359 - A Tale Of Two Mindsets!

0:00The biggest contributor to whether someone is successful or not successful in this acquisition journey is mindset. And in fact, the biggest contributor in life is mindset as well. Whether you think you can or think you can't, as Napoleon Hill said, you are correct. So I wanted to talk to you about that. I have a mentee who is going to move from an afternoon group to a morning group, the Empire Building Group, which is Fridays at 7 o 'clock. And he wrote me and said, I am not a morning person. When I wake up before 6 a.m., I am slow and can't focus for the rest of the day. I cannot afford to give up one day per week.

0:45So, after much soul-searching and with regret, I decided to cancel. Having said that, starting next year, long time, if you happen to hold the Empire Builders group at, that's a reasonable time frame within my time frame, and you will accept me, I'll throw my hat into the ring. Now, in contrast to that, I want to talk to you about something that I did. And my point is absolutely not to tell you that I'm superhuman because I am not. However, that said, I was asked by a longtime mentor to emcee and attend his 80th birthday gala over three days in Los Angeles. And I was very, very pleased to do that and honored to do that, that he asked me if I would.

1:36So I did that this past weekend. I ended up on Sunday getting up at 6 o 'clock in the morning, L.A. time, getting myself packed up because I was taking a red eye that evening after the event. Got myself checked out of the hotel, went to the last day of the three-day gala, MC'd that, and then went to the airport and caught a nine o 'clock in the evening flight back to Boston, after which I had to drive three hours to get to my home in Upper Main. So I was awake for 35 hours. I didn't sleep on the plane. I typically don't do that. And a couple times through that, I said, well, you know, I'm up 24 hours, I'm up 28 hours, I'm up 30 hours, eventually 35 hours.

2:29And I said to myself, you know, Navy SEALs go through hell week, where they stay up essentially for five days at the end. 35 hours, sitting in a plane a lot of that time, not exerting myself, easy day, easy day, as a SEAL would say. And then on Monday evenings, I frequently shoot a game of pool with a couple of guys. One of them was traveling. The other one I contacted and said, you know, I've been up for most of the day, but if you want to shoot, I'm happy to do that. And he said, yeah, let's do that. So as he was leaving his house to go to the spot where we shoot pool, he said to his wife that Bruce has been up for 30 hours, but he'll probably beat me.

3:19And so we went and played pool. Now, he and I are pretty much even up. We always usually have one last ball on the table, which means the difference between one of us winning and one of us losing. But most of the time, the games are even. This time, it was not. It was eight games, and I won three games, he did, he won. And did mindset play into that? Yeah, I think it did. I think that he said when he left, Bruce will probably beat me. He set up in his mind that I was going to beat him. Conversely, I had said, you know, I can do this. 30 hours, 35 hours is not that big a deal, it was 35 hours. I've got a mentee in Australia, Chris, who is off our time frame in the U.S.

4:11So he's attending meetings at 1 o 'clock in the morning, 2 o 'clock in the morning, 3 o 'clock in the morning. And when I commented to him about this, he said, wow, can't get up before 6 a.m. and he's preconditioned himself that that's going to ruin his ability to work. If you think it will, it will. If you think it won't, you can work through these things and say, okay, I've been up or I've done this or I've done that, but this is important enough for me that I will get up in the morning to attend a 1 o 'clock meeting. And so I want you to please think about that. Think about if you're telling yourself you can do this or you can't do this.

4:55Either way, you are going to be right. And part of that is just the discipline of what you're going to do. As an example, this is podcast number 359. That is done weekly. That means that I have done 6.9 years of podcasts. I made a commitment in the beginning that I was going to do this by every Monday at the latest. And I have never missed putting up a podcast. Why? Because I've put in my mind that I'm not going to miss a podcast. And that it's easy enough to do. I plan for it. I do it. And it becomes a streak, like a hitting streak or a winning streak. Those things you don't want to break. So I would encourage you to think about mindset.

5:49Think about the difference between those people that say they're not going to do something, or they can't do something or I'm not a morning person. And those people that say, I'm going to do it because it's important enough to fit into my goals and what I want to achieve. The person who is in Australia has acquired a business. The person who wrote me that he's not a morning person has not acquired a business. Probably that could just be the short version of this podcast. Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right. So I hope that is helpful. I hope that you will put into action that you can do much more than you think you can.

6:31If you do not know the steps of this business acquisition journey, you should. Go over to BruceWhipple.com. I'd suggest you grab the Acquisition Advantage Bootcamp. That will give you the steps and templates. Follow that path. It's worked for so many people. And in this event that I emceed, there were 100 people. there were tons of deals that have been completed in that group. And so this is a process that's proven. It's worked. Whether it works for you, I don't know that. I don't know you, but I can tell you that the process has worked for many. So think about that. Convince yourself you can do more than you initially think you can.

7:15And guess what? You'll be able to do that, usually.