Re-evaluating your assumptions and conclusions may add some insight and spark to your business

This post was inspired by a very recent exchange I had via email with a lovely woman I haven’t seen in a few years.  She mentioned that the last time she saw me I was pregnant and she hoped I was enjoying running after toddlers.  Since I have no children (or pets or plants) I wondered why she came to that conclusion.  Thinking back on the last time she saw me:

I was a married female in my 30s
I had a very large and protruding abdomen
I frequently had my hand on or was rubbing my belly
I never drank any alcoholic beverages


The reality was:
I was in fact a married female in my 30s
My stomach was severely distended because I had a serious intestinal illness
I rubbed by belly because it f**king hurt all of the time
And with very limited exceptions, I don’t drink alcohol

Her conclusions assumed I had come down with a case of the babies, when in fact I had a super bacterial infection in the lining of my intestines.  Similar evidence, very different outcomes.

It may have been the popular conclusion she had made, but it was the wrong one. 

What assumptions and conclusions are you making in your business that you can challenge?  Take another look at the assumptions and conclusions that you are making about your customers, your marketing, your products and services, your competitors and your employees.  Is there somewhere you might be making incorrect assumptions or drawing the wrong conclusions that are costing you sales and profits?