(lively, dynamic music)
Let's talk about the rugged individualist.
(exhales loudly)
Now, as an entrepreneur,
when we start a business, who do we rely on?
Ourselves.
So we make things happen.
We hustle, we make it work.
We sell, we market.
We get it out there, we meet people.
And money starts coming in.
And things start working.
And you're writing checks, check go to, you know,
checks going out, checks coming in.
And you're making money, and you're selling.
And you're hustling, you're making stuff happen.
And that's good, and things start to happen, and
it goes on and on and on and on.
Now, suddenly more things are happening,
more opportunities, more clients.
Now you're kind of dropping the ball a little bit.
But you keep, still, you're pushing forward.
You're pushing forward, and you're making money
and you're ...
What happens is your cash flow pattern, your income ...
So, at first your business may be, you know,
a little bit slow, right?
And then you kind of figure a few things out, and
then you kind of make it happen.
And then you're kinda like, Okay.
You're making money.
You're happening.
And then you hit what I call a glass ceiling.
You hit a what?
- [Class] Glass ceiling.
Okay, you hit this ceiling of complexity.
And now suddenly you're exhausted, you're tired,
you're dropping the ball, you're making mistakes.
But you keep pushing forward and then your income
actually is not going up, it plateaus.
It what?
- [Class] Plateaus.
Plateaus. Every entrepreneur experiences this.
And then you're making more mistakes and you drop the ball,
and you now start pissing off some clients because you're
not handling all the clients properly.
And then you try to hire some people, and the people
turn out not to be as good as they could be.
And then try to spend time fixing their mistakes.
Now, you're putting more hours, but then
your income slowly, actually goes down.
How many have experienced this?
Okay.
And most companies usually fail at this point.
(indicates class member) experienced this.
A lot have experienced this.
That's when they fail.
If, usually if they don't get help from here, they're done.
Because by this time, the entrepreneur
has lost the confidence, they're burned out.
They don't what to do.
They think, I've done as much as I could.
I've tried everything that I could.
Maybe, this is not meant to be.
Maybe this doesn't work.
Then they might start something else,
but usually that's it.
It's done for this business.
Or, or
when you hit the glass ceiling,
and in this case, you need to do something else.
As a rugged individualist, what happens is,
in the beginning ...
Because you're the one that makes everything happen.
You're the go-getter, you're the bread maker.
I mean, you're the one that actually grow the company
to whatever point.
It could be a quarter million, could be half a million,
could one million, number don't matter.
But you hit that point, and it actually plateaus
and it goes down.
What happens is this.
Because when you hit this point, it requires you
to reinvent yourself.
What does it require you to do?
- [Class] Reinvent.
Here's the biggest challenge of entrepreneurs.
The very thing,
the very skills,
the very belief that made you successful in the first place,
is exactly what's holding you back
from having that breakthrough.
That's the problem.
What made you successful is exactly, in the first place,
is exactly what's holding you back from going there
to the next level.
Because you're good at this.
You're very good at it.
Because our brain is basically a survival mechanism.
What is it?
- [Class] Survival mechanism.
So, when you hit this point, sometimes you get a mental--
Whatever it might be.
It doesn't matter.
This is a turning point.
When you get this,
So, you're telling me those things that made me
successful in the first place,
that got me everything I have so far at this point,
you want me to let that go?
Yes.
And that's why it's very difficult.
Because the survival instinct kicks in.
No, no, no.
You want to survive.
It's dangerous, you don't want to do that,
you don't want to let go.
Look! That's how you made all the money in the first place.
You don't want to let that go.
That's your brain talking, left brain.
But if you don't let that go, you cannot go
to the next level.
That's exactly the issue.
And that's why most entrepreneurs, they kind of ...
Most business, they kind of stay small.
They can't get through it.
They're good, but they just kinda like, Uh ....
Guess what, they just make a living,
Getting a little paycheck.
Maybe a little bit better than a job.
And most businesses, they stay here.
Most of the them.
A big chunk of them, actually.
And most of them, that's why first 5 years don't make it.
Die. After 5 years later, they die.
They just can't get through this.
It's very, very, very difficult,
just doing it by yourself.
It's very difficult.
So rugged individualist, exactly as a rugged individualist,
Hey, you know what, you hit that glass ceiling, it doesn't
work, I don't know what to do.
But I'm going to do everything myself.
I'm going to keep working harder.
I'm going to keep putting in more hours.
It does not work.
How many can see this does not work?
How many think that's like, Oh?
How many just got an Ah-ha moment?
The very skill that you made you successful
in the first place, exactly what is holding you back
right now.
So what do you do?
- [Class member] Delegate.
Mm-hmm, yes, but what do you do?
- [Class member] You change your mindset.
To what? Change your mindset to what?
- [Class member] Next level.
Yeah, but how?
Don't give me these short answers, how?
- [Class member] We have to be open to letting go and
bringing people on to help you.
Yes, yes, be open to what?
Letting go, and accepting help, yes.
What else?
- [Class member] Building a team.
Building a team, yes, building a team.
Knowing it's not about you anymore,
the whole thing just shift.
When you get to that point, it's not about you at all.
In fact, the less it is about you,
the more successful the company is going to be.
Yes?
- [Class member] It's what people call a
mastermind alliance.
A mastermind alliance, getting some new ideas,
some new strategies.
Let me give you a very simple tip.
One thing I notice that helps people to break through
that level, is to, if you could, like a mastermind or,
some kind of peer group that you could align yourself with,
And you hang around with people ...
Let's say you're making, I don't know,
a half a million a year, example.
Okay?
You want to get to that million dollar mark, but you
hit that ceiling of complexity.
You don't know what to do, you're burned out.
But when you talk to the people who are running
one, two, three, five million dollar company,
you totally get a different perspective.
You get a totally different ...
You know, oh my god.
These guys are not running everything by themselves.
They have division, they have people, they have manager.
Just by exposing yourself to another possibility,
you will start to shift.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, I find that it's not rocket science.
But just by talking with other entrepreneurs at a
different level, you get a new, different perspective.
It's very difficult to get that perspective locking
your door, and just by yourself.
It's very difficult.
But when you talk to someone who's running--
Guess what? When you talk to someone who's running
a ten times bigger company than you are,
it's a different conversation.
Yes, David.
- [David] Now just so the group understands (mumbles).
Yes.
- [David] If you don't take a direct call from somebody,
but it's somebody who's emailing you from the group,
you would answer their questions.
Yes I would.
How many have emailed me directly?
Did I answer? Yes or no?
- [Class members] Yes.
Yeah, yeah, I do.
Now, so knowing that with myself,
the way I protect my time is a good lesson here.
Remember when we had, I had, a mastermind with
all my mentees, right, a few months ago.
What, was it May, was it May?
April?
Was it April, May?
Anyway, a few months ago, it doesn't matter.
So it was from 9 to 6, right?
Everybody's doing their thing, we had a whole bunch
of people in there, and we're brainstorming.
And I think it was Gary, I was talking to Gary.
That ...
my phone, cell phone, never rang, and I never check.
Right?
I think it was you, or you that was asking me, or who?
I forgot, maybe it was you.
Anyway, yeah.
So what does that mean?
I mean, control my time.
The cell phone, if someone calls and you have to answer,
that means who's in control?
- [Class members] They are.
They are.
In fact if, right now, most of the time, 90% of the time,
if I don't have an appointment,
I schedule my time, my phone, home phone is unplugged.
It's unplugged.
I almost never take any incoming calls
that are not scheduled.
I just don't.
Because nothing is that urgent.
Nothing is that urgent.
Just the way I structure my time.
Now, sometimes David texts me, if I am free,
I will reply right away.
- [David] It does take hours sometimes though.
Yeah, so sometimes I will reply ...
- [David] Have an urgent thing, but ...
It takes hours.
- [David] It could be the next day.
Yeah.
It's just the way, sometimes it, probably
the next minute.
- [David] But you do get back to it.
I get back to it, but not immediately.
So, here's what the philosophy ...
- [Class Member] Another example, though?
Yes, please.
[Male Class Member] He was in China.
We had a situation, we needed another microphone.
He got ahold of me through DJ who,
we planned it all out, and then ...
I'm not here. No.
While he wasn't even here (mumbles)
No, because what I've learned is, when you let
your team do their thing, you get out of the way,
they figure something out.
They just couldn't hold of me and they've gotta
make stuff happen and they make stuff happen.
But when you're a control freak, do that again,
choking your business to death, right?
It's like, no, no I don't wanna make ...
Maybe they make a mistake, maybe they don't, maybe,
but chances are if you have good people in place
in the first time, they will exceed your expectation.
Only when you have lousy people and they're not so good.
So with that in mind, with that in mind ...
Rugged individualists.
Do you want to be rugged individualist, yes or no?
Do you want to be rugged individualist?
No, that what's holding you back.
(lively, dynamic music)