someone mails me a letter that starts with “Dear Mr. Pavlina” and then goes on to explain a long-winded business proposal, I’ll usually just trash it, especially if it uses the word “we” a lot.  Better to fire off an email with a “Hi Steve,” and just ask me very informally if I’m interested in the kind of arrangement you’re seeking.  It saves time and opens the door to a real human relationship.  Human beings don’t want to build relationships with faceless corporations.  They only want relationships with other human beings… sometimes animals too I suppose.

Treat your business relationships like friendships (or potential friendships).  Formality puts up walls, and walls don’t foster good business relationships.  No one is loyal to a wall… except the one in China.liuxuepaper.com