Career Advice From Goats — and Humans, Too Try These 5 Pieces of Business Wisdom
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Step 2: Write down what you do. Make another list on that whiteboard of everything you do for work, and I mean everything. If it takes up your time and it’s related to your business, it goes on the list. Step 3: Delegate and automate so that List No. 2 feeds List No. 1. Get both of your lists in front of you. Then look at the things you’re doing and ask yourself, “Are these things helping me reach my goals?” There might be tasks you can stop doing completely because they aren’t pushing you in the right direction. But more likely, you’ll realize you just have WAY too many tasks on your list — especially if one of your goals is to work fewer hours. If that’s the case for you, look on the list of what you do and find the easiest tasks to take off your plate. I call these items low-hanging fruit. They’re the things you should automate, delegate, or outsource right now to gain independence. Heck, you can even delegate your entire job by hiring a CEO to take your place. Between the tax money you’ll save and the independence you’ll get, it just might be worth it! I did the math, and if your company were making $1 million per year, hiring a CEO and paying them $200,000 would mean only giving up $2,400 per week after taxes. Think about it: Would you give up $2,400 a week out of your $1 million profit if it meant you never had to work again? The CEO thing is an extreme example. You can start with something much smaller, like delegating content creation for your print and digital newsletters to my company. Sure, it’s an upfront cost, but we’ve mailed 80 million newsletters. We’ll get yours done better, faster, and more reliably than you or one of your overloaded team members — and free up your time to go to your kids’ football game. The point of being wealthy in my opinion isn’t to be a billionaire. The point is to make enough money so that you can buy back all (or virtually all) of your time. It’s a mindset shift, but hiring, delegating, automating, and outsourcing will help you reach the point where you can do literally whatever you want. If you want to sit naked in your house and paint all day, you can! You can do anything. That’s freedom. That’s independence. And that’s the goal of every American entrepreneur. –Shaun
I’ll tell you how in a minute. But first I want to share a story about my own entrepreneur dream — and how I realized it was the wrong one. I’ve always believed that if I really wanted to, I could be a billionaire. I don’t have any doubt in my mind about that. I know a couple of people who are or have been billionaires, and I’ve studied many more. The more I got into that world, the more I discovered what it takes to reach that level. To be a first-generation billionaire you have to make SO many sacrifices. We’re talking about virtually everything, at least in the short term: kids, relationships, events, weekends, holidays, you name it. I didn’t know this in the beginning. I just thought, “Yeah, I want to be a billionaire! Worst case scenario, I’ll miss my mark and have $100 million.” But then I figured out what it would take to get there, and I thought, “Should I really sacrifice everything for money?” Eventually I got to the point where I had to make the decision to keep pushing for a billion dollars or not, and the answer became really clear to me. I wasn’t willing to sacrifice time with my kids and risk them hating me to become a billionaire. At some point — and everyone’s point is different — the money is no longer motivating. I found my point. A lot of people never have this realization. They’re unwilling to sacrifice AND unwilling to reevaluate their goals, so they keep going and try to use duct tape, spit, and glue to piece the dream together. It almost never works. Don’t be those people. Instead, follow these three steps to get clear on what independence looks like for you and what you can do right now to get there. Step 1: Write down what you want. Sit down with a whiteboard and brain dump all of your goals and dreams. What does your ideal independent life look like? What does freedom mean to you? There are no right or wrong answers. Ideally you should have a business partner or mentor who can contribute while you do this, but if they aren’t helpful, you can kick them out. This is YOUR life and no one else gets a say. I don’t care if your spouse thinks you’re an idiot for what you want, you can still want it. Just make sure you ask yourself, “Am I willing to make these sacrifices to achieve this goal?” If not, cross the goal off and pick a new one. (While you’re doing this, you might realize that your current business won’t get you to these goals … but that’s a topic for another newsletter.)
‘Earn their trust.’ “The best piece of career advice I ever received was ‘Earn their trust.’ Whether it’s a client, a coworker, a vendor, or a boss, once you have earned someone’s trust, new opportunities, information, and cooperation come your way. I’ve found this to be true for more than three decades of my career."
When Terkel founder and CEO Brett Farmiloe first graduated from college, he embarked on an epic project: interviewing more than 300 people and asking them for their best career advice. Unfortunately, this didn’t turn out as planned. As Farmiloe put it to Forbes: “ … the best career lesson came from a fainting goat. Adult fainting goats experience temporary paralysis when they face fear. On the other hand, baby fainting goats know nothing about fear and move about the farm freely. The key to a career: Avoid being paralyzed by fear.” That article made us laugh out loud! Entrepreneurs can truly find inspiration from all kinds of unlikely sources. However, from what we’ve learned, most business owners get their nuggets of wisdom from human beings, not goats! Here are a few more of our favorite career tips that successful business leaders have learned on their journeys and shared with Forbes, CNBC, and Inc. magazine. ‘Surround yourself with smarter people.’
–Drew McLellan, Agency Management Institute (Forbes)
‘Be a clear communicator.’ “The best advice [my mom] ever gave me was ‘Be a clear communicator.’ She was very direct and incredibly insightful — she instinctively understood what personalities would best work together and which employee was best suited in each position.”
–Yvette Butler, Capital One Investing (CNBC)
‘Don’t underestimate the power of transparency.’ “The greatest piece of advice we were given is to remain authentic and transparent in every aspect of our brand: on the internal, business side and on the external, client-facing side. [This] promotes inclusion while showcasing our respect for the team and their livelihood.”
“Oftentimes, leaders feel that they need to be the ‘smartest guy or gal’ in the room, and
that couldn’t be further from the truth. Good leaders are the smartest one in the room, but great leaders surround themselves with smarter people that will challenge ideas, bring new perspectives to the table, and drive innovation.”
–Jacob Hanson, PR with Panache! (Forbes)
–Bonnie Micheli and Tracy Roemer, Shred415 (Inc.)
‘Never delegate a task you wouldn’t do.’ “Adding value is the most important thing you can do when being part of a team, and therefore I make sure every responsibility I delegate adds value … Otherwise, what’s the point in assigning it?”
We’d hazard a guess that every successful business leader could share a pearl of wisdom like this — including you! It’s a great reminder of the power in offering and seeking out mentorship, whether from fellow CEOs in a mastermind group, friends and family at the dinner table, or even goats in a field. If you have an opportunity to share your wisdom with the next generation of entrepreneurs this month, make sure you take it.
“The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.” –Proverbs 4:7
–Tina Bacon-DeFrece, Big Frog Custom T-Shirts & More (Inc.)
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