We talk about modelling excellence. We look at what successful entrepreneurs are doing and model our actions on them to gain our own amazing results.
There is one mistake I see young entrepreneurs making over and over again. They do too much too soon and start a second business before the first one is established.
Okay, yes, if you look at common traits with the business greats, one thing many successful entrepreneurs have is lots of different businesses. They are not one hit wonders, they have replicated their success over and over again and created empires.
So maybe you want to create an empire and be an influencer like they are, that’s great, you just need to walk before you run.
It’s so important to remember that your role models didn’t start out building all their businesses at one. The empire is the result of decades of hard work, practice and collaboration.
Every multimillionaire or billionaire starts out with one idea. ONE. You need to look back to the start of a successful journey and model that, not who and what they are now. How did they get started?
There is a clip I love where actor Will Smith talks about how his father taught Will and his brother about success by knocking down a wall in his shop yard and asking them to re-build it. It’s five meters high and ten meters long. It took them 18 months of laying bricks after school to finish.
Will says “You don’t set out to build a wall. You don’t say I’m going to build the biggest baddest greatest wall that’s ever been built. You don’t start out there. You say I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid… You do that every single day and soon, you have a wall.”
In almost every case they didn’t start out planning to break records and become the richest person on the planet. Their initial goal was something close to home and personal to them. They set out to meet that goal despite all the odds and hurdles. The result, eventually, was they created something no one else had. If you read their autobiographies they all say the same thing, they become successful through hard work, scraping by and an obsessive ambition towards a single outcome.
Sure, I get it, you are full of enthusiasm and you have all these great ideas that will change the world! I like that you are committed to the work and the vision, that’s essential for step one in success.
Next step is to focus. This is such an important step. Focus on one thing, direct all your attention, energy and time to that one thing and nurture it until it is completed. By completed I mean you can step away for a full business cycle (90 days) and everything goes smoothly without you. That is the indication that you have built a successful business.
Then, when you can do that, you are ready to start a second business.
There are so many benefits to building one business well it’s almost impossible to pass it up.
• Without distractions your business will grow quickly.
• With your full attention you will know every working piece intimately (which will really come in handy when you are ready to create a second business).
• You will attract hardworking, dedicated partners, clients and staff.
• You have time and energy to find creative solutions to overcome speed bumps and conflicts.
• You have more time to reflect and learn from mistakes.
• You instantly notice opportunities to be flexible and change direction.
• You get some runs on the board and build a strong and reliable brand.
When you branch off to foster multiple ideas at one time, no matter where you are in your current first business cycle, you lose traction.
The difference will be noticeable in:
• Production time and efficiency
• Stress levels
• Lower energy levels
• Less commitment/dedication from your staff
• Loss of overall vision
• Inferior product/service levels
• Small errors will be left to blow out
• You will handle more disasters and be less efficient at rectifying them
Your business is like a living organism, one that will take time and careful adjustment to become independent. You are still putting it together and building it. Everything up until the 90-day leave of absence is a test or simulation. With you on board and focused you can continue to make adjustments, strengthening and tailoring your creation to total independence.
I’m not going to say it’s impossible to manage two new businesses at the same time, there are rare occasions when people have been successful although they are usually co-founders of both companies and have a team to work with and partners who help handle the details. Their methods for focus would be airtight.
Think about a magnifying glass. If you hold it outside over a piece of paper a circle will be illuminated. If you train the magnifying glass to focus on a pinpoint, and you adjust so that pinpoint is the only thing the light is focused on, you can start a fire.
This is how the greats do it. They focus their energy on that one tiny point and hold it there, after it smokes they keep holding, they don’t move until they see the flames.
This is what I mean by focus, that magnifying pinpoint.
Once you have a fire the rest is easy, all you need to do it keep feeding it. Armed with the information you gathered from perfecting business #1, you can quickly apply that (with some shortcuts) to business #2. When you have that business built and it passes the 90-day leave of absence test, then you have a formula for success and, with determination and practice and collaboration you too shall have an empire.
It starts with focusing all your attention on one thing.
If you do too much too soon yes you will cast additional light on the page but it’s not going to be spectacular.
Before you bite off more than you can chew, get some runs on the board, figure out the best practise and best processes that work for you, find the best ways to communicate with your customers and finish what you start. It might seem small and humble and maybe not the blaze of glory you were daydreaming of, I know though that when you look back on it in 20 years time, that one business will be your favourite and most treasured. What seems small in your mind now will in hindsight be diamonds.
Go build your empire one brick at a time.
Matt Catling
