Mountains of Arizona
Sunny 69 Degrees
1:21 p.m.
My first entrepreneurial venture was an MLM in the telecom industry. Unfortunately, I couldn’t sell and I was also afraid to talk to other humans. So most of the work involved me buying things (tools, services, websites, leads, a trip to the annual convention!) and making excuses why not to ask another human being to buy something. (I literally bought $200 worth of leads per month and rarely mustered the courage to call even 1 of them.)
My second entrepreneurial venture was as a business development person for a computer consulting firm.
I drove around for an entire summer with tons of marketing materials to pass out at various business locations. I was still scared to talk to people so I probably made ONE stop the entire summer and spent most other days rationalizing to myself why I would start TOMORROW.
Next on the list was my own computer consulting business. I was a vendor and people paid me to do the work. A pretty simple business but quite limited in terms of what I could produce.
Eventually I realized it was much smarter to position myself on the income side of the P&L statement rather than the expense side of the statement.
That’s when I started wearing the shoes of the rainmaker, the guy who makes the phones ring and the websites go cha-ching.
From there I’ve evolved even more into solidifying my work around a single result: helping others become an Incomparable Expert in their field.
Great businesses solve problems.
And my journey as a problem solver has been an evolution from “doing a good job” for a client or customer to “getting a desired result” for a client or customer.
Doing a good job requires an outside party to validate the job. This is, largely, a miserable way to live. You’re just waiting for someone to approve your work or living in fear of the day they don’t.
Getting a desired result is pretty self-evident. You can see for yourself it that’s the case. This is, largely, an empowered way to live as your client’s opinion of you takes a backseat to the effectiveness of your work.
This is how you stop caring what your clients think of you. You pursue a higher calling. Solve a problem well above their happiness.
Most business and marketing books help you figure out ways to make more money. If that was effective, we’d have way more successful people than we do.
I think that focus is wrong because it puts the emphasis on what you want, which is NEVER the smartest way to actually get what you want.
Are you solving the right problem for the world? Are you solving the biggest, most serious, most painful, most valuable problem you’re capable of solving?
That’s a better route to getting everything you seek.