3% of all business owners make 84% of all private biz income. Why? They’re not covering for unknown weaknesseses.
Risk what I risk, not what I say.
Grab the flag. Lead the charge.
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This article was published on April 21, 2011. So far, 6 people have left their thoughts. Share your own thoughts.
Recently a client and good friend said, “I would be willing to bet a smart guy like you with a lot of success in your past wasn’t in danger of losing your house when you started your business, even if it had failed.” She’s wrong, but she’s not at all alone in believing that. Why?
Does anybody lead by example anymore?
For years I’ve ranted about going all in, burning the bridges, sinking the ships, shredding the parachutes, being willing to lose it all to be successful. I’ve shared all the research I can find on this, and my own experience in five businesses of waking up at 3am in cold sweats wondering if we would make it.
Yet it’s still hard for people to believe that I actually lived at risk in any of these businesses. For some of them I didn’t, but for the ones that were most successful (including this one) I was at the most risk. That correlation between success and risk is not surprising to me, because when we don’t have a back door, we are more likely to be successful. Survival is a very strong instinct.
Risk and commitment go hand in hand and are fundamental to success.
So why don’t people believe me? I’d love your thoughts. My own two cents:
- We have apparently lost most if not all connections between what leaders say you should do and what they themselves actually do. We’re indoctrinated with the academic model where information goes from head to head, not life to life. The professor spews info and goes home.
- The “training” and “success” industries follow the academic model. I know a number of trainers who were hired to learn to impart tools and tactics for how to live life who never did any of what they taught. And I know success trainers who have never been successful. In many if not most cases, it’s not even expected.
- We’ve gotten use to separating the private and public lives of actors, politicians, big business CEOs and others as if who we are in public is magically different than who we are in private.
- “Experts” and “Gurus” have created images of themselves that are nearly messiah-like, where they can’t be seen to ever struggle or do dumb things. So they spout the “miracles”, “secrets”, and “5 easy steps” they used to make life so easy that they have no problems any more. We actually believe these people don’t struggle (they make more money when we believe that).
I struggle. I have bad days. I have to work at seeing everything as “fascinating!”. And I risked everything in a number of businesses when I truly believed it was worth doing. I’m not an expert, or a guru, and I’m not smart, I’m just relentless. It’s how successful business owners build businesses.
Add Your Own
Thoughts
Jen Orvis
04/21/11
Well, I think that the answer to your question is about how the individuals that make these comments see the world. (I do not blame them for thinking it, but I do find it interesting that some people are hard to convince they are wrong.)
What I mean is…
It is an excuse for them to not take the risk because the other people that ‘made’ it got there easier.
How often do you hear, “It is easy for ___ in Hollywood to be thin, they have a trainer.” It is not much different when looking at a business owner that seems to have gotten over the hump and imply that is was not as difficult, or require as much risk, sweat, tears, etc.
My dad always told me that it is a huge compliment if someone tells me that I make something look easy. Receiving that compliment is difficult. (My response: Are you sniffing glue? HECK no it’s not easy!) : )!
Even the people considered LUCKY have their days, issues, challenges. We cannot relate because their challenges are different.
The bond between all of us as people is that we all wake up, with a head full of thoughts, in the night and any individual, showing up to life everyday, knows the feeling of ‘losing the house’. It may not have anything to do with their home, but the feelings we experience on the road to significance is quite a ride.
As for you…Congratulations on living a life full of grace.
Chuck
04/21/11
Jen,
Great point. Most “overnight successes” happened through years of pushing mud uphill with a leaf rake.
Tony
04/23/11
While reading this article a quote jumped out at me:
“You have to pay the costs to be the boss”
I agree with you totally on your points about points #1-#4.
The bottom line is, if you want to be successful in a business, you have to be WILLING to suffer all that it will take to get there.
People seldom to understand that there is a reason successful people are successful and it has little to do with just luck or timing. Hard word and relentlessness probably played a HUGE role as well!
Thanks for the great post!
Tony
Chuck
04/23/11
Tony,
Great thoughts. You’re exactly right – it’s not luck or timing or a great idea or finances or a dozen other outside influences – it’s relentlessness that makes people successful.
The great thing about that is that anyone can be successful because no one is born with or without relentlessness. We all get to choose. Equal opportunity.
Steve Scott
04/25/11
Risks are like golf shots. No two are alike. There are an endless number of variables that impact a golf shot – and I contend the same is true for risks.
Two golfers cannot take the same exact golf shot. It is not possible.
The same holds true for risk-takers.
What we can do is apply the same calculations to our risks, thus the term calculated risk.
If Chuck is willing to risk his house does that mean you should be willing to risk your house – not necessarily.
Risk vs Reward
Just because one individual is willing to risk their home, their childrens’ future, their lifestyle, their marriage, their peace of mind, etc. Does not mean that everyone can or should take this same risk.
Case in point: In the Blog; Building a Business is Really Simple. Chuck’s friend Alan acted upon a business concept that Chuck shared with him and today appears to be on the road to building a successful business.
For some reason, Chuck and others saw the risk as too great – for them.
Chuck obviously calculated the risk and determined it wasn’t worth the risk of time commitment, money, effort or something, otherwise he too would be in the business. If there was no risk and it was really simple to build a business we would all be in that business – and well on our way to building 800 businesses as Richard Branson has done.
So just like a golf shot, even though Chuck saw the golf shot and shared it with his friends only one of his friends calculated the shot and believed he could execute successfully. He determined the risk of reward was worth more than what he calculated he might lose.
The point: know the circumstances and your abilities relative to the calculated risk in front of you and only take the shot, if, after careful consideration you determine the risk of reward is worth the risk of what you have determined you could lose.
Having said all of this I would agree relentless positive action toward your goals will only minimize your future risk and increase your chances for success. Be relentless in taking positive action toward your goals.
I started a business six years ago, I am today where I thought I would be after 2 years. I miscalculated successfully!
A significant lesson for me has been patience. Something many entrepreneurs have in short supply.
Gregory Rader | OnTheSpiral.com
04/25/11
Hey Chuck,
I definitely think a big part of it is the education model. It is easy to think that teachers have never been there themselves when those teachers aren’t required to demonstrate their experience.
I like to differentiate between teachers and coaches…a coach being someone who actually observes you in action and corrects your mistakes. In that context it is easy to differentiate the people who have been there from the people who learned out of a book. If the coach can relate to your learning process in action then it is a pretty good bet that the coach went through the same thing himself…
Trish Moore Gibbons
04/26/11
Chuck, it was great to talk to you about these very points with you in person today.
One of my biggest pet peeves are Business Coaches who have never walked their talk. It bugs me so much that I have even started calling them out on it. (If you knew me, you would know I am much too sweet to that.) I just couldn’t stand it anymore. “Go out there and get in the trenches with the rest of us.” And starting a Business Coach business doesn’t count!
Chuck
04/26/11
Steve,
Great thoughts. Your dead on that one person’s calculated risk is another person’s really bad move. I already have all the risk I can handle right now, and the business idea I shared with Alan was far afield of my expertise – much closer to what he does.
So we need to be careful to know what risk is the right one for us – and it will be very seldom we should take one. We get in more trouble by what we say yes to than no. But when we do finally say yes, then go all in – take the risk and run with it.
Gregory/Trish,
Let’s all work together to promote the people who have learned and lived in the trenches. They create the magic for the rest of us.