Do you have a sacred cow? Most entrepreneurs do, and whether they realize it or not, it’s getting in their way of success. In this episode, Ken Courtright defines what is a sacred cow and reveals why he had to remove it. If you’re a nine to five guy, this might not be a big deal. But for the warriors that strive for a breakthrough in their career or industry, this merits your serious attention.
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Sacred Cows
I wanted to do something a little bit different and a little bit more psychological. I’m in the middle of the autobiography of Andrew Carnegie and I got reminded of something that many moons ago, right around 2000 to 2001, one of my mentors would continuously remind me of this topic as I had an issue with it. I don’t hear it being discussed much. It’s not taboo, but I guess it’s not that real. I’m going to drop it in. This is called, What Is Your Sacred Cow? I was reminded of this 15, 16 years ago because I had one, a sacred cow. The best way to phrase it, it’s a time suck. For a lot of people, Facebook is a sacred cow. Watching television is a sacred cow or watching movies or reading books. I knew a guy and his sacred cow was spearfishing underwater in the ocean. He would literally live to get out of work and go deep diving and spearfish. It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but on the flip side, on the weekends, all he would do is complain about why his side business hasn’t taken off.
The reality is a lot of entrepreneurs have sacred cows that are in the way of success. If we can get ultra-real, if you want to achieve something, I dare people to read Ray Kroc’s Grinding It Out biography, Ted Turner or Fred Smith’s FedEx or Howard Hughes or any of the absolute magnets that made it huge. Not a single one and had a sacred cow. They didn’t even have a part-time hobby. It was 100% everything to the wall go after what they want and nothing gets in their way. There is no thought of going to play golf. Nothing that didn’t exist. Later in life, when these people slowed down, step back and looked at what they built, they took the rest of their life off and did all that stuff.
The definition of luck is the intersection of preparation and hard work. Click To TweetThere’s plenty of time for a sacred cow when the time is right. I’m speaking to the warriors out there that are frustrated and they know they’re on to something, but they’re missing something. They know it’s not mechanical, but they’re waiting for the break. They’re waiting for the breakthrough. I’m here to tell you that I went a few years almost figuratively, throwing my television out of the house. I did not watch TV for a few years. That was my sacred cow. I owned a chain of video stores. I lived for watching movies. It was my turn my brain off and release and I loved it. It was great. It refreshed me.
The reality was I would get caught up in it. I would often do three movies in a row on a Saturday when I could have been working that Saturday morning or that Saturday afternoon. Think about the compound effect of a real solid entrepreneur. What is his hour worth? What is her hour worth? Not in dollars, but in compounded production. For the warriors out there, ask yourself, is there anything you do that takes more than a couple hours a week that is 100% not productive towards your business goals? One hundred percent do you spend more than an hour on Facebook in a week? I’m not talking about Facebook analytics or lookalike campaigns.
I’m talking about People Magazine type of gossip stuff that does nothing for you or your kids or your future kids and is a waste of time? Do you watch TV? Do you have more than one favorite show? Do you have five? Do you record the DVRs where you’ve got five shows that you have to watch or get caught up on when you get a break? Do you play golf incessantly? I’m not talking to people that have a 9 to 5 that’s their dream, goal and they got nights and weekends off. That’s not what I’m talking about. I am talking to the warriors wondering why they’re not breaking through and that have heard every podcast and you’ve heard me on three occasions talking about Michael Jordan’s deserve factor and how you know I don’t believe in accidents.
The definition of luck is the intersection between preparation and hard work. I’m talking to the warriors like Walt Disney that filed bankruptcy physically seven times because he wasn’t giving up until he could build a campus that could provide every kid worldwide a position to dream. For those of you out there that know there’s nothing wrong mechanical with what you’re doing, but you do not have the breakthrough. What if Ken is right that if you set your sacred cow aside, there might be something to the statement that providence moves upon commitment. That’s an old testament for those of you that have read the bestselling book of all time.
My life is living proof that providence moves upon commitment. Providence doesn’t move upon action. Providence moves upon commitment. When you commit, you sell out and you go all in. I’m not watching TV, I’m not looking at Facebook until X and X is met. Until these numbers are coming in and you go all in. You go all in and you go to the point of exhaustion every day and every weekend and you don’t stop until. The only way you can do that is by removing your sacred cow. I hope that helps take care.
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