294 - A Lesson In Momentum

0:00Both success and failure leave clues. And the other day I saw a video and then looked into a little more the life of William J. Leavitt. And he's got a great story, but he also has a great failure at the end. So it was basically the rise and fall of him. And for those that don't know, William J. Leavitt was a person who transformed basically the America suburbs. He was called the father of suburbia. But years later, he ran into a bunch of problems that really stresses the importance of momentum. And that's one of the things I want to talk about today. So he was called the father of modern suburbia.

0:46And he was the mastermind behind Levittown, named after him, obviously. And after World War II, he saw a real need for housing demand from the returning veterans and their families. And so he developed a new method of mass-producing homes similar to an assembly line, which dramatically reduced costs and construction time. This doesn't mean that he built one every 11 minutes, but he built so many that at the height of what he was doing, it was said that he had a new home coming online every 11 minutes. And he did that through, as I said, an assembly line approach to home building where he had specialized crews that performed specific tasks, just like on an assembly line, in sequence.

1:34And that dramatically reduced the construction time and cost. And it allowed him to mass produce affordable homes at really an unprecedented rate. And that was the key factor in the rapid expansion of Levittown. and he did this in many other areas as well. So when he did this, his innovative approach led to the creation of Levittown, and that was in 1947. It was really the first mass-produced suburb in the United States, but it was an instant success, and it symbolized the American dream. It was affordable, comfortable housing. Basically, he built thousands of these homes. Each had modern appliances, a small yard, and families flocked to Levittown.

2:21That's about the time my parents bought a home in Long Island as well. And looking at that description of a small home, small yard, that's exactly where I grew up as well. So it sparked a boom across the nation, and his techniques and standards really did allow his momentum to have unprecedented success. And he did that in several areas. He built communities in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Puerto Rico. However, there's a problem with that. And in the 60s and 70s, the housing market changed. There were urban renewal projects and the rise of different ways of building homes and the difference in the public's interest So he struggled to adapt to those changes, and his absolute conviction to stay with what he originally did was essentially what caused him to be outdated.

3:21He had legal problems, he had financial problems, which plagued this company which was called Levitt & Sons. And eventually he sold the company, and he found himself distanced from that business he had built. And by the 80s, he was no longer the leading figure in the housing market, and his failure to innovate and adapt led to his decline, a stark contrast to his early meteoric rise. And he eventually got back. I think that company couldn't run it, made several other bad choices. And I'm not sure he died penniless, but he certainly had come down from the heights of success to a place that he was considered by many at the end to be a failure in what he did.

4:09So what can we learn from William J. Levitt's story? And the key takeaway, I think, is the importance of momentum. Success requires not only an innovative start, but also the ability to sustain and adapt that momentum over time. And while he had initial success with his groundbreaking approach, he didn't do that. His inability to maintain and evolve that momentum ultimately led to his downfall. So what can we learn from that? In our business acquisition journey, or really all areas of life, it's important to remember that the initial success is just the beginning. Continuous improvement and adaptation and innovation are essential to sustain momentum and achieve long-term success.

5:03That's a thought you should keep in your mind. And in the beginning of doing this business acquisition journey, we didn't have the tools that you're going to shake your head and wonder how you could ever survive without them. I started this back in 1993. Didn't get my first email until 1995. There was no social media. There really was no internet. There was nothing that we look at today like LinkedIn that are essential tools that we had back then. So while things worked back then, and they can still work today, cold calls can still work, we relied on Rolodex and networking and shoe leather, traveling by train to go meet someone not getting on a Zoom call.

5:53So it's easier today, but the point of that is there was an adaption needed to keep up with the tools that were able to be used, what people were doing, how they were doing it, and to go through continuous improvement. I've talked about the book The Goal by Goldrat. I would encourage you to read that. It's about continuous improvement and to employ that in what we're doing here. So I hope that helps. Remember there are tools at brucewhipple.com this weekend and you should have, this is Memorial Day weekend as I record this, you should have gotten an email about a combination bundle of the Acquisition Advantage Boot Camp and also the Sales Summit.

6:42Two great tools to show you the steps, give you templates, and then improve your game with a course on sales skills, listening skills, etc. etc. So I hope you take advantage of that if you don't have those already. But remember, success and failure leave clues. And doing the same thing over and over again, like the fly that's trying to get out the window that's going to end up dead on the windowsill, usually doesn't work. You need to continue to innovate, continue to improve, utilize new tools new approaches and through doing that you will be able to hopefully have success where you keep up with changes in the marketplace techniques at work etc so I hope that you put that into action that is the most important you can know what to do but putting it into action and taking consistent action is absolutely critical so to your success