409 - What Separates the Mentees Who Succeed?

0:00Bruce Whipple:What separates the mentees who succeed from those who don't? Over the years, I've worked with hundreds of business acquisition mentees. Some have gone on to acquire one business. Some have acquired multiple businesses. A few have built organizations far larger than they initially imagined possible. Others have struggled to make meaningful progress. When I look at the difference between them, it is rarely intelligence. It is not usually education, experience, financial resources, or even the quality of the opportunity they're pursuing. The biggest difference is something much more basic. It is their ability to consistently do what needs to be done.

0:45Bruce Whipple:Most people believe success begins with motivation, and motivation is important. You must have a reason for doing this. You need to know what you want and why it matters to you. Your motivation may be financial freedom. It may be creating security for your family. It may be leaving a job you no longer enjoy. It may be building something meaningful that can eventually become your legacy. That motivation gives you a reason to begin. The problem is that motivation is not always there when you need it. Some mornings you will feel excited. You will be ready to contact business owners, follow up with prospects, speak with professionals, and move opportunities forward.

1:29Bruce Whipple:Other mornings you will not feel like doing any of it. You may be tired. You may be discouraged. A seller perhaps is not returning your calls. A promising opportunity may have fallen apart, you may begin wondering whether this is ever going to work for you. That is when discipline becomes more important than motivation. Discipline means you take the action because you committed to taking it, not because you happen to feel like taking it. You send letters, you make calls, you follow up with business owners, you schedule the meetings, You ask the uncomfortable questions, something that a lot of people don't do because they're afraid they're going to hear the answer they don't want to hear.

2:16Bruce Whipple:You continue moving forward even when the immediate results are disappointing. Discipline must then lead to focused action. Activity alone is not enough. You can spend hours researching industries, changing your criteria, organizing spreadsheets, watching videos, and redesigning your business card. You may feel busy, but none of those things necessarily put you in front of a motivated business owner who's interested in selling. Focused action means doing the things that can actually produce an acquisition. It means reaching out to owners, building relationships, holding conversations, identifying motivation, evaluating opportunities, and making proposals.

3:05Then you apply continuous improvement. You honestly look at what you're doing. What is working? What is not working? Are business owners responding to your message? Are you contacting the right people? Are you asking the right questions? Are you listening carefully enough? Something that is really common is not listening and thinking about what you want to say next instead. Are you following up consistently? You test, you measure, you learn, you improve. The learning may come from your own results, but it may also come from another mentee in a group coaching who has already encountered the same problem.

3:45It may come from a course, a podcast, a video, or something I taught.

3:50Bruce Whipple:There is nothing wrong with learning from other people. In fact, that can save you years of unnecessary mistakes. However, knowledge without execution has very little value. You can know exactly what to do and still accomplish nothing if you do not consistently do it. The mentees who succeed are not necessarily taking massive action every day. they are taking the right action repeatedly. They keep pushing when they feel confident. They keep pushing when they feel uncertain. They keep pushing when they receive a positive response, and they keep pushing when they receive no response at all. Constant repetition, disciplined action will normally outperform occasional bursts of tremendous effort.

4:43A person who takes 10 meaningful actions every week for a year will usually make far more progress than someone who takes 50 actions in a week, becomes discouraged, and then does nothing for a month. Consistency creates momentum. Momentum creates conversations. Conversations create opportunities. And opportunities eventually create acquisitions. This is the thinking behind what I call MDA, motivation, discipline, and action. Motivation gives you the reason. Discipline keeps you moving when motivation fades, and actions produce results. And that is why I created the Bruce Whipple MDA course. It is about closing the gap between knowing and consistently doing.

5:40Regardless of whether you take the course, remember this. You do not have to be perfect. You do not have to know everything.

5:49Bruce Whipple:You do not have to feel motivated every day. You simply have to identify the actions that matter, take them consistently, evaluate the results, and continuously improve. Do that long enough, and sooner or later, your results will begin to change. I hope that helps. keep pushing remember never ask never get and I look forward to working with you whether it's through a course or group coaching but decide what's important to you understand the steps to get there and then take consistent action and you will usually be far more pleased with the results than the people who don't do that