392 - Why I Did Not Quit!

0:00There were dark days in my life, like there are in most lives, if we're being honest, yours including. Days when things were not going well, days when money was tight, days when progress felt slower than I wanted, and days when I would have seen it very easy to start questioning whether what I was doing was ever going to work. I remember those days well. And during those times, I learned something that I think matters a great deal. One of the biggest factors in whether you keep going or quit is this, who are you listening to? Because when things are hard, your mind is vulnerable. When momentum is strong, it's easier to stay focused.

0:47When results are coming in, it's easier to stay confident. But when things are not going well, that is when the wrong voices can do the most damage. That is when friends, fools, and family can become dangerous.

1:02Bruce Whipple:Not necessarily because they're bad people, but because many of them have never done anything remotely similar to what you are trying to do. They have never built what you're trying to build. They have never taken the risks you are taking. They have never pushed through the uncertainty that comes with trying to do something difficult and worthwhile. And yet, they often have very strong opinions. They will tell you why it will not work, why you are aiming too high, why you should be more realistic, why you should lower the bar, why you should settle. And if you're not careful, especially during hard periods, you will start listening.

1:46Bruce Whipple:Then the voice outside your head becomes the voice inside your head. And that is where people begin to quit. Not always all at once. It starts with, maybe this is harder than I thought. Then it becomes, maybe this is not working. Then maybe it's me. Then maybe I just can't do this. And finally, maybe I should quit. That is why controlling your inputs is so important. During the hard times in my life, one of the most important things I had to do was protect my mind from negative people. I had to be careful about who got access to my thinking. Because if you let enough people and doubt in, and things are already difficult, it's very easy to start believing that the problem is not the season, not the challenge, not the temporary setback, but you.

2:43Bruce Whipple:And that is dangerous, really dangerous. What helped me was learning to listen instead to people who had actually been there and done that. People who could say, I have been in a similar situation. I know what that feels like. Here is what happened to me. Here is how I solved it. Here is how I kept moving when other people said it could not be done. That kind of input matters because it is grounded in experience, not just opinion. And I learned that lesson very clearly when my partner and I started our property tax consulting business. We were in a tiny old office in Fishkill, New York, which is IBM country, and we wanted to go after Fortune 500 companies.

3:31Bruce Whipple:We wanted to go after IBM. A lot of people thought we were nuts. They said, there are two of you. IBM has hundreds of lawyers. They already have this covered. You're wasting your time. You're chasing a pipe dream. That is what people told us. And if we had listened to them, none of what followed would have happened. But we did not accept that story. Instead, we looked at what we had. We looked at our talents. We looked at our connections. We looked at why we could serve IBM well, and we kept pushing forward. We went to the right people. That was an important phrase, the right people. Not the loud people, not the cynical people, not the insecure people, but the right people.

4:18Bruce Whipple:And ultimately, we represented IBM on a series of properties, and our work resulted in millions of dollars in annual savings. Years later, Walton Burdick, who was a retired senior vice president of human resources for IBM, and had worked for six of the seven chairman of IBM, wrote this. During my career at IBM, we engaged Bruce Whipple and his company to challenge certain expenses, particularly real estate tax. This resulted in millions of dollars in annual savings. Bruce was very professional and his efforts achieved extraordinary results. I am very glad I did not listen to the naysayers. Very glad.

5:01Because the people telling us it could not be done were not the people who determined the outcome. The outcome was determined by action, persistence, value, relationships, and keeping our mind on what we wanted instead of what we feared. That is one of the biggest lessons I learned. Keep your mind on what you want and off what you do not want. That doesn't mean that you ignore reality. It means you do not mentally rehearse defeat.

5:32Bruce Whipple:You do not let negative people set up camp in your head. You do not feed doubt. You do not keep revisiting every reason why something might fail. Instead, you stay focused on the objective, you stay focused on the opportunity, you stay focused on the next move, and you stay close to people who actually know what they're talking about because they have lived it. That is one of the reasons mentorship matters. That is one of the reasons being around people who have actually done deals matters. Because when you're in a hard season, you do not need random opinions. You need tested perspective. So why did I not quit?

6:16Bruce Whipple:I did not quit because I wanted for my life and for my family what mattered too much in my mind and in my goals. I did not quit because I refused to let temporary setbacks write the story. Don't give someone else the pen to write your life story is something I say to mentees a lot. I did not quit because I learned that controlling my inputs was critical. And I did not quit because I was not going to let people who had never done it talk me out of doing it. So if you are in a hard season right now, ask yourself one question. who am I listening to? Because one group of people will strengthen you, the other will weaken you.

7:04Protect your mind, guard your inputs, keep your attention on what you want and not on what you fear. And do not let people who have never climbed the mountain convince you it can't be climbed. I hope this helps. I hope if you're in that position that you can relate to my story, relate to what was successful in me doing what I did back in those property tax days and how critical it was to control my thoughts. If you are struggling with the steps, go over to BruceWhipple.com and you're going to find the things there that will help you, the Acquisition Advantage Boot Camp. If you're terrified of what the objections are, go to BruceWhipple.com.

7:49On the beginning of that page, you'll see Take the Free Class. Those are 10 objections that are the most common and what my answers are in dealing with those objections. But guard your thoughts and guard who you listen to. It's critically important.