From Hustler to CEO

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[00:00:00] There is a tough reality of the journey of building a company. The journey is unbelievable. It starts with, why did you start your business? 

• for money? 💰
• for freedom? 🏖️
• for passion? ❤️

The greatest entrepreneurs that I've ever had the pleasure or opportunity to work with start their business based on a dream and a passion, and so they follow that passion. They say, "You know what? I'm going for it!" And they go out and attack.

If you are one of those entrepreneurs that went out and took their first thousand, 10,000, 50,000, you may have taken a second mortgage out on your house. You may have taken some savings. Hopefully you didn't take it from your kid's college fund, but whatever it was you said, I'm going out and I'm gonna create this thing.

A Difficult Conversation

[00:00:45] And I had to have a very difficult conversation with an entrepreneur that was considering working with our organization. This is a dude that had that passion, had that drive like, I'm going for it.

And he risked everything. Spent years building this business. He hustled, he worked hard, long, long nights and weekends, and sacrifices, which we all go through.

I heard a good saying the other day, it's like people need different things in different seasons.

• If it's cold in the wintertime, you need to dress appropriately. 🧤🥶
• If it's warm in the summertime, you need to dress appropriately. 🩳 😎

So each season of our business, each season of our entrepreneurial journey, requires a different set of skills.

This dude, he hustled and he got his way to a certain point in business. Then he hit a plateau.

Hustling Will Only Get You So Far...

[00:01:35] If you're an entrepreneur, you can hustle- sheer grit and hard work and determination- you can hustle your way to build a hundred thousand dollars business, a quarter of a million dollar business.

I've seen people hustle their way to a half a million dollars. That's rare. Most of the time you can hustle through a hundred thousand, quarter of a million, but after that point, hustling no longer works. Hustling alone no longer works.

You need to acquire the skills to take your company and your vision and your dream to the next level.

You need to acquire those skills, and this dude did not. There was some fundamental things, in the area of cash flow and terms and managing expectations with customers and just not paying attention to the key things that were going on.

And they're like, well, you know, it's getting a little tough. You know, hopefully I can not pay my employees next week or hold off another week, or maybe I won't pay my suppliers.

It's a cycle. It's a cycle. I've been there. I know what it's like. It just, it continues to get worse and worse and worse.

And then the magical statement that he made to me, he said, "Mike, don't worry when I get some money and I think I got some money coming in, we're gonna be fine."

And I said, here's why you're not gonna be fine. Because you may get some more money, but your skillset has not changed. You still have the same knowledge between your ears and you will end up in the exact same place.

Money alone doesn't solve it.

Money is great when you're trying to grow and get to that next level, you need to make investments. You need to hire more people. Yeah, you need the money, but if you don't develop your skillset, if you don't evolve your skills and your experience, you will end up in the same place that you are, the situation where you're being challenged, you're gonna end up in the same spot again. And why is that?

Because there is an undeniable truth in life that you are who you hang around with. And if you don't put different things into your brain, you will be in the exact same spot 12 months from now.

I don't care where you're trying to go from a health perspective, from a business perspective, from a financial perspective, from a parenting perspective, from a spouse perspective, it doesn't matter.

There's a big difference between having money and skills.

I heard this saying many years ago. I thought it was great:

If you introduce someone with money to someone with knowledge, at the end of six months the person with knowledge is going to have the money, and the person with money is going to have knowledge. And that knowledge is going to come in the form of pain.

So taking your business and your life to the next level requires the next level of skills.

My passion, my obsession at this season in my life is to help entrepreneurs take their business to the next level. More time, more money, more freedom, more pride, more happiness.

If you're in that zone right now with your business, let's grab a quick call.

If you're in that, Hey, I got an idea. I'm kicking a can, I might wanna start a business, I'm probably not a good fit.

But if you're at a $100k, quarter of a million, half a million, million, trying to get to that next level. Let's grab a chat. No obligation, no commitment, just whatever season you are in your business, I'll share some ideas, I'll share some thoughts.

Congratulations for going after this dream of building your own company. Have faith, never quit, but most importantly, what my dad told me when I was a very young kid, you are the average of the five people you hang around with. When it comes to entrepreneurship, when it comes to building a business, you gotta hang around with people that are playing the game better or differently than you are. Not always better. Sometimes it's different and those are valuable too.

My challenge to you is put some good stuff in. One of my favorite mentors Zig Ziglar, he said, you gotta put in the good, the clean, the pure, the powerful, and the positive into your brain. So my challenge to you is go off and do that. Have an amazing day.