I imagine you’re like most of my followers.
You’re a successful entrepreneur, business owner, or leader and are known as being a very high achiever.
You are committed to creating a highly successful business, and—equally important—winning at life. You are a lifelong learner and strive to grow, get better, and reach your ultimate potential. You want to leave a lasting impact—your legacy—on the world.
However, like them, you have a healthy level of frustration and dissatisfaction with your business and your life.
Things simply are not as you have imagined. Maybe revenue is not where it should be. Perhaps profits and cash flow are not what you want and need. Worse, no matter how hard you work, you can’t seem to break through the inertia.
Does This Sound Like You?
Be frank with yourself:
- Do you feel like hard work and great results are not related?
- Do you fear that vital things are falling through the cracks while you deal with fires?
- Do you worry that what seemed short-term is now becoming permanent?
- If so, you’re not alone. All of us have felt this way.
I Know Exactly How You Feel
Right out of college, IBM came calling and I jumped at the opportunity and become a Systems Engineer.
I loved it! Engineering fits my talents like a tee.
However, I found out there was more money to be made in sales and changed paths.
As it turned out I excelled in sales and sales training and quickly got promoted to a Sales Manager.
I didn't have a clue what to do. I thought my sales and sales training background were the skills I needed to manage the sales team.
Expertise in a craft ≠ success in management
To put it bluntly, I failed and was offered a job back in sales. But, my ego got in the way and I quit IBM after 8 years.
I joined a very small investment company and once again had terrific success in sales and enjoyed a rapid series of promotions.
This time around, I learned the value of goals and accountability and was well set up for success in management.
As the national sales manager and a partner in the country’s largest oil and gas securities firm, I raised more than $750 million of equity capital in eight years. I recruited, trained, and led more than one hundred sales professionals in achieving average revenue growth of 100% annually.
However, major changes in the oil and gas industry eventually led to the liquidation of the company and the impetus for me to co-found an investment banking firm. We had our headquarters in Seattle but the majority of our employees were on Wall Street.
We did great.
My business focused its attention on raising capital for small to medium-sized businesses. Our niche was business owners in low-tech "meat and potatoes" industries.
Over the years we raised more than $1.5 billion in debt and equity on behalf of our clients.
I know what it feels like to be envied by family, friends, and associates because I own what looks like a super successful business while personally, I know it should be much better.
In fact, I owned a fine, growing business. Everyone associated with it was successful.
- My clients benefited from high-quality products and services.
- My staff thrived and prospered.
- Our partners and associates saw their businesses grow right along with mine.
Actually, everyone did well but me.
As my business grew, I became more and more frustrated.
For years, I, too, struggled to get off the treadmill. Too often, my success came at the expense of my health and my most valuable relationships. I still remember canceling several vacations because of “pressing business”.
Even though I was highly educated, experienced, and successful, I was not anywhere near “best in class”. I knew I should be doing better, much better, but I did not know how.
Compounding my frustration was the fact my business financed dozens of other companies. I could see they were ordinary business owners in the same position I was in.
So, in addition to trying to run my own business successfully, I was trying to protect my investment by helping them.
Although many so-called experts claimed to know how to run a great company and would help me, they really did not.
Looking back, I am extremely grateful for that experience since it formed the catalyst in me to do what I do now.
My breakthrough was in discovering the 3 biggest myths I was innocently believing that were keeping me stuck in a cycle of working harder and longer but not getting the results I really wanted:
- Top-line revenue
- Bottom-line cash flow
- Market value, and...
- Peace of mind
Candidly, I suspect if you are still reading this the same three big lies are holding you back as well:
- Myth #1: Working harder and longer produces better and better results.
- Myth #2: Hire and retain the best & the brightest and let them do their job.
- Myth #3: All businesses are uniquely different and must be managed accordingly.
My big "ah-ha" moment came when I discovered none of the elite and preeminent players in all industries are trapped by these.
They all refuse to follow "industry best practices" and instead embrace three core principles.
- They Believe In Market Mastery
- They Use A Management System
- They Leverage High-Performance Teams