A person I admire has a very successful business. He's
sharp, personable, funny, smart, and helpful. And, the
products and services he provides are top-notch. He's sold
thousands of them, and his business is operating at a level
much higher than mine.
Then he announced that he was celebrating three years in
business. What! Only three years? How'd he get so far, so
fast?
He's created for himself an overnight success. I'm doing
the same thing, following the same steps he did. And, you
can, too.
Here's the secret to his "overnight success": He spent 15
years prior to starting his "overnight success" business in
his industry, learning, growing, making mistakes.
Jim Collins, in his groundbreaking book Good to Great,
wrote about "the Flywheel and the Doom Loop." In the
companies his team studied, the ones who had outstanding
results just kept incrementally improving, learning, making
mistakes, learning, continuing. These efforts created
momentum on their "flywheel."
The Flywheel is an analogy Collins used- a Flywheel is a
huge, very heavy wheel that takes a tremendous amount of
effort to get it to turn even a fraction of an inch in its
rotation. However, by pushing steadily at it, it gradually
picks up momentum. Then, you hit the moment when it's
moving so fast, nothing can stop it.
In contrast, companies who didn't take the Flywheel
approach were caught in the "Doom Loop." Lurching around,
trying a new thing every year or two (or month or two!),
trying to hit the lottery. Sound familiar? Unfortunately,
it doesn't work.
In other words, "overnight success" only looks that way
from the outside. When you finally hit your momentum, it
won't feel like overnight success to you. But it may look
that way to others.
I have found this to be true without exception. EVERY
"overnight success," when I've looked at it closely, wasn't
really. My mentor coach looked like an overnight success,
going from $0 to a full client load in 90 days... except
that she had years of experience in running a different
practice before, and had the internal confidence it takes
to enroll clients.
There CAN be a sudden big jump in results, and this, no
doubt, is what makes people think to call it an "overnight
success." But, it just ain't so. The sudden big jump is
because the slow, steady incremental pushing of the
Flywheel suddenly hit the tipping point. You are inching up
the see-saw, and, a little bit past the mid-way point, the
see-saw tilts in the other direction.
The real question isn't "Can you get the see-saw to tip?"
The real question is: "Can you keep from getting thrown off
when the see-saw does tip?" How many lottery winners hold
on to their millions? How many sudden superstar athletes or
musicians are overwhelmed by success, and fall into drugs
and reckless spending?
It's strange but true that many participants in my Heart of
Money Transformational Journey have a bigger struggle
appreciating assets they already own, than they do in
facing their financial liabilities.
The real secrets to "overnight success" are:
1. It only looks like "overnight" from the outside - it
took a lot of incremental work over years; 2. You have to
prepare yourself internally; 3. You should look around and
find contentment in your heart where you already are, so
you can feel enlivened to continue the journey ahead. You
don't have to be afraid of success, but you do have to
prepare yourself spiritually in the same incremental manner
as you do your business. If you work on both the internal
and the external parts of success, then you'll be ready for
the tipping point when it comes, inside and out.
More details on how to create your own "overnight success"
below, in
Keys to Your Overnight Success
• Comparison is an evil force. Seriously. Although it's
great to watch others in order to learn, if you are
comparing yourself to someone else, when each of your
situations is unique, you ignite havoc in your heart as you
struggle to be someone you aren't.
Stop comparing yourself to others. You don't know their
story. You don't know how they did what they are doing.
And, you probably don't even know the full truth of how
successful they really are. People can look successful, and
still have their struggles.
• Appreciate your assets. This is the third chapter of
Section Five: The Heart of Money, in my book, and it is
surprisingly challenging for most people. Try facing
something you own, maybe a bigger ticket item, and notice
how your heart feels as you face it. This item is yours,
it's been given to you, you have full responsibility over
how to dispose of it.
Don't be surprised if it's an overwhelming feeling. But
take time to accept what you already have into your heart.
Digesting like this will help make room for more.
• Don't do more than one difficult thing at a time. Don't
raise your prices, start a new marketing campaign, and try
to create your first DVD all at the same time. Pick one
challenging area, and immerse yourself in it until you feel
you "own" it. Then move on to the next. Don't worry if you
don't have a blog, or a DVD, or whatever latest and newest
thing everyone is touting. You'll get to them, if it's
truly important.
Instead focus on the most challenging thing in your
business that isn't working to your satisfaction, and take
it on. Learn about it, chew on it, integrate it into your
heart, and then you can move on to the next.
----------------------------------------------------
Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your
Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your
Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line.
He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the
globe succeed in business without lousing their hearts. Get
three free chapters of the book online:
http://www.heartofbusiness.com
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