Entrepreneurial business managers need to be aware of the two most dangerous times in their business lives. Simply picture a basic sine curve on a graph with its peak in the positive quadrant and its trough in the negative quadrant. If you put a dot on both the highest point and the lowest point, then you have pinpointed the moments of utmost concern. The challenge is to recognize the symptoms of each and be able to take advantage of this recognition.

The positive point represents that time or those times in business when everything just seems to be clicking. All the previous hard work, the investment of time and energy and money all just seem to come together and routinely “the hits just keep on coming.” Then one day, an awareness of just how much effort it has taken to get to this illusory pinnacle of success evolves into a decision to throttle back a bit. A false belief in a desired destiny through personality triggers a decision. This decision may not even be conscious, but it manifests itself in a reduction somewhere of those mundane tasks that contributed to the success. It might be deciding to not make that one more sales call at the end of a long week. It could be the decision to not call and thank that customer who just made a relatively small purchase. It might be letting the weekly direct mail campaign slide into the next week. Whatever the change, left unchecked it will lead to more compromises. What was once felt to be a pinnacle of success is now experienced as a rapid slide into mediocrity at best and failure at worst.

The negative point on the bottom of the curve is almost the mirror opposite. At this nadir point, the entrepreneurial manager is getting up every day and pouring his or her soul into both the quantity and quality of activities that need to happen for success to occur-and success doesn’t. Knowing that short term results are improbable, every day is spent maniacally focused on getting into place the solid foundation for success. And all of this activity, all of this energy is underscored by an optimism that knows, that believes that all of this hard work will pay off. It has to. And then suddenly there is the realization that in business, it does not “have to.” Suddenly there is a personal awareness that maybe hard work is just not enough. Self doubt quickly follows and resignation creeps in. This paves the way for acceptance of failure and one day the decision is reached to simply turn off the lights, close the door and go do something else. Then the phone rings in the now empty office and on the other end is a customer who wants to do business, but now there is no one to take the call.

The message here is simple. If you are enjoying success, stop and think about the cause of the success and challenge yourself to stay on plan. If you are struggling, recognize that everyone goes through difficult times and convince yourself that with enough hard work you can overcome almost any obstacle. And then once you do succeed, and with enough hard work you will, never, ever take it for granted.

John F. Riddell Jr., director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Growth-Hamilton County, writes each Tuesday about entrepreneurs and their impact on companies and the marketplace. Submit comments to his attention by writing to Business Editor John Vass Jr., Chattanooga Times Free Press, P.O. Box 1447, Chattanooga, TN 37401-1447, or by e-mailing him at business@timesfreepress.com