If you’re brutally honest with yourself, in the quiet of the middle of the night when your brain is still racing like a wild horse through a fire, and you can’t turn off the twitch in every fibre of your being that is linked to your desire to succeed, and every ounce of your mind body and soul is tired from trying, you’ll admit you wish this was true…..

…That creating and running a successful business really was as easy as those people promise.

You know, THOSE people. The ones with all the ‘luck’. The ones with all the right people in their camp. The ones with supportive parents and partner. The ones with the nannies. The ones with great marketing speak as a natural gift. The ones with money to invest. The ones who make it look easy.

You know that deep down, even though you tell people you love what you do and that you enjoy working hard and figuring things out for yourself, and that you relish the challenge of your solo growth path, that you REALLY wish you could achieve great results with minimal effort.

And it’s not because you’re lazy. Don’t apologise. And it’s not because you’re dumb either.  Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. It’s just human nature.  If there’s an easier way, 99.9% of us will take it. Sometimes it just gets so freaking hard to do stuff and to be a winner at every bloody thing, that you just wish you could wave a magic wand, do what the blurb on the sales page says, and voila! SUCESS! Just like ‘those’ people on the shiny Facebook ad said.

Well you know what? I wish it were true too. Sometimes. Ok, often. If there were an easier way, boy would I exploit it!  But other times I really DO relish the challenge. Honestly. And here’s why: Anything worth doing requires REAL effort and engagement. Importantly, it also requires a willingness to admit that we don’t know it all….and that regardless of age or experience, we can always learn new tricks from someone else. 

At the risk of sounding like your mother, or your fifth grade teacher, it’s true.

• If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing properly.  
• You can teach an old dog new tricks.  
• The minute you’re the smartest one in the room, find a new room.

And the reason for sharing these homilies, is because I’ve experienced their truth.

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE feeling smart. I was blessed with a decent brain and I learnt early on how to use it and continue to apply it to new situations. However, I am also much more self-aware than ever before. I know my shortcomings and my sticking points. I always put myself in rooms where I have a chance to learn from someone else, where there is someone new to me who has been there done that thing that I want to do so that I can learn/watch/imitate.  It’s SO important for your continued growth and interest in your business.

And the thing is, that there is no magic bullet. Try as I might to find it, it doesn’t exist. Not in my world anyway. What I know is that THOSE people, those magic people who seem to have it all together and be consistently successful have this in common: they are super inquisitive, definitely bold, they seek knowledge fervently, then they implement what they know, they test and measure, then repeat the process. Once a level of success has been achieved, they then step up and once again become inquisitive, are bold, seek more knowledge, implement what they learn, test and measure and then repeat. It’s consistent, it’s methodical. But it’s not always easy.

What you have to do is just find your people to learn from. The ones who make it easy for you to join the tribe of THOSE people who look successful more often than not. You need to find ways to get out of your own way to learn what you need to, then find the time and energy to implement it. It’s not always a perfect cycle, but it does work.