MBA2520 The Cost of Success

0:06Hey everybody, welcome back to the$100 MBA show. I'm your host Omar Zinhome. And in today's lesson, we're going to be doing something a little bit different, okay? Usually on this podcast, I'm giving you practical, tactical lessons, strategies, even some homework, right? I'm getting you to do certain steps to accomplish certain things. Today's episode is an episode I've been working on for the last six months, primarily because I've been debating within myself if I should share today's topic, if I should talk about this. And ultimately, I thought, would I want to know this if I was starting out?

0:38if I was Omar 10, 15 years ago? And the answer is yes, I would wanna know this. I would wanna hear this advice. So today's episode is a little bit different. This is Uncle Omar telling you, hey, you gotta listen up. This is something important you need to know. And what's the topic? Well, the topic is the cost of success. We hear a lot about success. We hear people winning. We hear people being acquired. We hear people making millions, if not billions of dollars. We see all these success stories, whether in business or whether it's in sport or whether it's somebody winning a Grammy or a Tony or an Oscar or whatever it might be.

1:14We hear about success all the time, but we don't ever really talk about what did that success cost them? What were the things they had to sacrifice? What are the things they had to go through? What are the things they had to change in order for them to reach that success? What did it cost them? And in today's episode, I'm going to share with you what my success has cost me. Okay. And this is going to be tough for me to share this episode because I have to go through some really dark times in my life. I have to go through some tough times I had. And I've been reflecting about this because for 10 years, I built a software company called Webinar Ninja with my partner, Nicole.

1:51And recently we sold this company to ProProfs. We got acquired. Amazing win. So happy about that. But that's 10 years of my life, right? I really was thinking about what was the cost of that acquisition? What did it cost me to get to that success, right? So that's what we're going to be talking about in today's episode. I think it's going to be really useful and it's going to make you think a little bit differently about your journey ahead. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. I want to start by saying if you are having a tough time right now starting your business, growing your business, if it's painful, if you're going through hell, and as Winston Churchill has said, If you're going through hell, keep going, right?

2:29It's okay. This is a rite of passage. You're on the right track. Everybody who's been successful has gone through a lot of pain, okay? I was reading the study when I was preparing for this episode. It was done by Harvard Business Review. And it said that the vast majority of successful entrepreneurs that they interviewed said they faced significant hardships and made immense sacrifices to get to where they are today. And of course, because we all have to sacrifice something to get something, okay? Look at your life right now. If you look around and look at your life, your job, your wealth, your prosperity, your relationships, your home, whatever it might be, whatever you have and you look at your life right now, you got there somehow.

3:11There were some things you had to go through to get there. So if you want a different level of that in your life or you want to try something new, you better believe that it's going to cost you something different. It's going to cost you something to get there. And that's what today's episode about. What is it going to cost you? Okay. And I'm going to share my own story and walk you through that. My journey in entrepreneurship started around 2002. And I was just building businesses on the side as I was in my education career, in my teaching career. I was a teacher, an English teacher. I taught English as a second language, and I built businesses as basically a side project, a side hustle, making a few bucks on the side to supplement my income.

3:54And I then started moving up in education. I became a manager. I became a head of department. I became the chair of the university I was working for 10 years in that career while building businesses on the side. But then I eventually left my educational career and became a full-time entrepreneur. I started my entrepreneurial journey with Nicole, who's my partner in life and partner in business. And in that leap of full-time entrepreneurship, I experienced a crazy amount of pain, right? I'm chuckling because I'm trying to make light of it, but really my life changed drastically. We lived in a very small studio apartment.

4:33We had no car. We basically spent nothing on ourself. We honestly struggled to pay our rent and pay our groceries because our paychecks stopped coming in because we're not working anymore in our jobs. And the business was not really building or making the income that we wanted at the time. right? It's still building. It takes a while to get momentum. Yes. I had some, uh, you know, some runway about six months or so, but you know, after time it starts to really hurt because you can't do the things that you used to. You can't go on the holidays you used to go to. You can't enjoy, you know, the fancy dinners that you might've gone for a special occasion.

5:14You can't celebrate your birthday like you'd like to all that kind of stuff. So those little sharp stabs of pain were happening. And I knew it was going to be temporary though. So in the back of my mind, I was like, okay, I know this is going to be tough. I know that this is not going to be easy. And I had a conversation with Nicole. I remember we had many conversations and it's like, maybe we should just, you know, pick up a part-time job. And I just never wanted to do that because I knew as soon as I pick up a job, I'm going to then just get comfortable. And I will not focus on my dream of becoming a successful entrepreneur.

5:47I think it's Kevin O 'Leary from Shark Tank, you know, Mr. Wonderful. He says the most two addictive drugs in the world are cocaine and a steady paycheck. So it's true. The paycheck really keeps you going because it allows you to keep on spending. But I decided to buckle down, Nicole decided to buckle down, and we kept on going. And the reason why I knew it was temporary is because I had the beautiful gift of biographies. Biographies are one of the best things you can read, especially in the first few years of entrepreneurship. because it prepares your mind for what to come, what you're gonna have to withstand.

6:20Some of the biographies I highly recommend are Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. He's the founder of Nike. I also highly recommend The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz, incredible, incredible story. Another one, love him or hate him, Elon Musk, Ashley Vance. His original biography is a really good one. I also love the biographies of other successful people, not just entrepreneurs. I love Open, which is an autobiography by Andre Agassi, the famous tennis player. I also love Kitchen Confidential by the late, great Anthony Bourdain, one of my heroes. So these are awesome, awesome biographies or stories because you realize, wow, these highly successful people that I absolutely look up to, they all ate glass for years and sacrificed and burned the midnight oil and really had a hard time.

7:12It was really rough. And you just ask yourself when you read these books, like, am I willing to go through that to be successful? And you realize I'm not alone. I'm going through some tough times. That's kind of a rite of passage. I get it. So this is one of the things that I kind of want to give you a heads up. It's supposed to be painful, right? It's supposed to be hard. You're changing your whole life. You're sacrificing so much. You're doing so much. And we're talking about sacrifice in a moment. But it's going to be painful. Be ready for it. You can do it. You can make it happen. I shared the story in a recent episode, but I'll share it again.

7:44One of my favorite movies of all time, if not the favorite is Rocky, right? Rocky, which is the soundtrack is right there. I love Rocky as a movie, but not only the movie itself, but the story behind Rocky, Sylvester Stallone, who wrote the movie Rocky wanted to get a job as an actor, right? He was an out of work actor, struggling, couldn't pay his rent. His wife is about to leave him. His partner life is about to leave him because he's, you know, destitute and is not contributing to their cost of living. His landlord is about to kick him out. He barely has enough food to eat and to survive. And he's like, I can't get a job as an actor.

8:26So instead of me trying to go out for auditions and get rejected constantly because people made fun of him, they've said, oh, you slur your speech and you talk out of your mouth. And that's because when he was born, he was pulled out of the forceps. And that's kind of how it happened. But he said, OK, I can't get a job as an actor. So let me create a job for myself by writing a movie that I can star in. And he created the movie Rocky. He wrote the story in three days of intense writing, OK, because he was like desperate to create something incredible. Right. In the meantime, while he's making this happen, you know, his partner does leave him.

9:03She says, sorry, I can't hang around anymore. All he has left is his, you know, his apartment where his landlord is being patient, you know, but patience is starting to wane, is starting to deteriorate and his dog, right? That's all he has. He actually blacks out the windows, right? He blacks out the windows in his apartment. So he does not distracted with paint, right? So he's not distracted from the outside world. It takes three days and writes Rocky. I wish I could say after that, he gave the script. He, it was amazing and his life changed forever, but that's not where the story ends. The story usually keeps going and it gets even crazier.

9:39Uh, he gives the script, he goes to the round studios and tries to sell his script. And he finds a studio that's really interested. He's like, Hey, we love this script. We're going to give you$125 ,000. This is the seventies, right? For the script. Um, and he says, great, let's do it. And he's like, but you can't be Rocky. He's like, what? How? I wrote this. I'm Rocky. You got to put me as Rocky. This is the reason why I wrote this thing. And they said, no, we're not going to sacrifice and risk it all on a no-name actor. We're going to get a no-name. And he's like, no, no deal. I want to be Rocky.

10:12This is a guy about to get kicked out. He has no food, no life, nothing, right? The studio then says, come back to our office. We want to talk. They say, okay, we're going to give you a quarter of a million dollars, but you just can't be Rocky. And he says, no, I got to be Rocky, right? This is taking days. This is taking weeks. He goes back. He's so poor that he eventually decides to sell his dog. He goes to a liquor store, sells his dogs. He just has enough money to eat. Eventually the studio is like, okay, uh, you can be Rocky, but we're only going to give you$35 ,000. We'll give you some points on the success of the movie.

10:44And that's the deal. Take it or leave it. He takes it because he can be Rocky. Now he signs on the dotted line. The first thing he does is go back to the liquor store. They sold his dog and he buys his dog back from the guy that is, that bought it from him. And, uh, he buys the dog for$15 ,000 because the guy was driving a hard bargain that he sold it to. And the referee in Rocky is that guy from the liquor store. He threw in that in the deal. And the dog in Rocky, Butkus is his real dog that he bought back. so I share that long story that really moving story that changed kind of my perspective on what real pain is like to share that he had to go through that because in order for him to be rocky he had to stick his ground and just sacrifice everything in his life so he can make it happen I know that's an extreme story and most of us are not going to go through that but it's good to know what the limits are so we can understand hey if I can survive that I know I can survive anything.

11:48So the second thing I want to mention that you should be aware of when it comes to the cost of success is sacrifice. I talk about sacrifice all the time and it's good for you to choose your sacrifices. This is something I talk about a bit when I'm on stage is in business, you are going to dedicate a lot of time, a lot of energy, a lot of money, a lot of focus on building this business and making a success, especially in the beginning when you're really putting a lot of energy to get some momentum. So it's good for you to choose and not let life choose. Choose your sacrifices. So for me, when I started Webinar Ninja 10 years ago, I was like, okay, if I'm going to make this successful software company happen, I need to sacrifice something.

12:30I need to make time and room for this business. What am I going to sacrifice? So I basically just chose two things I'm going to be really, prioritizing, everything else gets sacrificed. And those two things were my family, which is Nicole and my close family, right? And maybe some close friends, very close friends. We're talking about like a handful of people and to my health. Cause if I don't have my health, if I don't exercise, I will not be able to pull off this business in the first place. I won't have a sound mind. It won't work. Right? So those are the two things that were top priority. Everything else sacrifice, right?

13:06It's till I get some traction. Didn't go on a holiday for the first like four years of webinar ninja, right? I didn't have any weekends for like the first six years. Okay. We worked day and night because we were a bootstrap business and we had to make it happen and build and grow and try to do everything we can to be successful. I'm not saying that this is going to be your story. I'm not saying this is the right way to do it. I'm just saying this is how I did it. Okay. And that's the sacrifice I had to make, right? I was willing to put in that time. I was willing to do that because I knew that I was building something important, significant that I will be able to be proud of, which I am now 10 years later after we've been acquired.

13:41And it's just something that you have to be aware of. And it's better for you to be choosing your sacrifices rather than disappointing people and not being proactive about the things that you're letting go. So when people would say, Hey, let's do something, let's go out. And I couldn't, because I was working, I could say to them, Hey, listen, I'm not gonna be able to say yes to a lot of things in the next few years because I'm working on this huge project. It's called this. Let me tell you about it. But this is not something personal. This is just something I'm working on. This is the season I'm in right now.

14:12Hope you can understand. And if they're a real friend, they will and they'll support you. And if they're not a real friend, then you just found out. And that's good news for you. This is just the reality. Your social life will take a hit. Your free time, your downtime is going to take a hit. And even your family time. It's very important if you have a family, if you have children, if you have extended family living with you to meet with them as you start on this journey and say, Hey, listen, I'm about to embark on this journey. I'm about to do this thing. It's going to take a lot of my effort and time and attention.

14:42And it might mean we're going to have less holidays, less time together. I might, uh, you know, I have as much hangout time during the week. Maybe we'll have more time on the weekend. The point here is that get them on board, sell them on your vision, make sure that they're supporting you because they understand what you're doing and they're sold on it and not just wondering what happened to so-and-so. Why is this person acting all weird, right? Communicate it. And by the way, the whole sacrifice thing, it's not a bad thing. It allows you to understand what your priorities are. And for example, I just got invited to some really cool stuff this week, right?

15:18Things that are coming up in the next few days. I had to say no because I am doing other things for this podcast, recording these episodes. I'm really focused on this because this is important to me. This is something that is a priority to me. I want to see this to be as successful as possible, right? It's a part of my happiness to make this impactful for other people. So I had to say no, right? And that's not easy to say no and to sacrifice something fun and something interesting. And even just disappointing other people is something that you're going to have to realize and just come to terms with.

15:50The third thing I want to talk about is something that you're going to sacrifice that's beyond money or energy or even your time off for your free time. And that's years. You're going to sacrifice years of your life. In my example, when I started Webinar Ninja, I was 34 and I sold it around 44. So 10 years of my prime time life was dedicated to building this business. I can't get those years back. Those years are gone forever. okay i cannot climb mount kilmanjaro when i'm 35 you know i'm gonna have to do when i'm older now the point here is is that you only have a certain amount of time in this life and you have to recognize that you will use some years where you're energetic where you're youthful where you have energy even if you're a bit older now and maybe you're in your 40s 50s 60s and you want to start a business, these years are even more valuable, right?

16:45There is a sacrifice of your life that is here that people don't talk about. Okay. You know, when I look at professional athletes, let's say I look at like a LeBron James or a Serena Williams or whoever you look up to as a professional athlete, they have spent their most youthful years becoming who they are as professional athletes. While most people are traveling and partying and, you know, making mistakes and enjoying their life when they're young. These people dedicated themselves to their craft, to their sport, to get, be the best in the world and what they do. Right. And they can't get those years back.

17:23Right. They can't have those fun times playing video games when, with their friends at 25, right. That's just never going to happen for them. It's over. Okay. And that's the price they have to pay. You're going to have to pay a similar price at some period of your life where you're building this business, you're going to spend years, you know, grinding it out, which is normal. This is everybody's got to work hard in order to achieve something significant. Those years will go and you will never get them back. And that's something that became very apparent to me. You know, I'm way too old to have all this gray hair, but I am very conscious of the fact that I got it because I was working incredibly hard in a very stressful environment, building a software company.

18:03But the point I'm making here is understand that you can't do this forever, meaning you can't burn and work and grind forever. So you better make sure you're building something that you know will be successful, that you believe that will be successful. So you're not wasting your most valuable years on something that doesn't actually give you a payoff. This is why we talked about MVPs in our episode, I believe it was 2517, how to create a million dollar product. And the reason why we talk about this is because you want to make sure you, you know, have a solid business before you start pumping in and using all these years on something that may or may not be so successful.

18:47So understand that there are going to be some lost years, lost memories. And that's just how it is. Right. And the way I look at it is when I was in teaching for 10 years, I was, you know, in my 20s to early 30s. Those years are gone. I spent them in a career that, you know, I loved and I was great at and I got a lot of life skills and professional skills from it. But, you know, I started entrepreneur a little bit later, entrepreneurship a little bit later. So you will lose some years. and those years will never come back. So to wrap up my final words of wisdom as Uncle Omar telling you, hey, listen up, this is important.

19:24The cost of success is expensive. It's really expensive because what you're getting is really valuable. I would not trade it for the world. And it's not just because of the money or the acclaim or the wins I've had. I am super grateful for that. I am not going to reject that in any way because I love that part of the journey. But the best part of it is who you become. It's not what you get, it's who you become. And I believe that entrepreneurship is the best personal development program you can ever have. The cost of success is expensive, but it's worth it. Pay the price. Make sure that you're doing it for something that you believe in and that will be successful.

20:06And don't look back. Understand that, hey, yes, it will be painful. Yes, there'll be sacrifices. And yes, you're gonna use some of those years that you love, and you're going to miss out some memories, but it's going to be worth it, right? I'm telling you, looking back at my last, you know, 10, 15 years, I'm so glad I went through this and I went through all that pain and I went through all those sacrifices. I'm in a better position now to create even better businesses and have a better life and do, you know, things I've always dreamed of, right? And luckily, you know, I have all that experience and all that, all these stories to tell.

20:38And that's why I created this podcast is so that I can share them with you so that your journey is a little bit easier. Thanks again for tuning into the$100 MBA show. If you love this podcast and you want more of it, go to our website over at 100mba.net. Over there, we got a ton of great free materials, over 2 ,500 business lessons, worksheets, templates, whole bunch of stuff you could check out. So go ahead over at 100mba.net and just dig in and enjoy. Thanks again for watching. If you're on YouTube, for listening, If you're on listening to the podcast, make sure you hit subscribe so you don't miss a beat and get our next episodes automatically.

21:17All right. I'll check you in the next episode. Thank you so much for letting me open up and share my journey and get this episode out there. Hopefully it was helpful and it can help you along your way. Take care.