MBA2683 Give Me 10 Minutes and I'll Show You How To Accomplish Anything

0:00Give me 10 minutes and I'll show you how to accomplish literally anything. Let's just get totally honest. When you're not where you want in life or in business, the temptation is to start asking how. How do I get there? How do I start that business? How do I get that next client? How do I change my life? How do I get in shape? How, how, how? And that's exactly where most people go wrong. Trust me, I've been there. I know exactly the power of how, but also the detriment of how. I'm going to explain in today's lesson and what to do instead. Give me 10 minutes and I'm going to change everything for you.

0:34Let's get into it.

0:41Welcome back to the$100 MBA show. I'm your host, Omar Zinhome, where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to help you start, grow, and scale your business. Real quick, if these episodes help you in any way, hit the follow button on this podcast app. It helps us to keep bringing you practical business insights three times a week for free. Thanks. Hey, future Omar here. So, funny story. This episode is not 10 minutes. After my team finished editing this episode, it's closer to about 15 to 20 minutes. What can I say? I got a little carried away. But I promise you, the extra minutes are packed with valuable insights.

1:21I just couldn't help myself. So stick around. It's worth every second, and you're going to love it. All right, back to the lesson. when i was 22 years old i started my career as an educator i was a school teacher and every day i would commute to work about 35 minutes i'd be in my car driving 35 minutes one way to get to the school to where i teach and i used to pop in these tony robbins cds and you know tony robbins is known for this motivator guru kind of person but i have found that he's actually really good at breaking down how people become successful he's like a success psychologist really and one One of the things that really stuck with me in those CDs I was listening to, Personal Power 2, I remember till this day what they were called, was this concept of the tyranny of how.

2:07And let me explain what that means. When you're stuck in the how of doing anything, usually when you want to do anything, like I want to get in shape, first thing you think about is like, how do I get in shape? What do I have to do? But when you're stuck in that how, it's endless. It's chaotic. It's actually intimidating, especially as a beginner. How do I do XYZ becomes a maze of 100 doors with no map. But when you start with a different question, like why, why are you getting in shape? Everything changes. Your why becomes a magnet. It organizes your thinking. It prioritizes your energy. It attracts the right steps.

2:44You actually know which steps to take because you're just following the why. The why becomes sort of your north star. Now, the why isn't everything, okay? Don't get me wrong. I'm not just saying once you discover your why, you know, the mission's over and you're successful. No, it's the first step. But it's important to start with this, as Simon Sinek talks in his book, Start With Why, because your why gives you fuel. It gives you the reason to keep going when things get tough. Your how will be revealed. It will reveal itself after you have a strong enough why. Think about it. How many times have you bought a book on how to start a business or how to do anything and it sat on the shelf?

3:25Why is it sitting on the shelf? Because you don't have a strong enough why to read it. But when you're fired up, when you're frustrated, when you've had it, you're driven. You're driven by the purpose if the why is strong enough. And that leads me to the next step. The next step is you will never change until something happens. Whatever it is in your life that you want to change, it will never change. Trust me, it will never change until your frustration outgrows your fear. The raw truth is that change only happens when this happens. It only happens when you are so fed up with the current situation that anything is better than this.

4:05You are willing to take the risk, to sacrifice, to do the work, to change it because the current state is unbearable. And most people don't make a change in their life, don't accomplish things because they never get to that point. Let me tell you a personal story that really illustrates this. I used to be a school teacher, like I mentioned, and then I took the position of acting chair, the chair department. Now, acting chair basically means you're taking on the responsibility of somebody's role who left, but you don't officially have the position. You don't officially have the title or the salary or anything like that.

4:37And I did that job for 18 months without any extra pay or any extra recognition or official title. So I started to get frustrated. I went to my supervisor, the dean, and I asked her, hey, what's going on here? I thought I would get this position by now. Am I not doing a good job? And she was like, no, you're doing a great job. And then she just looked at me and leveled with me and said, I know the director of the university just wants to make an outside hire for this position. And at that moment, I was devastated. I felt powerless. I felt like I could work as hard as I want and do everything right, but somebody else can make a decision that can decide my fate.

5:13And at that moment, my frustration outgrew my fear. I got so frustrated at that point. I said, I'm going to leave this job and this profession and be my own boss and start my own business and be a full-time entrepreneur. That was 2012. And that's when I started my full-time career as an entrepreneur. And that was the best decision of my life besides, you know, meeting Nicole and marrying her and teaming up with her. But it changed everything for me. And it only happened because I was so fed up that I was willing to take the risk. I remember in that moment saying to myself, anything is better than feeling powerless.

5:50And that's when I decided that I needed to make this decision. And you have to find your place in life where you get there. You need to get to that place where it's so frustrating. It's so uncomfortable for you to continue the way you are. And a lot of people never change. Most people don't make any major moves in life because they're so comfortable and it's just okay the way things are. And guess what? When I made that decision, I didn't know what it's like to be a full-time entrepreneur. I was side hustling for years and making some good money on the side, but not enough to sustain myself. I didn't know how to do it.

6:28I didn't have a degree in entrepreneurship, but I had a fire. I had frustration. I had a why. And therefore, everything else was easy after that. Once I had my why, the how revealed itself easily. Because I had a strong enough why, the how was there. I implemented those hows. And step by step, I was able to become a full-time entrepreneur, build businesses, and be where I am today. And this leads me to my next part of this lesson. And it's a very uncomfortable thing to say to you. But comfort is your enemy. Most people don't fail because of lack of information. they fail because comfort is addictive.

7:09When you're comfortable, when it's not painful enough, when it's just okay, that's the worst place to be in because you're not uncomfortable enough to make a change. You could bear with it. It sounds like something like this. When you say things like, I'll start when I have a better idea. I just need to figure out all the ins and outs of the business first. I'll wait until I have enough money saved for me to be able to get started with some seed capital. What you're really saying is I'll stay stuck because it's familiar. I will stay where I am because I'm just comfortable here. And going out on a limb and trying something new and possibly failing, probably good chance I'm going to fail, just is uncomfortable.

7:49And I don't want to go there. The truth is that you are more comfortable where you are right now without changing than going for it, being a beginner again and starting all over. A lot of people don't want do that. And what I've learned is that comfort is a liar. It's a big fat liar. It tells you tomorrow will be easier. It won't. It tells you the pain that you're experiencing today is not that bad. Nope. It just compiles and gets worse and worse over time. And what I found is that the pain just gets buried deeper until you either numb it out or you explode. So what do you do? You make discomfort your friend.

8:23You got to start being comfortable being uncomfortable. Something that you embrace. You got to reframe it. If it scares you, it means it matters. If it stretches you, it means it's working. It means that you're growing. Where the stakes are high, that means the reward could be quite high as well. Nobody that has accomplished anything did it without risk. Listen, whatever you've done to get to where you are today, those took a series of steps. Those steps you took got to where you are today. Okay, you can't continue to do those steps and expect to get a different result. You got to do something different.

8:57You got to take different steps to get to a different destination. So those different steps are scary. They are different, but you need to overcome that and understand that, hey, that is where I need to do that. That adventure, that sense of risk, that sense of, you know, what if I fail? All that kind of stuff. That is a good thing. That is the vibe you should be chasing because that was going to lead to something different. Now, I'm not saying throw caution at the wind and not take calculated risks, But you need to start taking some steps like putting yourself out there, talking about your business with your friends and family, taking steps forward by launching your business, putting a website up.

9:32You can't just continue to play business. You got to get out there and start accomplishing things and moving forward and getting more comfortable being uncomfortable. This leads me to my next point, which is state comes before strategy. This is where we get tactical. Every action you take is preceded by a state, a mood, a belief, okay? Something that's in your mind, a story that you're telling yourself, okay? The reason why you're not selling is because you told yourself, I can't sell. I'm not ready. I'm not good enough. All these things that you tell yourself, that you believe are preceding action or inaction.

10:12These aren't strategies. These are state of mind. These are beliefs that you have about yourself. So if you want to change what happens in your life, you actually have to change what you believe. For example, if you believe you love pizza and somebody says, hey, want to go out for pizza? You're going to say yes because you like pizza, right? That's one of your beliefs. But let's say, for example, somebody says, hey, this weekend, let's go to an amusement park and go on some roller coasters. And you hate roller coasters. They make you sick and you just don't enjoy the crowds of an amusement park.

10:43because that's what you believe and what you see yourself as, as your identity, you will say, no, I don't want to go to that because that is not something that you actually want. This means if you want to make more money, if you want to sell more products, if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you got to believe you that you can do those things. You got to believe that you are those things, that you are good at sales, that you are good at business, that you can learn, that you can grow, that you already have the skills you need. You just need a little bit of practice. Otherwise, you're just not going to do what you don't believe.

11:16Another good example is think of the last holiday you went on, a vacation. You didn't just show up at the resort that's beachfront in Tahiti. There were things that happened before. You booked flights, hotels, you maybe planned an itinerary with your family. But if you think about the first step of getting there and having a holiday in Tahiti at that beachfront resort was you had an idea on your head. You had a thought, you had a belief, you had a vision that you actually believed this was possible. In that moment, you believed that you can do this, that you can go on this holiday. And then those actions you took to get there were a result of that belief.

11:55Was it because you started with that belief and then you just booked the hotel, you booked the flights, you made it all happen, right? You took the time off from work, whatever it might be. The point here is, is that it just doesn't happen magically, right? You start with a belief in your head, a vision in your head. And once that happens, everything falls into place. The steps are just kind of easy at that point. I mean, you could just break down this analogy over and over. Like, you didn't know what the best hotel is in Tahiti. You never been to Tahiti before in this situation, right? So you go to TripAdvisor and you Google and you figure out, okay, the top hotels in Tahiti are this.

12:24Oh, this one has a pool. This one doesn't have a pool. Oh, this one's beachfront, whatever. All the how was easy because now you have a vision, you have a plan, you have a why, you want to go there, and it just falls into place. Same goes with anything else in life, getting fit, starting a business, growing your business, whatever it might be. You don't wait till you feel confident, you generate it, right? You start thinking about what do I want, right? And then once you decide what you want, then you take the steps forward to get it. That's it. It's actually that simple. This is not rocket science.

12:54The beauty about life and the world is that nothing is unique. People have done things that you want to do a million times over, right? You're not trying to get to Mars here. You're trying to do something that has been done several times, millions of times, and you just are going to follow the same steps that they did. But there are a few things you could do to make things a little bit easier on yourself. Start by stop saying I can't and replace it with like, I'll figure it out, right? I'll figure out how to do it. Just visualize the outcome, not the path, not the work, not the steps, just the result.

13:24This helps you anchor into your why and also allows you to clearly see, okay, this is where I'm heading. This is why I'm doing this because I want this outcome. Maybe this outcome is you being 60 years old, surrounded by maybe your children or maybe some grandkids in a house that you own in a beautiful location, retired, enjoying your life. You got maybe a 12 o 'clock golf appointment with your friends. Whatever that visualization is, whatever that life is, really live it. Think about it. enjoy it, right? Be in that moment and that's going to fuel you. When your state is powerful, you'll be surprised what you can do in 10 minutes of just thinking and deciding this is what you want to do.

14:06This is the result you want to have. Let's recap real quick. Let's bring it home. Don't start with how, start with why. Why do you want to do this? Why is this so important to you? What does this mean for you? What is it going to solve in your life? Number two, let your frustration, be louder, be greater than your fear. Number three, don't get cozy with comfort. It's the enemy of progress. Get comfortable being uncomfortable, stretching yourself, challenging yourself. That's fun. Okay. Once you start learning that, hey, that's actually pretty fun. You're going to get addicted to trying new things.

14:38Number four, change your state before your strategy. Change how you feel about it. Change how you think about it. Put it in your mind because everything starts up here. You don't need more time. You don't need to read another book. You don't need another 12-step blueprint. You just need a new lens, a deeper why, a willingness to move, a line in the sand to say, tomorrow is going to be different. I'm not going to continue to do what I'm doing right now because this is the results I'm getting. I'm going to change my strategy. I'm going to do different things because I don't want to continue to be here a year from now, five years from now, 10 years from now.

15:12Thanks so much for being here on the show and being here at the end of today's episode, which means you're a completionist, you're a doer, you're my kind of person. So thanks so much. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. The truth that I have discovered of doing business for over two decades is that business is really 90 % a mental game. The stronger your mind is at doing what you actually want, following through, not falling into old habits or letting comfort stop you. Being mentally strong is what makes strong entrepreneurs. And it's better for you to start practicing this now. The more you are able to think something and then take action on it and don't let anything in between stop you, that is somebody that actually gets things done and builds things that grow, that last, that fulfills all your goals.

16:02So just remember that this episode is really about a mental exercise because this is where it all starts. This is where it all begins. This is where it all ends because whatever is between your two ears is what's gonna dictate your actions and is what's gonna change your outcomes. If you found today's episode helpful and you want more practical business lessons to help you start, grow, and scale your business, the best thing you could do is subscribe to this podcast. Hit subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app, the one that you're using right now, whether it's Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

16:36By hitting subscribe, you get our next episode automatically and it's the best way to support the show. It's absolutely free and it's a way for you to commit to growing your business. And now that you've subscribed, I'll check you in the next episode.