Is It All About Stamina?
You are a long-distance runner. How do you win the race? Mainly by not dying before you cross the finish line. In business, you are also a long-distance runner. The difference is that you don't know how long the race is and if there even is a finish line, but if you get there you will be one of the few to make it. Many rewarding past times are similar, such as Texas Hold-em or even the lottery. For the lottery, you just have to buy a ticket a week for 170 million weeks. That's all. In Texas Hold-em, which is poker, you can generally play forever if you are conservative. You do have to be bold every once in a while to win a pot, and you could go out at that moment, but otherwise you just play and play. Eventually you will be at the last table. Then you might be one of five. If you can keep from passing out in your chair you might just win.
With all of this I just want you to know that if you have a good vision and plan but you give up too early, you still fail. But how long should you hang in there? Often you have to hang in until there is no hope. If you give up when you hit the first negative person, you might as well not go into business. Because people will think you are crazy, nuts, when you first start out. Get beyond this you might just get established. But every rung you climb up the ladder makes you wonder how long the ladder is. Is there an end? Will success ever come? Can I keep climbing? You will keep being tested and tested again, and when you think you can't go on you'll be tested some more. You have to believe in yourself and your vision, and keep moving.
I urge you to keep up the good fight as long as you can, until you believe your vision is no longer sensible. Ask yourself: Does my vision make sense? Has anything changed? If nothing has changed, what makes you think your vision doesn't make sense? You may just need more time to make your dream a reality. You may need more money than you originally thought to get it going. Recalculate your return on investment based on your new reality. Is the return still worth it?
Please let me know how things worked out for you. Was it easy to get started? Was it hard? What made it so hard and how did you persevere?
What Are Your Barriers To Success?
I can guarantee you that having no opportunities is not your barrier to success. Opportunities are plenty. Often you just need to choose one and focus your energy on making that opportunity successful. Sounds easy doesn't it? It's not! It's hard friggin work! But being successful is possible for each and every single one of us. Perhaps in different ways, but definitely possible. So let's take a look at what is holding you back. Or in my case, what is holding me back. I'll take about my past and present psychological barriers and perhaps you'll see yourself in what I'm saying.
I was often afraid to invest more or do more for fear of losing everything. I was afraid to quit my job until everything was secure. I was afraid to leverage the talents of other people.
I had some personal issues with money that were amplified with more money. Money doesn't cure your problems, it usually makes the problems you have more pronounced.
We worked hard during our first business and it's end was a sign to me that I could go through this kind of failure again. If I invest myself totally in a business again, I might just fail again. Although this could be true, not doing it again delayed my next success.
I was also afraid of financial failure, though I have taken steps now to prevent complete personal financial failure with my current business. We incorporated this time and have insurances that will help.
I might be somewhat afraid of dying, but my bigger fear is missing out on life. Now I realize that I lose more by not going for success.
I am sometimes afraid of being wealthy and losing touch with what's really important. Money is a nice tool, but my family is more important. However, being too afraid of wealth is problematic also. It can lead to unconscious sabotage.
I am a little afraid of being between consulting assignments now and sometimes wish I had a regular paycheck. Being an employee of someone else does make it difficult to be successful, but certainly not impossible. Still, I am better off by far being on my own and the risk of unemployment is no more than it would be as an employee.
Sometimes I am concerned about heading off in a direction that is not as profitable as a different direction could be. Inaction is a far worse killer of success than the wrong choice… so I keep making decisions. I just try to keep my decisions thoughtful.
I am definitely afraid of having too much debt. I would like to say it's a healthy fear, but debt can be good in some situations. It can help you buy a house for instance. In my opinion, debt for education is also a good debt. In business, you can finance your business through loans or equity, and I am a little petrified by both. Currently I am building with cash only which can be foolish. But I am still in the learning stage of the business and don't want to stick my neck out too far right now.
I believe the phrase is "It's always darkest before the dawn". I think the person who wrote this phrase must have been in business or must have been going for some other big dream, because you can't be successful without a trial by fire. You must go through the bad times, the dark days, and be tested. You have to pay your dues like everyone else. People will be negative. Your best customer will move away or decide to buy from someone else. You will find out that you forgot to pay a big important bill. All kinds of things happen. If you are going through your dark days, find comfort in knowing that you are probably on the verge of a huge success. You just have to keep a positive attitude and treat everyone like they are about to give you a million dollars.
In our first business, you might think that we had instant success because our activity level just shot through the roof. The truth is that you have to spend money ahead of making money, and we spent much more than we made to support the activity level we had. It was pretty scary. We had faith that the sales would come around and they did, but there was the ever-present risk that it wouldn't.
Sometimes you do get to that place in your business where you have to put it all on the line to get the next round of growth. Bob Parsons decided to put it all on the line for GoDaddy by buying expensive advertising during the Superbowl. DesignAShirt.com founder John Anton (I attended high school with John) got a $300,000 home equity loan to buy t-shirts for his business because he was concerned about rising cotton prices. Several times Howard Hughes borrowed money against all of his assets to do something for his business he knew was the right thing to do. You might imagine that each of these gentleman have balls of steel, but I am sure they were afraid out of their minds when they did these things.
When things are bad, you may need to spend a little time deciding if you need to change your approach. If not, just keep doing what you are doing and be confident in your ability to rise above the problems. You can do it!
Starting a new business is always a risky endeavour. But starting something new in the midst of a recession, based on an idea that has never been tested with your target market, can be suicidal. However, with a clear and strong concept and lots of commitment it is possible to create a successful enterprise even during economic turmoil.
In January 2010 recent university graduate Tom Chance started social enterprise Giveacar, a service that offers to take away your unwanted scrap vehicle and donate it to charity.
Chance had got the idea for the scheme during his studies when he had started to deal in old cars. Realising that people were willing to accept the smallest sums just for their unwanted vehicles to be taken away, Chance spotted a gap in the market.
Although car donation is an idea that has been going strong in the States for a while, in Britain it was non-existent. Chance, working out of his bedroom, created some initial interest over the internet and by word of mouth.
He began by donating the all proceeds from the scrappage or auction of the donated vehicle to charity. However, realising that he needed to grow his business he started taking a small percentage of the profits from the donation. After five months he was able to move out of his bedroom and employ another member of staff.
As awareness of his company grew and interest increased from the local press, more and more donations started rolling in. Today Giveacar is still able to give 75% of each car's value to the donor's chosen charity, with the remaining 25% reinvested. Just a year old, the scheme has already raised more than $300,000 for a host of charities around the globe.
Giveacar proves that there is success to be had during a downturn, and that a clear idea and lots of passion can go a long way.
To find out more about the scheme, please visit the Giveacar website at http://www.giveacar.co.uk/.
I had written an article a few weeks back about motivation, saying that skills are more important than motivation. What I mean by that is simply that sometimes companies try to motivate their people to perform, but the motivation alone is not enough to improve productivity. People also need to know what to do.
The same could be said of an entrepreneur. He might listen to motivational tapes or go to seminars, but without knowing what to do, he will just be spinning his wheels. Most people need to take a pragmatic approach to being productive: First learn what to do, then motivate yourself to do it like crazy. You may also what to revisite the "what to do" every so often to try to improve the skills you have.
Now if you improve your skills, but you are less than motivated to put them to work, of course nothing happens. I personally think that results are motivating, so I will work hard to get to the first success, but after that the work kind of does itself, no need to add motivation. Maybe you feel the same way, maybe not. But regardless, to be successful you need to do as well as learn, no getting around it. And usually you need to do much more than you originally think you do. While this can be disheartening, it also presents you with a challenge that you can accomplish if you put the remainder of your heart into it. People can do much more than they think they can.
Sometimes being a business person is similar to being a painter of paintings. It's the smallest details that make the biggest differences. And you have to pay attention to all of those details, at least at first when you are just getting started. The customer's perception of your company and your product are at stake… so what kinds of things should you worry about?
The internet is a tale of two cities. One dark and desolate, and one bright and populated. What is the difference between the two places? The most minor of minor things. And it may not be anything you're thinking about. Is it design? Is it speed? Is it wonder? Is it usefulness? The answers: Maybe, maybe, maybe, and maybe. It seriously depends on what your target visitor wants and what your target visitor expects. And then, you have to give them even more than they expect.
So then it all comes back to marketing right? Well… yes, and no. It is very important to know what your customer's (or visitor's) requirements are. Then you must really get into their mind. Deliver innovation where innovation is not possible. Smooth out the jagged lines or fill in the gaps of the customer's requirements with what they really want, before they know they want it. This is really where the art in business comes in, knowing the unknowable, doing the unthinkable, being the best in a catagory of no equals.
It all comes down to creating something that draws in visitors and customers like a magnet. They can't help themselves, they are drawn to your business. They may not even be sure why. It's all of those little details that mean so much.
Make sure to check out other business leaders and their obsession with detail. People like Howard Hughes, Sam Walton, and Bill Gates. They built their obsessions into empires.
What Is Motivation Without Skills?
Be positive! Try harder! Work longer! Be agressive! Wind yourself up and what do you get? A lot more of the same thing. Not selling? More not selling. Not growing? More not growing. Spinning your wheels? Faster spinning. Beating your head against a brick wall? More headaches. Wondering what's wrong with you?
Let's take a break from being worked up today and develop some skills. Don't just do something harder, learn how to do it smarter. And once you get your skills down, motivate yourself like crazy! You know what though? You aren't going to have to wind yourself up, your results will motivate you. Perhaps getting to that first yes through all the no's may need a bit of motivation, but that first yes will energize you!
There are plenty of great books that will teach you the nuts and bolts of selling, recruiting, managing a business, or whatever your dream is… make sure you get a good source. Ask professional sales people who they would read and they'll tell you. Or find somebody else that does what you want to do and ask them who to read.
So yes, we probably need some motivation… but we also need the skills to back our motivation so that we're not just doing the same ineffective tasks harder. We need to be smarter too. Who is your favorite author and what did they teach you?
My son Jeff and my daughter Chelsey have big dreams. Jeff is finishing up his last year as a drama student and wants to be a screen actor. He has already been an extra in a handful of movies. Chelsey wants to be a country music writer and artist. The interesting thing with these two is that Jeff has a rich, deep voice and could have been a singer, and Chelsey was accepted as a drama student to a high school academy. I taught each of them that they had to focus and concentrate on one dream for now, because they will have to put a ton of effort behind their dream to make them a success. So they made their choices and are shooting for their big dreams. And they are going to stick to their focus as long as it takes them to be successful in it.
Many business people tend to lose focus. Not that they change their goals, but that they don't stick to a particular plan. For instance, a business person might set out to advertise in magazines but decide later to also advertise online. Sometimes doing too many things at once is not a good idea, because it tends to create a lot of unproductive busyness. For instance in our example, managing online advertisements is different than managing magazine advertisements so it might be difficult to keep a handle on both.
Good focus in business does make things kind of boring. If you are finding yourself with less activitiy than you'd like, perhaps you can turn it up a notch, but following a specific business plan makes more sense than adding a bunch of different parts on. So instead of trying to do 5 other things, do more of the things you are already doing. If you're the kind of person that gets bored easy this may seem like a drag, but keeping our focus is important and will help us achieve our dreams.
Sometimes you need to make adjustments. Don't think that having good focus means that you can't make adjustments to your business plan. When you notice something is not working as well as you like, it is ok to tinker with it to improve your results. Just make sure to stick with the change long enough to verify that it works or that it doesn't. Sometimes the results of changes are a bit delayed. And making all sorts of changes at once is not a good idea because if things get better you don't know what worked, and if things get worse you don't know what made it bad.
I have a friend who has a great core business but tends to like to create new businesses, like all the time. Each new business has nothing to do with his core business and tends to distract him to such a degree that he really can't put the time into his core business that it needs. If you feel the need to create side businesses because your core business is so successful, create one new side business and make it successful or close it down. Don't leave a bunch of dangling businesses that will never be successful because you can't give them enough time. Just work on one and if it looks good, keep at it. If it looks bad after some time, close it down and move on.
Focus is really important to success at anything. Trying to do too many things leaves you scattered, sort of like "a jack of all trades and a master of none" as the saying goes. Be the best at something.
Is Get Rich Quick A Myth?
Once upon a time we had a business that went from $0 to over $15,000 in monthly commissions in about 2 years. You are probably saying to yourself that we spent a bunch of money to make that happen. Nope, we didn't. In fact, we spent almost nothing… just had our web site. We did have to react to requests from customer and distributor prospects with materials that did cost money. But mostly the business we were getting was free to us.
So this means that there really is such a thing as getting rich quick? Well, if you call 2 years quick. And I can tell you from personal experience that this amount of money does not feel rich… it feels ok. It takes away some of the worry. But it is not rich. It's not like winning millions in the lottery or getting a jackpot at the casino.
How was this possible to go from $0 to $15,000 per month without spending tons? Money like this does come at a cost to somebody. The cost was the advertising our vendor was doing. We were benefiting greatly from radio spots they did in every major market in the country. And we were there when people did web searches on Yahoo. And we were really, really good at building web sites at a time when there weren't many selling the same product. So we had a competitive edge that few could catch up with. Don't get me wrong, some other distributors were doing much better than us.
There were other costs too with this kind of growth. The business consumed all of our time, and all of our freedom. We tried to handle the flood of orders and requests ourselves without hiring. We tried to make use of distributors we sponsored to take our calls and handle some of our orders, but this didn't always work out. So we invested a ton of our time and gave up a lot.
In the end, what went up so quick fell like a rock. Many people experience this with a sudden windfall, you just aren't prepared for the ins and outs of everything you're going to have to deal with and you make mistakes. In our case, the mistakes were made by our vendor but they had a major impact on us, and all of the other distributors. I often joke that the vendor caused the 2000 recession.
As far as get rich quick schemes being offered by companies out there on the internet, they are mostly looking for people to take money from. The best idea is to look for a good, solid, long-term business.