Patterns of the Successful in Business

Howdy! It's been a while y'all. I am coming to you from Colorado now, and I am enjoying living here so much soaking up the sunshine and outdoors.

I recently listened to a podcast with Tony Robbins, Bill Gross, Jason Green, Mikhail Kokoruch, and Dakin Sloss. These men listed are all pioneers and leader in many industries, some, as much as 10+ different industries. This podcast was titled, The Future of Food, Energy, and Space: The Tony Robbins Podcast.

What I love about this podcast, is that the focus is on such aspiring subjects and unlimited renewable and clean energy, radical change within the food system that could save an enormous amount of energy waste AND save millions, billions of lives by providing food at amounts rarely provided in areas that are rarely provided AND still while being cheaper, tastier, and cleaner on the environment. Finally, space travel with a massively cheap innovation as water as fuel, being able to refuel at asteroids, moons, and other objects to be used to start to travel and utilize the planets and moons around us, with an emphasis on making space exploration so cheap and efficient to "democratize/free" the process, so virtually anyone has access to it.

Sounds kinda cool, right?..

Some of these things, may sound too good to be true, or very far off in the future, but as with anything, it is impossible, until somebody does it. This is then followed by the rest of the world accepting it as true and many more people innovate and improve the process that was thought impossible. E.g., Roger Bannister and the 4 minute mile.

This brings us right into subject that I felt so powerful in this podcast, that I wanted to discuss and share. Such a beauty that things like this are free to listen to, and then act upon.

When the four gentleman were asked to share the patterns they had seen in successful business and learned in their combined 100+ years of experience, they each gave a beautiful response. One of which, from Bill Gross, who runs the longest running technology incubator company on earth who started more than 150+ companies, and whom is filled with fulfillment and purpose in solving the "unsolvable" problems, was a gold filled answer that I wrote down nuggets from in my journal. Part of my journal entry, with additional commentary is below.

The number one thing Bill started with saying in response to what patterns he had seen and lived in successful businesses, and even in areas of life was;

Being Passionate about what you are doing, your mission.

The main thing that he saw in companies, people, groups, divisions, that changed the world, or "broke through" to a lasting success in business (where most business die within the first year, and even more within the first 5 years), was the massive buy-in, and passion they had within the mission, or purpose itself.

Think about a time where when you cared so much about something, someone, a team, a goal of yours. What was your why? How did it make you feel? Powerful, fast-thinking, innovative, gritty? Or did it make you feel lazy, bored, temporarily motivated?

The energy behind the why, behind the passion is going to be what fuels you through any time, and especially the times of challenge, "hard rocks", and learning lessons. One thing I loved that Bill and others would say is: "It is only failure if you don't learn anything". There are going to be many iterations, many changes, and adaptations within creating something new and trying to add value (building a business).

"The strong survive", right?

This makes me think of strong as in nature, meaning the ability to adapt. The ability to handle challenge, and adapt to the next iteration to be that much more successful in your endeavor.

The passion is going to be the fuel to the fire, where when things get windy, long-lasting, or whatever else, you can always keep the fire going during sunny days, or cold wintery nights.

Lastly, one thing I love that Tony says, is that the more meaningful, "big"/ "life supporting" a goal or a mission is, the more insight you get towards the mission. Wanting to help your self or just your family will give you a certain level of insight to do so. Wanting to massively help your community or the world, will give you another level of insight to do so.

Secondly,

Surrounding yourself around complimentary people that balance you out. People that have skills different than you, and are better at you than something.

I have heard a similar principle from Ray Dalio, none other than the man who wrote the book, Principles. Ray Dalio leads the largest hedge fund in the United States, and is a good friend of Tony's and constantly wants to help others. Surrounding yourself around people that are better than you in areas that you are not the best in, or even don't like can be a superpower, if you have done the self-assessment and inner work to truly know what your strengths and weaknesses are.

If you see yourself as more of an artist, one who loves to create the product you create, such as actual art, or fostering relationships with others, that is great. I do see parts of myself in this archetype.

Now how do you get clients in the door? Does even thinking about selling your product give you a feeling of unimportance, or dreading?

Your art doesn't do much, or mean much in the marketplace, if it sits in a storage unit, or if your relationship skills doesn't pay your rent and you get evicted. That is the reality of it.

If we take any ability of mastering or adapting to be able to "sell" or "market" in this case, and look purely to merge with others, finding someone who is good at making quick relationships, "getting people in the door", and selling on the spot would be a great match to the artist archetype. This would allow the artist to create the product, which people do want, and for the "business/salesman" archetype to get the product to the people.

If this model wanted to go to the next level, then different archetypes would come in, such as the analyst, entrepreneur, and others. It is a balancing act that where all the people have a similar mission, just in different meanings to them. (Artist in this example, making art to give value to others, meeting others to add value in their life by providing a service. The businessman in this example, connecting people with services and products that truly make their life better, and navigating the dynamic process of getting someone to say yes, is something that excites them and provides value to others).

Being Contrary and Right

As Bill says, it is one thing to be contrary, and actually it is easy to be contrary, and wrong.

One thing that comes to mind right away with this is, the stock market.

Think about how easy it is to be contrary and wrong.

Was there a time where you were contrary, against the grain, with "massive potential for success", and then you were very, very wrong?

I'm sure there is not, nothing like that ever happened with you..

All jokes aside, the breakthroughs in life and in business occur, when you do something that no one else said can be done, and it becomes fact.

As Bill says in the podcast, with a lot of the breakthroughs, it will be a "crazy idea", that will put you in a position that someone is in with a crazy idea in business; continually adjusting, learning, applying, and retesting. Having a crazy idea, will get you treated like someone with a crazy idea, in a business sense. The market will be somewhere else, for the majority, as in the case presented in the podcast, with non-renewable energy (fossil fuels). Renewable, clean energy is actually cheaper to produce that fossil fuels at this very second. Now, energy storage, is a different story. The energy storage of clean energy (solar, wind, etc.) is very expensive and inefficient right now.

What happens when the sun isn't shining or the wind is not blowing?

Think of the energy blackouts you may have heard about in California. They have been a leader in the "green energy" area, but have also experienced the inefficiencies that area presents at this current time.

Now, he has been improving drastically in areas of energy storage and utilization of those processes to still be cheaper than fossil fuels, so that this crazy idea of today, will be the more cost efficient and accepted idea by the market, of tomorrow.

"If you make something more economical, the market has to follow." Is an idea that I loved hearing from this podcast.

The ability to understand, willing to learn (fail), and push through challenge

Taking mud, dirt, and turning it into gold. When building something, you are going to get dirty, you are going to have something fall and hit your foot, or sometimes, even have someone move something and have a part of what you are building crash. What are you going to do then?

Some people may sit and sulk, cry, and not want to build, for the fear of having what you build crash back down being to great.

Some people may laugh, and build a better, more proof foundation, so the chances of having something fall again, lessens.

One thing I learned from Bill, is the importance of iteration, and adapting to change as things go on. This may be for the product itself, for the process of testing, or anything else. Each time there is a "test" or building a product or service, something can be learned from the way it performs in the "test".

Think of a time you might've built or creating something that you wanted to perform well, whether it is a business idea, project for your boss, or a boy scout's race car that you built with your son, or as a kid yourself. These all had an objective in mind. To provide a value and get customers, to help your team/and your boss, or to have the fastest time to get down the ramp in the toy car race.

Do you think the 10th time you built a car, 10th business idea you are starting, or the 10th project you have done will be better than the 1st time, or vice versa?

If you are not insane, then you would think the 10th time.

Yes, according to Albert Einstein, you would be insane to think that.

This is only if learning and adaptation occurs, however.

Tony says, with any change in life, it comes down to action. You can have all the information in the world, and still not make any change in your life. We are in a world with a plethora of information, and saturation of books, podcasts, videos, how-to's, tutorials of about everything imaginable.

I could learn how to code, how to play guitar, and even how to train a cat to do a high-five..

There are different levels of the usefulness of some of the skills to learn online, but the saturation of knowledge accessible is at this time, more than it's ever been, ever.

Now, with all of the information, accessibility, and opportunity, none of that means squat, until you do anything with it.

I love this quote, that I heard from Siri Lindley, Triathlete champion, who beat cancer and whom was part of one of Tony's recent events,

This comes to mind for me when I think of all the great opportunities provided to us, by living now, and having accessibility and the chance to create our own businesses, ways of improving and adding value to the world, such as what these four gentleman and thousands of others are doing. If we take from the gift of failure, what we can learn, and apply it to make our product, service, ourselves better, then we are actualizing the gifts given to us.

I love this as changing the way you look at things, changes those things, and everything.

This then allows you to make what was thought as "impossible", possible. Because "I'm-possible" as you can say to yourself. Patterns have the ability to compress decades into days as Tony says, and something that I have taken advantage of in my life, with getting mentored, shadowing, internships, working for the best, and hanging around the best of the best.

There is always something to learn, and that is the greatest gift.

I hope this sharing of patterns noted from some of the greatest, most fulfilled, and passion driven "movers" in the world, helps and inspires you to take action and apply it in your life.

Peace,

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Ryan Bresnahan CPT, CES, USAW-1, Pn-1

ryanbresnahanfitness.com