This is how you win

01/15/24 • 12 min

I was watching John Wick Chapter 2 the other day and the opening sequence features John laying waste to an army of henchmen in a warehouse.As he is cracking skulls (and being struck by vehicles) below, two crime bosses discuss what makes John so absolutely terrifying: “John Wick is a man of focus, commitment and sheer f***ing will.”Nothing about how strong he is, how fast he is, how good he is with a gun, or how smart he is.Focus, commitment, and will make him uniquely dangerous and nearly impossible to kill.You may not have access to all the resources you would like. You may not be the smartest business owner around. You may not be an expert in all the latest marketing tactics. You may not know all the right people.But you can choose to be more focused, committed, and driven than absolutely anyone around you.What if those are the traits that will help you advance your business in ways that your competitors can’t match?Take a minute to make a note of a goal or outcome you want to realize. How would someone who was wholly devoted to that outcome spend their days? What would they do? What WOULDN’T they do? How would they maintain their focus on accomplishing that goal? What would keep them awake at night? How would they invest their time and their money? How would they navigate distractions?How devastating would they be to their competition?Go be that person.

Previous Episode

What do you need to stop doing?

If you are like a great many people, you likely just made a list of resolutions or goals for this brand new year.Fantastic!Here’s a way to make that list even more effective: add at least a few things you will STOP doing.It is likely that you won’t realize the resolutions and goals you’ve outlined if you don’t also identify the habits and behaviors that will get in your way.-You may want to hit the gym every morning, but first you need to STOP snoozing that alarm clock.
-You may want to reach out to new customers each week, but first you need to stop wasting time on YouTube.
-You may want to delegate more, but first you need to stop buying into the idea that it will just be faster if you do it yourself.What you DO matters. A lot.But so does what you DON’T do.

Next Episode

Fix your systems before they embarrass you

One of the most hilarious and poetically perfect videos on the internet is a clip of 90’s rockers Rage Against The Machine playing live on the BBC. The clip focus on the ending of their song “Killing In The Name,” which features frontman Zach DeLaRocha sing-screaming “F*** you I won’t do what you tell me” seventeen times on the studio recording.During this live performance DeLaRocha omits the not-ready-for-prime-time word the first eight times through, but as the music climaxes he raises his middle finger to the camera and lets the F-bomb fly on repeat.Moments later the feed is interrupted by a commentator saying, “Sorry...that suddenly turned into something we were not expecting. Well we were expecting it, and asked them not to do it, and they did it anyway.”So, the BBC invited a band who might have been best known for their “F*** you I won’t do what you tell me” attitude...and were somehow caught off guard that they, in fact, did not do what they were told.Here’s the thing: while you are shaking your head at how obvious this outcome seems, you likely have systems and processes in your business that you KNOW are broken (or at least iffy) but will leave you speechless when they fail at exactly the wrong moment.You will likely never perfect every system in your business, that’s not the point, but you should never be surprised when something works the way you built it.I’m guessing that you just thought of a system or a process that needs some work. Take a moment to capture it and identify what you need to do to shore it up.(Need some help? Let’s jump on a discovery call to see how I can help you fix those busted systems before they betray you.)