Just got back from the gym. And by gym, I mean weight room...
The normal crowd includes everybody from steroid-injected muscle-heads, to college kids, to businessmen. Today was a little different though.
As it's the middle of summer and kids are out of school, there were a few kids, maybe 12-14, working out with a guy in his 40s, whom I assumed was some kind of mentor. Neither the kids nor the mentor were in particularly great shape, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't a sports program, although to hear the mentor talk, it was obvious that he was pretty confident in his abilities to lift heavy things.
He got the kids and lined them up next to a "dip machine." Starting with biggest kid of the group, by which I mean the fattest and most out of shape, he got them onto the machine using a bench as a step and said, "Work until your muscles fail."
The first kid stepped off the bench and literally fell off the machine. His muscles, or lack thereof, simple couldn't handle the weight.
It was loud and impossible not to notice. Everybody stopped what they were doing to see what was going on.
I felt for the guy. I'm sure it was awkward enough for him to be there in the first place, but to make things even worse, he was now flat on the floor, surrounded by his friends and dozens of people he didn't know...more "successful" people whom, at least from the outside, didn't seem to have any of the same problems.
That was my first thought. My second thought was, "This would make a great blog post."
So here are 10 lessons entrepreneurs can learn from this kid and his mentor...
1. If you want the best results, you MUST go outside your comfort zone
It takes a lot of guts for a teenage boy to walk into a weight room. I know because I had a similar experience when I was 13. I sneaked into a weight room and attempted to bench press about 100 pounds...without knowing how much 100 pounds actually was or putting guards on the bar to keep the plates from slipping off.
And "slipping off" was exactly what the plates did... My left arm gave, dropping the weights on that side onto the concrete floor. Without any weights on the left side, things became uneven, which caused everything to tip to the right, dropping the weights on that side.
Was it uncomfortable? Yes. Embarrassing? Yes. I didn't let either of those things stop me from making another attempt though...although it did take a few years for that to happen.
You are where you are now because you are who you are. You're working at maximum capacity already.
If you want to go somewhere else, such as further with your business and a personal relationship, you must change who you are now. That means developing the skills necessary for doing what you want to do.
What "comfort zone" are you in and who do you need to be to make things happen in your life?
2. Watch people that are more successful than you are.
There is no reason to reinvent the wheel. The "heavy lifting" for a lot of things (no pun intended) has already been done.
Once you figure out what you want to do, watch the people that are already doing it and figure out how they're able to do it. Ask them what they're doing. Don't try to reinvent the wheel.
One of the things you'll probably find out is...
3. Don't start at the top. Work your way up.
Most of us would think it's ridiculous for an out-of-shape kid to try to lift his own body weight, yet we do similar things in our own lives and businesses every day. In short, we overestimate our ability to do things and it ends up costing us.
For the kid in the gym, his workout for the day was ruined. He quit shortly afterward. A much better approach would have been for him to start with something he could manage and expand on it. That would have kept him in a lot longer than blowing everything out right away and having to quit. Plus, he'd be more likely to return the next day.
For me, I have a problem taking on too many projects. Like a lot of entrepreneurs, I have more ideas about how to make money than I do the time or energy to make them happen. Yet I start on new projects all the time...
A better approach is to start with a single project and complete it. Once you get more efficient at handling things, add another project to the mix, then a third. Even though it's not as stimulating, this will allow you to complete projects and get them making money for you, rather than have everything "in process" and have none of it making money.
How do you find out how much is too much though? Do what the kid did...
4. Crash the Car
I saw an interview with race car driver Danica Patrick where she talked about pushing the limits of her car. The object of racing, she said, is to push yourself and your car to their limits, to the point where you almost crash, because that's the fastest you can go.
You push up to the edge, back away, and try to push things further, even just for a short moment. As you get more comfortable with these moments, you can expand on them.
Your business is the same way. You increase your income by pushing yourself, even for just a day. You then do that for a week. The weeks become months and the months become years. And gets easier and easier because you're expanding your capacity to perform the entire time.
"Crashing the car" can be a good thing, if you don't let it stop you the next time, because, even though you've gone too far, you're pushing things to your edge.
By falling off the machine, the kids knows for sure that he pushed things too far. This will help him the next time he comes in, since he'll know, without a doubt, that he needs to ease up a bit.
I could give you a hundred examples of how I screwed things up, both business and personal, sometimes to the point of having to kill them off entirely. In fact, I'm messed up so many times, I'm at a loss for a good example right now...
There will be plenty of screw-ups coming soon, I promise you. Until then, feel free to add one of your own in the comments section. :)
For now, one thing I will say about screw-ups is...
5. Know When to Quit
Sometimes you have to cut your losses and move on. Your first loss is always the best loss.
When you're "in the gym" and you injure yourself, it's better to go ahead and quit for the day rather than stick it out and injure yourself further. That's exactly what the kid did, even though it may have been unintentional.
So many examples I could give to drive home this point... One that comes to mind is something a very close friend of mine is dealing with now.
This guy bought a house with his girlfriend. He used about $100,000 of his own money as a down payment, but they're both on the mortgage and deed, because it's a big ass house and it was easier for him to get a loan that way.
Long story short, the chick didn't work out and, even though she is as responsible for the house as he is, she walked away from both him and their financial obligations. So there he is, in house he can't afford by himself, sticking it out with two roommates, hoping he'll have enough to keep the lights on and that something is going to change.
He could sell the house, but doesn't want to, because the housing market is down right now and he'd lose some of that money. He's not upside down, but he wants 100% of his down payment back.
There are lessons in everything we do and when you don't learn your lesson the easy way, things get a little harder so you'll be forced to listen up, which is exactly what is happening with my friend...
The now ex-girlfriend just lost her job and is getting ready to file bankruptcy. If that happens, he's going to lose the house regardless...including 100% of the money he put down.
View Steps 6-10...
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