The Shower Test

I think the difference between a hard week and a hard year can depend on whether anyone thought about it ahead of time.

By Neil Solomon · 2 min read

In my book I ask business owners a question. Picture yourself falling in the shower and lying on the floor, unconscious. What happens to your business?

Does it keep going? Or does it simply end, because you are not at the meeting, you cannot sign, and nobody else knows where the keys are?

When I think about my own answer, it starts with the things only I know. The passwords. The people who trust only me. The bank that will talk only to me.

Here I want to ask the same question in a different way, because it never was only about business.

Picture the same fall. This time, think of the people you love. Who finds you? Who knows what medicines you take? Who can speak to the doctor, pay the bills, and tell your family? If you were gone for good, what would they be left to figure out, and in how many days?

We are all going to be gone at some point. I do not say that to frighten anyone. I say it because I think the difference between a hard week and a hard year can depend on whether anyone thought about it ahead of time.

Money is part of the answer, and this website talks about money a great deal. It is only part. The other parts are who knows where the papers are, who has been chosen to decide, who will call whom, and what we would like our family to hear from us before we cannot say it.

I am not an expert on any of this. I am a man who has had a close look at it with his own father, and I have a few questions I find useful. Over the next set of pieces I will go through them one at a time, with the stories I know and the facts I could find. I will say where something is open.

For now, here is the test in its short form. Take a pen, and write down your answer to each of these.