What do you need to sacrifice to achieve your goals and visions?
When we decide to take the plunge in to setting up and establishing our businesses, we make our first commitment, a commitment to ourselves. To work hard and be the best we can be. To differentiate ourselves from other businesses.
These are typically what we commit to, the moment we decide to start a business, it’s the start of the journey, to financial freedom.
If you are a start-up, or even a 20 year established business, ask yourself this question. How committed am I to achieving my goals and visions for both my business and personal life?
Don’t just give it a quick thought and move on. Dig deep and think in to the question. What answer do you get? Are you really showing up in the best way you can in both your business and personal life?
With commitment comes sacrifice. What do you need to sacrifice to achieve your goals?
When I first set up Concept Pools I was in an 8-year relationship with my girlfriend at the time. My commitment to my company was far more than it was to our relationship (apparently, but I disagree for obvious reasons) She didn’t approve of me working long hours and weekends to get the company off the ground, and fulfill the commitment I promised myself when I first started. I felt I was being held back. I had goals and visions that just didn’t align with hers. I’m a risk taker, a go getter and she was a play it safe type of girl. So, I had to decide and a sacrifice, to end our relationship and go our separate ways.
Once the decision was made I quickly moved to find a new house and settle in, so the disruption to my business was minimal. Working from the back bedroom where I had established my office, I was free to work the hours I needed to grow my business. After 2 months focusing and working hard to grow the business, I was soon able to take on my first engineer. This was a goal achieved for me, because this freed up my time to work on the business, rather than in the business.
Unfortunately, my time wasn’t being spent on the business, I got distracted and took my eye off the ball. My time was being spent on nights out with the boys. In my defence, I was a single man at this point. Going out wasn’t all that bad for me because I met my current partner Lauren.
We have very similar values and share the same goals and visions. I have the exact opposite I had with my previous partner. I have someone who helps and supports me, which helps making decisions a whole lot easier. There is no resistance.
Lauren soon moved in with me and I began to focus on my business once again. I had to sacrifice the nights out, as I was chasing my dreams. Once again, I was making a commitment to myself to give everything to scaling my business. So much so that we moved out of the area and away from friends and family, to a farm house in the countryside where there were no distractions and we could focus on the businesses.
Up at the farm we designed our life to suit our needs. We converted the stand alone stables into offices and a meeting room, and built a workshop and warehouse. The business was going great. We were scaling year on year. I was miles out of my comfort zone, managing projects, staff and finances.
As I was still an apprentice entrepreneur with a scaling business I decided I needed help and guidance. I had grown the business and at this point certainly didn’t want to lose it because of some fundamental mistakes that I hadn’t learnt or experienced yet.
I was presented with an opportunity to join an inner circle of likeminded business owners and become part of a Mastermind group. There were a couple of decisions that I had to make. Firstly, the monthly subscription was £1000 per month and secondly you had to commit your time to attending seminars, one to one coaching sessions and accountability meetings. These are huge commitments, both financially and in time. Time, I could be spending in my business.
As usual I quickly took a decision to signing up to take advantage of this fantastic opportunity that had presented itself to me. I took on a new salesman which took care of the time issue and I also sold my brand-new Porsche to help fund the salesman and the monthly subscription. I knew at the time that I was making a small sacrifice for the bigger rewards further down the line. I also made a commitment to my fellow Mastermind colleagues that I would be there for them to help and support them in both their business and personal life.
We are always presented with critical decisions that map out the journey of our life. These are three big decisions I had to make to give myself the best chance of success.
When most people are presented with a decision to make, they shy away, slip back into their comfort zone and live the same year repeatedly, sticking to the status quo. I am certainly not one of these people. My motto is “Just Do It,” words that my fellow Mastermind colleagues have heard many times in our mentoring sessions.
Successful entrepreneurs make decisions quickly and very rarely alter or change the decision once they make it.
Do you have big decisions to make? What are you ready to sacrifice and commit too?
My advice is to always look at the bigger picture and not the here and now. Don’t procrastinate and don’t be afraid to give away something small to reap the bigger rewards further down the line. Your life begins outside your comfort zone. Get comfortable being uncomfortable.
