If you were in business back in the 1990’s, in order to succeed you had to manage a few simple things: A yellow pages ad, maybe a ValPak coupon, your local chamber membership, and –if you were extra ambitious — you did either direct mail, tv commercials or print ads. Today, we have an obscene number of social media platforms, can write and print a book in 30 days or less, must manage our own media via blogging, podcasting, or live streaming. Each of these additions come with them a never-ending list of rules for how to optimize and monetize.
But only two matter.
Rule # 1: Show Up.
Simple, yes… but it’s not as simple as Woody Allen said. You need to show up in a category of ONE. Show up early. Show up empowered. Show up often. Show up authentically. Show up and SELL. By the way, the only way to show up in a category of one is to NEVER DILUTE the full YOU in business. Don’t hold back. Yes, you’ll offend some, but the RIGHT ONES will see your unapologetic authenticity and see it as a welcome mat… a red-carpet welcome.
Rule #2: Forget all of the other Rules in Business. Not ALMOST all of them, not even just a lot of them, but ALL of them.
In full disclosure, this post was inspired by another great post by Kat Loterzo, which you can find here. To her point, following the rules of business IS absolutely ludicrous, but for one reason she didn’t mention:
Because most businesses fail…
most end badly, in debt, in bankruptcy,
even in botched relationships,
health challenges, and worse.
Listen, they say that 4 out of 5 businesses fail. 80%. And this 80%? Well, they are following a bunch of the same rules you may be following right now. A bunch of “shoulds.” A boatload of “musts” and “have to’s” and “in order to’s.” They follow the rules thinking that –despite their current reality — ONE day, it will pay off.
Do you see the craziness here? The insanity of it all?
They’re religiously doing what they see everyone else doing, but expecting a different result. Sipping the very dangerous lemonade.
Truthfully, when so many (80%) are failing, the ONLY logical conclusion is to watch what MOST businesses are doing and doing the opposite. So forget ALL the rules and make your own way… Your IDEAL business is waiting for you!
