401 - Size Matters!

0:00Bruce Whipple:Today I want to talk about something simple that carries a much bigger lesson. Soda. Or pop, if you're from the Midwest. More specifically, soda sizes. Years ago, McDonald's had a 7-ounce soda. That was in 1955. Later, the sizes grew. 16 ounces in the 70s, 32 ounces in 1998, And then during the supersize era, about 2002, 42 ounces. Think about that for a second. Seven ounces to 42 ounces. That's six times larger. Now, the lesson is not really about McDonald's. It's not even really about soda. The lesson is about consequences. A person does not usually become overweight from one soda. One bad meal does not destroy your health.

0:55Bruce Whipple:One skipped workout does not ruin your fitness. The problem is repeated action, repeated choices, repeated lack of discipline, repeated normalization of behavior that moves you away from the result you want. And over time, the body keeps score. That is the lesson. The body keeps score. And now let's bring it directly into business acquisition. One missed call will not destroy your acquisition plan. One week of internal work will not necessarily ruin you. One vague execution commitment will not end the process. One failure to follow up will not make it impossible for you to buy a business. but repeated avoidance will.

1:42Bruce Whipple:Repeated delay will. Repeated excuses will. Repeated preparation without external action will. And just like the body keeps score, your pipeline keeps score. The market keeps score. Sellers keep score. Bankers keep score. Your board of directors certainly keep score. And most importantly, your own confidence keeps score. Because every time you say you're going to do something and you don't do it, you are training yourself. You're training yourself either to trust your word or not trust your word, and that matters. Business acquisition is not won by people who merely want it. Lots of people want it.

2:22Bruce Whipple:It is not won by people who think about it. Lots of people think about it. It's not won by people who talk about it. Lots of people talk about it. It is won by people who take disciplined external action week after week, even when they do not feel like it. Letters sent, calls made, follow-ups delivered, seller meetings requested, banker conversations held, board conversations scheduled, professionals contacted, that is what counts. not because those actions guarantee a result every time. They do not. One letter may not get a response. One call may not produce a meeting. One banker conversation may not produce financing.

3:11Bruce Whipple:One seller meeting may not produce a deal, but repeated action compounds, discipline compounds, follow-up compounds, competence compounds, confidence compounds, and eventually opportunity begins to appear for the people who are still in motion. That is the positive side of consequences. There are negative consequences for lack of discipline, but there are certainly also positive consequences for discipline. You become sharper. You become more confident. You start hearing the patterns in seller conversations. You stop being intimidated by bankers. You begin to understand what good deals sound like and what bad deals sound like.

3:56You learn what motivates sellers. You learn what industries make sense for you. You learn what your board needs to see. You learn how to move from theory into a transaction. But none of that happens if you stay in your head. None of that happens if you spend another week polishing a letter instead of sending it. None of that happens if you confuse internal work with progress. Here's the hard truth. You do not get the consequences you want. You get the consequences your repeated actions create. That is true with health. It's true with money. It's true with relationships. And it's certainly true in business acquisitions.

4:41If you repeatedly avoid outreach, the consequence is no pipeline. If you repeatedly fail to follow up, the consequence is a lost opportunity. If you repeatedly make vague commitments, the consequence is vague results. If you repeatedly wait until you feel ready, the consequence is delay. But if you repeatedly take external action, the consequence is momentum. If you repeatedly send letters, make calls, follow up, ask for meetings, the consequence is deal flow. And if you repeatedly practice your craft, the consequence is skill. If you repeatedly do what you said you would do, the consequence is self-trust.

5:29That is why I keep pushing execution commitments. Not wishes, not goals that sound good, not internal preparation. External commitments. External, numeric, controllable, one week. That is how you build momentum. So here is the question I want you to ask yourself this week. Are you supersizing your pipeline or are you supersizing your excuses? Because either way, something is growing. Your action is growing or your avoidance is growing. Your discipline is growing or your tolerance for delay is growing. Your pipeline is growing or your frustration is going. There is no neutral position. Discipline has consequences.

6:15So does the lack of discipline. Choose which consequence you want. And I hope you remember, never ask, never get. So keep pushing. I hope that helps. One of the things that I'm in the process of doing is finalizing a course, which will be on motivation, discipline, and action. And it just reinforced to me these kind of points that are so important in terms of getting a deal done, which is what you want to do, presumably, if you're doing business acquisitions.