I was having a conversation with an organizer who organizes high-level events for entrepreneurs and business people. Now, this is an invite-only event on top of a mountain and you can guess kind of what this event is like. Now, I was very honored to be considered and to be recommended to be an invitee to this event. And during the conversation which is essentially an interview to see if you can get accepted, so to speak, but during the conversation, I asked him his story. I want to know what made him tick and why he started these events.
He said something that I thought was very profound, and very profound in the sense what he told me was he really knew and understood himself. He told me about the businesses he had built in excess of $50 million for just his last business. What he told me, “Doug, is I always have a partner. I’m the creative. I’m the vision guy. I’m pretty crazy and pretty wacky and that’s actually why I started this event because I wanted to have more very successful entrepreneurs getting together.”
What he does is he actually hire someone who’s the polar opposite of him. In fact, in his event series that he runs, again, which is very well-known, he has actually hired a boss, a CEO, someone to manage the whole company because he realized he doesn’t have the skillsets to do it and the skillsets he wasn’t possessing was the ability to organize and systematize a business. That’s a common complaint with most entrepreneurs.
But the point of this whole conversation, the reason I bring this up to you is I was so interested in how well he actually knew himself. He knew himself well enough that he knew, “Hey, look, I could probably run this whole event series maybe this other business that I’m running, but if I get a partner, if I bring somebody else and he’s got maybe more experience or the opposite skillsets or someone who’s just simply a contrarian, I can actually grow this a lot faster and with flow and ease. It will just be easier to do.
After our conversation, we got off and again, I felt very, very thankful that he considered me and invited me to join the group. After the conversation, I started thinking, “Geez, where else in my life, in my Five to Thrive, in my mind, in my body, in my soul, my relationship to my business am I not being true to myself? Maybe I don’t know myself.
How often do some of us go out there and we try to fix our weaknesses? We focus on our weakness to try to make it better when really we should focus on what we’re good at, our strengths. The ability for us to actually give our gifts to the world and focus on improving those gifts and then bringing somebody else in to fill the holes, the things that we’re not that good at.
I can tell you, my life when it comes to financial accounting or very detailed granular work, it’s not my forte. Now, in the past, in my early 20s, I worked really hard at trying to get better at it and I did in a sense that I was able to get good enough to grow my business. But it wasn’t really fulfilling for me, and when I actually started outsourcing, outsourcing my bookkeeping, outsourcing my financial analysis, outsourcing my systemization of my businesses, when I started outsourcing that to my staff or to somebody else, I actually was able to thrive. My business started growing exponentially.
And that’s where I started wondering, “Hey, where else can I do this?” After this conversation, I’m still wondering. Where else am I trying to cover up my faults? Where am I trying to cover up my weaknesses and work on those in getting better where I really should focus on my strengths. See, I think my strength is one-on-one coaching, teaching people. I’ve always been a teacher.
Ever since I was in high school and coaching sports camps, all the way from running a gym to teaching marketing to lecturing the students, to doing my one-on-one private coaching and small-group coaching and even retreats. This is where I thrive. I know this is my zone of genius and I know that if I have to get focused in the details and the detail works the logistics, it’s just not where I thrive. It’s not where I’m the best. I bring in people. I bring in a staff and build a team around me to do that.
Now, in my body, same exact things. Where am I trying to improve? Now, when I was a college athlete, I really wanted to improve my long distance running. I was a great sprinter. I was an anaerobic athlete and I still am, but I would start focusing on the long distance because I wanted to be holistic. I wanted to have a whole perspective.
In retrospect, if I would have focused on improving what I was already good at, it would have carried me further in my athletic career. This also goes in other areas of our life, our mind as well as relationships. There are certain things that you just want to work on relationships, let’s be honest, but what areas are you just really horrible at? Just really just not great in relationships and what else do you exceed in and really do good?
For me personally, if you were to throw me into a social situation with a couple of hundred people at a party, I would do great for the first few hours but it would drain me. But on one-on-one or with a small group where we’re at a dinner table or a boardroom or a conference, I could be there forever because I could definitely impact the people that I’m with and that’s what lights me up. If I can help somebody and uplift them in a large level, that’s where I excel.
That’s what I focus on. I no longer focus on trying to be able to network or work a room. It’s not just who I am, and I no longer have to do that. I’m lucky. I’m asking you for the possibility for your own self. Where is it in your life, in your Five to Thrive, where are you trying to cover up or focus on a potential weakness where you really should just be on elevating your strengths and then bringing people around you just like this gentleman did to focus on building up your weaknesses with their talents?
That’s it for me today. As always, go to authorofyourownstory.com where you get the latest tips, tricks and techniques delivered right to your inbox each and every day. Of course, share this with three people so you can continue to build your tribe. This is the way you do it, servant leadership. Give it to somebody else. If you’re a business owner, give it to your staff. If you’re a staff member, give it to a friend or a fellow colleague. This is the way you continue conversations that better the world and will better yourself.
If you like these daily growth hacks, it would mean the world to us if you would take a moment to subscribe and review us on iTunes!
Loading...
