Do You Dream About Your Business?

November 29, 2007

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Have you lost sleep, due to business problems? Do you dream about your business? Have you ever analysed your dreams, to see how they relate to your business problems?

A couple of nights ago, I woke up during a vivid nightmare. I dreamt that I’d got out of the bath, and for some reason, I then walked out of the house in my bathrobe. I walked round to the back door to discover that I was being burgled.

The nightmare was both scary and bizarre. And I always get up as soon as I wake up. So I shot out of bed pretty quickly as I was concerned that I really had been robbed. Thankfully I hadn’t. But unfortunately, I realised it was only 2 am so I began to try to analyse my dream, and realised it probably relates to my business.

If you have strange dreams, it is often worth analysing them, as they may relate to difficulties you are having in your business. And even if you don’t get up when you wake up, as I do, it is worth keeping a notebook by your bed. No matter how vivid a dream appears to be, it’s memories will often fade away if you don’t write it down or talk about it immediately.

So how do you go about analysing your dreams? Well, I’m not expert by any means - but here’s how I analysed mine:

First begin with the main theme of the dream: Mine was about being robbed. So, I asked myself whether I worry about my home being broken into and it’s fair to say that it’s nothing I worry about a lot. So I then asked myself if I worried about being robbed in another way, or if I’ve felt robbed recently.

Well, I was actually robbed before I left Rainbow - I had an awful lot of equipment stolen. But, I felt that the dream related more to bad debtors, as they have been consuming a fair bit of my time recently. Since starting Kwik Fix, we’ve been very careful - re: folks who try to get out of paying. You always get the odd one, and I’m happy to say that we’ve managed to collect in every penny so far.

But, unfortunately, I still have many aged debts from when I was with Rainbow. I’m trying to tackle them one at a time, and unfortunately - the first one I chose to tackle has been difficult and my solicitor has now taken out a winding up order against the other company.

As the business who owes me is a limited company, I have been able to get hold of their abbreviated accounts, from Companies House. And I’m not happy to note that they’ve been repaying themselves the money they put in to the business to begin with in large quantities. Now, they are not personally liable for any debts, so if they manage to strip the business of all it’s assets before they are wound up, I’m unlikely to get any money. So, I suppose the fact that I feel robbed doesn’t come as a surprise.

Next begin to dig a little deeper: What elements of your dream surprised you? Did any part of it seem a little strange or bizarre?

Here’s the list I came up with from my dream and the way I interpreted it:

1) The house wasn’t the one I live in now. It looked more like a flat I lived a few years ago - the worst place I’ve ever lived in!

I’m wondering if I worry on some level that if I don’t manage to collect in money owed to me, that I could wind up living in an equally awful place in the future.

2) I did initially challenge one of the burglars as soon as I saw him, which is something I never thought I would do - for safety’s sake.

I think this probably symbolised the fact that I am more outspoken now than I used to be. At one time, I would avoid rocking the boat, because I like life to be simple. For example, I would grit my teeth and put up with bad service and disgusting food without saying a word. But now, I complain a lot.

Now, nobody is perfect, and I always accept the odd cock up. But I can’t stand persistently bad service and I still think we put up with way too much in this country - particularly in restaurants. Standards are way higher in the States. So I don’t put up with it. Most recently, I had such appalling service in a restaurant that I visit often that I told the so called Manager that service is only bad when he is there. And that his staff are lazy b…..ds when he is on duty, because of the example he sets.

Sometimes I wonder if I don’t go over the top a bit when I complain and whether my life wouldn’t be easier if I kept my mouth shut. So maybe me challenging the burglar in the dream reflected my concerns. Perhaps I worry that complaining will put me in a dangerous position?

3) I came across a policewoman, after I was robbed, but she wasn’t much use at all. And she kept trying to call for back up, but nobody answered the phone - she even tried calling 999 and nobody answered!

I think this is related to my general mistrust of people in authority. I began legal proceedings against this company a year ago, but the courts have really messed me about. So, it is fair to say that I don’t have a lot of faith in the judicial system right now.

4) At one point, I came across the burglars. They were parked in the middle of the road in a limo. One of the occupants was a woman and she denied the things were mine. I got into a big scuffle with them and managed to grab some of my belongings back.

I believe the woman in the limo probably represents one of the Directors of the company who owes me money, and the limo represents her extravagence. Many times, when we have called to speak to her about the debt, her admin person has told us she has gone on a trip to London. You probably already know that London is a pretty expensive place to visit, so her continuous extravagence annoyed me, given that she couldn’t even pay her debts. And her behaviour in the limo probably represents the many lies she has told us when we’ve called to chase up the debt.

5) The contents of the bags I retrieved from the burglars were things I no longer wanted that I threw out earlier this year!

This part of the dream was truly disappointing. Am I trying to get back, or hang onto things I don’t really want? Does this relate to my business? I’m not sure? I am in the process of selling something privately that I don’t want to own anymore, to raise funds to expand the business. And at one point, I considered not selling at all.

But, when I examined my reasons for not wanting to sell, I realised that it was not the fact I didn’t want to sell that was bothering me. It was the fact that I’d made a mistake in buying to begin with, and by selling, I was admitting that mistake to myself. And also, I guess I don’t like having to sell things to help grow my business, just because I am unable to collect in money owing to me.

Do you have strange dreams or nightmares? Have you tried analysing them? Have you managed to work out how they relate to your business, or your life in some way? Please share in the comments section.

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Comments

3 Responses to “Do You Dream About Your Business?”

Barbara on December 4th, 2007 12:39 am

Hi Catherine,

I usually forget my dreams pretty quickly, so never have analyzed them.

You are suggesting your dream has to to with Rainbow, however, could it be that you are unconsciously thinking that history may repeat itself? A deep rooted fear?

By owing a business we can be “robbed” in so many ways…by partners, by uncollected receivables, by employees who slack off, take business assets, or use the company phone or computer for personal use.

Competitors can steal ideas, and/or customers.
Vendors can “steal” by over charging.

In business, we can be robbed unknowingly, in so many ways.

Supposedly dreams do contain “hidden messages”, I’ll be curious to hear if you figure this one out.
cathlawson on December 4th, 2007 9:22 am

Hi Barbara - Thanks for commenting on this. I think some readers were put off by the weirdness of it all. It’s strange you should mention the fear factor. And you are right, I do worry about people not paying in my new business too. But, I suppose that is a good thing as it really makes me keep on top of the bad payers. And I’m a whole lot stricter now in all aspects of my business.

But, I think my deepest fear in this case was probably not being able to collect in any of these debts and the effect it would have on my new business, because they’re for really huge amounts. And I know it seems strange that it didn’t affect my old business, to the point it went under, but I was really cautious about what I spent personally as I’d got so used to being paid late.

The good news is, the one I mentioned, in relation to my dream have now agreed to pay up over the next few months, so I can move onto the next one.
Nezha on December 7th, 2007 9:47 pm

Hi Catherine,
I don’t think this is weird at all as I’ve often had dreams that reflected unconscious perceptions I had of events. I think it’s simply a matter of our minds picking up on things on an unconscious level that doesn’t quite rise to the surface in waking reality. Sometimes, it truly does pay to heed your gut instinct as it really might be trying to tell you something!
Cheers and have a great day.
Nezha