MBA2494 Why Some Succeed and Some Don't

0:09Heyo, welcome to the$100 MBA show, powerful business lessons you can count on. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher, Omar Zinhome. And in today's episode, you will learn why some succeed and some don't. This is a topic I've been studying for some time and wanted to create an episode on this topic. I spent the last few weeks gathering my thoughts and my research and putting it on a silver platter for you today. Now, when I'm talking about success, why some succeed and some don't, I'm not talking about a particular business or a particular venture or launch. I'm talking about success as an entrepreneur.

0:48Eventually, you will succeed if you don't fall into some of these traps I'll be talking about today. One of the things I love about business and entrepreneurship is that you can get better over time. You don't need to be some sort of gifted person to be successful in entrepreneurship. In fact, a lot of successful entrepreneurs think that people that are too smart get in their own way and don't succeed. This is not like becoming a professional basketball player or even an incredible musician where maybe you need some innate talent to help you along the way. This should really motivate you knowing that you can do this.

1:24You could be successful as an entrepreneur as long as you don't do the things that cause people to not succeed. So I'm going to get into those in today's lesson. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. After doing my research on this topic, I actually found that there's only three big reasons why some people succeed and some people don't. It was really surprising to me, but it was quite refreshing to know it's that simple. Just because something is simple, though, doesn't mean that it's easy. So let's jump into the first reason why some entrepreneurs succeed and some don't. Number one, threshold to pain and perseverance.

1:59Becoming successful as an entrepreneur, Having successful businesses, ventures, financial freedom, being able to build incredible enterprises, products, services is not easy. It's actually quite painful. I could tell you, I've been doing this for 20 years. And when I look back at those 20 years, the biggest emotion I feel is actually pain. There's a lot of pain involved to get through what you need to get through so that you can win in business. Now, I don't look back at it and say, oh, that makes me sad, all that pain, all that anguish. It actually makes me proud that I was able to withstand that pain and persevere so I can have some wins under my belt.

2:40Success in entrepreneurship isn't about never failing. It's about how you respond to failure, how you pick yourself up when it hurts so bad. Let me share a story that perfectly illustrates this point. It's one of my favorite stories. is about Sylvester Stallone before he became a household name with the movie Rocky. Sylvester Stallone was struggling to make ends meet. He was behind on his rent. His significant other was like, you got to get it together or I'm leaving. And then she eventually left him because he was so destitute. He was a beyond out of work actor. He couldn't get a job. People thought he slurred his speech.

3:17His mouth was a little crooked. That happened to him at birth because he was pulled out by the forceps, and he was just really down on his luck and career as an actor. So he decided to write a part for himself. He's not a writer, but he thought the best way for me to be a star in a movie is to write a movie that would work for me. So he wrote the script for Rocky. He actually locked himself in his apartment, blacked out the windows with paint so he doesn't even get tempted to leave his apartment. And he says, I'm not going to leave this apartment until I write the script to the story. And within three days, he has the first version of Rocky.

3:55This is a guy that barely has money to live, to eat. All he has is a landlord that's patient, but the patience is wearing off, and his dog. Everybody's left him. It's just him and his notepad writing down the script. He writes this incredible script, but he faces some serious rejection when he presents the script to studios. Finally, a studio offers him$125 ,000. They said, we love the script. We're going to take the script from you. But they didn't want him to star in it. They wanted a known name to star in this role. Sylvester said, no, I need to be Rocky. This story is written for me to star in it.

4:34And Stallone turns them down. Guys, this guy is about to be homeless. He has no money. They then come back to him and say, we'll give you a quarter of a million dollars, but you can't be Rocky. Just give us a script and we'll be happy. And he said, no. I mean, his life would radically change. This is the seventies guys, but he still said no. And when Stallone was asked about this in an interview, he said it was a no brainer for me. I had to say no because I'm used to pain. I'm used to being poor. It can't get much worse than this. He said his threshold of pain was enough for him to hold out while he's holding out.

5:09He's got no money for food. but he's got no money for rent. I mean, these negotiations take a while. He eventually sells his dog at a corner liquor store just to make ends meet. They finally agree that he can star in the role, but they're only gonna pay him$35 ,000. And points on the movie's success. He accepted, and the rest is history. If you're wondering, first thing he did was buy his dog back. He went back to that liquor store, hoping that the guy that he sold the dog to frequenced that liquor store. Day after day, he waited for him. On the third day, he finally showed up with his dog. Rocky said, I'd love to buy my dog back.

5:43The guy's like, no, he's my dog now. I love him. He's like, I'll give you whatever you want. He says, no, what are you talking about? Eventually, they settle on a deal. Sylvester Stallone pays$15 ,000 for his dog. The only one that stood beside him during his struggles. And he offers the guy a cameo part in Rocky. He's the referee in Rocky. And the dog in Rocky, Butkus, is his dog. I share this amazing story with you because Stallone had an incredible threshold to pain and perseverance. He endured countless rejections. He endured financial struggles. But his belief and his vision and his perseverance paid off.

6:18As entrepreneurs, those who still stand are the ones who could handle setbacks, keep moving forward. And even when things are tough, even when they think that they're down and out, those are the ones that eventually succeed. One of my favorite lines from the book Shoe Dog, which is Phil Knight, the founder of Nike's memoir is the cowards never started, the weak died along the way. That leaves us. If you're one of us, if you're an entrepreneur, you're going to have to be willing to go through some pain and keep moving forward, having that perseverance. That's a big differentiator between those who succeed and those who don't.

6:55The second reason why some succeed and some don't is that we all have a different understanding of hard work. Hard work isn't just about the number of hours you put in. It's about the quality and the intensity of that work. Successful entrepreneurs often work smarter and harder, not just, oh, I'm going to work smarter, but not harder. No, they work smarter and harder. Consider this. Two people can work the same number of hours, but their outcomes can be vastly different. One might spend their time on tasks that don't really move the needle or bring in cash for their business, while the other focuses on high-impact activities that drive the business forward.

7:31High impact, meaning the activities that bring in the money. It's about prioritizing what truly matters and being relentless in your pursuit to actually getting the work done, the important work done. So working smarter, but also harder. So work just as hard, but on the smart side, the stuff that actually makes your business grow. It's so interesting because I love meeting new people. I love going to meetups. I love having lunches with entrepreneurs, going to conferences, and I like to hear what people are struggling with, what they're working on, what some of their wins are. And I really see firsthand, there are so many different definitions of hard work.

8:07Some people really think they're working hard, but they've never been given an example or seen what another version of hard work looks like. They have no perspective on what hard work means. One of the things I did, one of the habits I started to do, and I still continue to do this today, is I start my day with a notebook and a pen, and I write down all the things I want to get done, a to-do list. But then I circle the things that are most important in terms of growing my business. So my list might be 10 or 15 things, but then I eventually circle about seven things, maybe six things, maybe five things, depending on the size of these tasks.

8:42I said, if I get these things done today, today is a win because they will move my business forward. And I do not allow myself to be distracted by anything like social media, like messages, like WhatsApp, until I get those tasks done. Now, I can jump into some fun and some videos and some YouTube and social when I'm having lunch, when I'm having a break, but not when I'm working. When I'm working, I got to go hard. I got to work hard on the things that matter. And what happens is I actually get six solid hours of work, concentrated work that actually gets things done. There's a lot of people I know that work 8, 9, 10, 12 hours a day, but they're being pulled from different directions with different distractions.

9:22So you may need to redefine what hard work means to you, working smarter, working on the things that matter, and working a lot sometimes. I had some really long days and weeks. I didn't have a weekend for the first six or seven years of Webinar Ninja. I think it was seven years. Yeah, seven years of Webinar Ninja. I didn't have a weekend. Now, maybe that's not healthy and maybe that's not good work-life balance, but I was a bootstrap business. I was competing with people that had lots of funds and lots of staff and manpower. They have so much leverage over me. I need to win some other way and working harder and smarter at the same time helped me tremendously.

10:01The third reason why some succeed and some don't is that some entrepreneurs take responsibility for the results, win or lose. And if the results are not what they're supposed to be, they are resourceful with their plan of action, with their next step forward. They don't blame external factors or make excuses. They own their outcomes and they find ways to overcome obstacles. Some entrepreneurs fall in the blame game. They say the economy took a turn and that's why I failed. Even though they know there's a lot of businesses and a lot of entrepreneurs that have made millions and billions on downturn markets.

10:42They know this objective, but they blame the market. They blame their staff. They blame their family, maybe. Their family was telling them they needed to do something else or they were pulled in different directions. They blame their health. They blame anything other than themselves. Those who succeed take responsibility. This is all on me. I got to figure this out because you know what? That's all you got. All you got is yourself, okay? You can't change the economy. You can't change your employees' attitude on a dime if you can replace them, but it's not that simple. You can't change your circumstances sometimes, but you can change yourself.

11:18I learned this from Jim Rohn from a very young age that you have to not blame the weather. Don't blame the wind. Change the set of your sail. If you want to get somewhere, don't blame, oh, the wind is blowing the wrong way. No, change your sail, point it in the right direction so that you can move in the right direction. One of my favorite entrepreneurs is Sarah Blakely. She's the founder of Spanx, a bootstrapped billion-dollar business. She didn't have a background in fashion or retail, but she was determined to create a product that she believed in. She took responsibility for learning everything.

11:50She didn't say, oh, I have all these disadvantages. No, she took responsibility to learn everything that she needed to know to succeed in this field. From prototyping to her marketing to selling to getting product placement in department stores, she didn't make excuses. She was resourceful. She was willing to take the nose and take charge of her success, which led to her billion-dollar empire. There you have it. Those are the three big reasons why some are successful and some are not successful in business. Just to recap, first one, threshold to pain and perseverance. Number two, not having a clear understanding of what hard work means.

12:27Working smarter and harder. And number three, taking responsibility and being resourceful. Not making excuses. One of my favorite sayings, and I say it all the time because it's one of my favorite sayings, is you can have excuses or you can have results. You can't have both. Thanks so much for listening to The$100 MBA Show. If you love what you hear, the best way to say thank you is just to subscribe, to follow the show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, whatever podcast app you're listening to right now. Follow the show. Click that button. That's all you got to do to show your love. It makes a huge difference.

13:00So thank you in advance for doing that. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. The journey of entrepreneurship is filled with highs and a lot of lows. Those that succeed, they're not necessarily the smartest. They're not necessarily the most talented, but they're the ones who persevere through the pain. They understand the true meaning of what working hard means, working on the right things, distraction-free as much as possible. And they don't make excuses. They're resourceful. They're adaptable. They're relentless. they take responsibility and say that's on me i gotta fix it i gotta get better this is what makes entrepreneurship so hard but it's also what makes it so sweet because it's not about what you achieve it's actually about who you become in the process of achieving it whatever that goal is you transform into a new person because of what you have to do that's the biggest reward thanks so much for listening and i'll check you in the next episode i'll see you then take care Thank you.