Life is dictated by our choices. Where we are right now is led by the decisions we make. In business, if we are unable to perform, our decision-making works instead. That is why it is vital to make great decisions, which sometimes can be quite difficult because we lack faith in ourselves. Ken talks about adult-confidence. It’s not all about effort at times, instead it’s about the decisions you make. Non-action can be as impactful as action. It doesn’t always have to be you who does the job. It can be other people who move for you instead.
—
Listen to the podcast here:
Make Great Decisions
What if you weren’t paid for your physical effort? What if you were only paid for your decisions? If you were no longer able to perform physically but you could continue to make decisions, what different decisions would you make? I’ll bet you, almost all of them. Virtually everything you do or think about changes specifically your decision-making process. I spoke once a while back about something called adult confidence. I’m going to go slow because if you don’t understand adult confidence, you are definitely in your own way.
Here’s how this works. In the late 1980s, I wrestled for Carl Sandburg High School. When I left there, I left the school with the fifth most wins in the school’s history. I was pretty decent. Now, I mentally think if I go back to that school, I do think if I get on the mat because of muscle memory and how confident I am in how I used to be. Even in the condition I’m in physically, I think I could beat 90% of the wrestlers there in high school. That’s called adult confidence. The older I get, the more I’m sure I could still beat them because I know how good I used to be.
If I was to get on the mat with talented, in shape high schoolers at the same weight I used to be in the same weight I am now, they would literally destroy me. They might break my bones, they might tear my muscle. Not only would they beat me, they would beat me silly. I am so out of shape. I probably was nowhere near as good as I thought I was. We all get better with age, just ask ourselves. Here’s the thing. Your adult confidence in your current business is acting in the same way. It’s perpetually in your way. It’s perpetually harming you.
The first step of all success is to stop lying to yourself. Click To TweetMany experts believe that the syndrome of adult confidence is what becomes the crossroads of every serial entrepreneur in their lifetime. Warren Buffett broke through this at a very young age. He’s considered the CEO of least action. He is the decision-making CEO of all time. Warren Buffett has two rules when it comes to hiring a CEO. First of all, I want to set the stage because this is actually what he does. Anytime he goes out and buys another company, he has a team of people interview the perfect CEO to be at the helm of that company. After he makes a final decision, after agreeing with that team, he interviews the CEO after the guy or the gal pretty much has the job. He says, “I have two rules. Number one, never lose shareholder value. Number two, see rule number one.”
The concept is Warren Buffett doesn’t ever get into that company and roll his sleeves up and do, but he does from that day forward stay active in making decisions. Let me ask you this question again. What if you weren’t paid for your effort? What if long-term, when you turn to dust, all the money you made in your lifetime was actually a direct correlation to your decisions, not your physical effort? It’s something to consider. Warren Buffett is considered the greatest decision maker of our era. Here are some questions to flush out. If you’re in that conundrum if you will or if you’re in your own way. Number one, when it comes to your to-do list, is 95% of the items on there for you to do?
Even if you’re a one-man shop, if you’re looking to grow aggressively, you better have at least 20% of the tasks on your to-do list under the vertical of others. Meaning other people have to do it. Even if you’re a one-person shop, shouldn’t 20% of the movement in your company be marketing-related? I hope you’re not the actual marker. I hope you’re not running your own PPC campaign or Facebook campaign. Maybe in the very early days if you physically have zero budget, then maybe you can do some, but you better get that off your plate as fast as possible because it never pays to do your own marketing. Don’t call us for marketing. We do not do contract marketing. That is not a statement for you to call us to help.
Number two, “Are you seldom to never reviewing preset numeric goals with a second set of eyes holding you or others accountable to those numbers?” I’ve never met a company, even a one-man shop or a division of a company that couldn’t be run by setting and achieving numeric goals. Appointment and sales goals at a minimum can be done for the marketing department, even a one-person shop. An expense reduction goals can be had and reviewed for overall efficiency. Number three, what percentage of your month do you spend studying the next book or conference your team should be reading or attending for continued education?
If it isn’t 2% to 3% of your time, you’re doing something wrong. After this, the only thing that hurts in life is the truth. If you want to get real honest, the first step of all success is to stop lying to yourself of how great things are. If you’re growing now, you could be growing faster. If you don’t think you need that segment in your business, do you remember the episode of 1955, the first year of the Fortune 500 company? 439 of those 500 companies are no longer with us. You might think, “It’s been almost 70 years? Who Cares? That’s no big deal.” Do you realize that the actual products of those companies and the industries that those 439 companies we were in are still with us?
The companies, they’re gone, but the product lines are still there. The verticals are still there. Even the actual products are still here. What happened to the companies? It’s simple. They continued to do what brought them to the dance. They continued to market their products the way that got them to the Fortune 500 lists. They said to themselves, “We’re one of the Fortune 500. We’re one of the biggest 500 companies in the world.” Granted, it’s the United States, but for all intents and purposes, it probably was the world. They said, “Let’s not change a thing. This is what got us here.” 80% of them plus are gone. What does that mean? You’ve got to get out of your own way. If you don’t start making money from your decisions and you’re making money from your physical effort, you’re going to be head down from physical effort the rest of your life.
You've got to get out of your own way. Click To TweetYou will not be able to notice or smell the market changes. You will not be able to notice or smell the HR issues inside of your organization or with your vendors. It’s a little bit too late. Here’s my direct question. Do you understand what I mean by adult confidence? Were you good in high school or college? Were you phenomenal at something in your life where you look back and go, “If I went back to that, I’d still be awesome?” You probably would be after some training, but you’re probably not that good anymore.
As much as we get eroded over time with what we used to do, let’s say in athletics, we’re getting eroded every day in our business, in our decision-making process and in our relationships. If we’re not constantly spending time outside of our to-do list, outside of the day-to-day operation and we’re not spending enough time in our decision-making process, it’s just a matter of time until we slip. Pretty much we slip so far sometimes down the hill, we just don’t have the energy to get back up. I’m going to call this episode, Make Better Decisions. I hope this helps. Take care.
Important Links:
- Episode 409 – Previous episode
Leave a Reply