How to get what you want in business
Originally sent exclusively to The Letter subscribers on December 2nd. Want to be the first to get my personal newsletter in your inbox every Monday at 7am? Subscribe for free here.
Desire is in all of us.
It may be weight loss, love, travel, health, riches, children, happiness, or success; these are just a few of the things that humans desire.
The real conundrum is: why is it that some of us achieve more of what we want in a day, a week, ten years, or a lifetime than others?
What is the trick that some people have up their sleeves to revel in winning at their life desires?
I don’t just mean the willy waving on Instagram. Trust me, those who are truly winning are far more humble and don’t need to flaunt the “designer labels” built on credit cards that they portray.
Most wealthy people I know, far prefer to flaunt their wisdom and personality. Be an owl, not a peacock.
Rare and protected forms of leverage provide one advantage, yet this is often ignored by those who have it within easy reach.
Having powerful connections to family, capital, talent, population, and good demographics all help.
Seriously, being born in the UK or the US gives you an immense head start.
Taylor Swift had all the latter - including great family connections, wealth, access to management talent, and being brought up in a prosperous area in the richest country in the world - all of which helped her tremendously.
Plus, the woman clearly works hard. She’s the definition of working hard and smart, using rare and protected forms of leverage.
If you have access to the gifts around you and use them (most do not) then fireworks are merely a few years away.
She was given the most fertile land and farmed it spectacularly well - metaphorically speaking.
Here’s some of my experience of life: many have had the same opportunities as her; maybe they inherit wealth or have access to talent, but they decide to let it all slip away and sell the family farm.
Then they forgo the capital often earned over a generation in just ten years.
I was reading the horrific statistics about how lottery winners blow through all their winnings in ten years.
Money management needs to be measured, and people need to know how to acquire and manage it well; otherwise, money simply moves on to a new home.
“If you took all the money from the richest people in the world and divided it equally, you’d find it wouldn’t take long to go back to the original pockets it was taken from.” - Jim Rohn
Taylor put her talents to work and then some. Most do not. Someone else takes over, and they—my friends—are called entrepreneurs.
The seekers of opportunity—usually the first generation—who are resourceful little wotsits building up from an idea to reality. Go us.
Many people work hard; they fight for survival, but they don’t add smartness to the mix.
Sure, they’ll put in long hours into their operations, but rarely do they attend a seminar, podcast, or read a book that makes them better thinkers.
That’s one part of my analysis of why some people get further ahead: they learn more so they can earn more.
Second, they move environments to foster improvement. Taylor Swift, as a mere teenager, convinced her parents to move to where the showbiz scene was thriving—in an environment that allowed her to succeed.
Great entrepreneurs believe that if you don’t like where you’re at, move… you’re not a tree.
Remove mood hoovers and toxicity. Entrepreneurs and all successful people leave bad people behind like a fart in a breeze.
They have nothing to do with them.
The big one is this:
What doesn’t get measured doesn’t get managed.
If you don’t measure results with dashboards, profit and loss statements, systems, and audits, you’ll find it very hard to get where you want.
Even simple systems can have profound effects on effectiveness.
Take going for a weekly food shop: take a list and tick items off as you go. You’ll find you save time, make fewer errors, and get exactly what you need.
Losing weight? Track the results, monitor your food, and “Hello, it’s me” - you’ll be Adele in no time.
So many people don’t do this, and it stops them from getting where they need to go.
Measure results, good or bad, and you’ll manage them better to achieve what you want.
I have been making YouTube videos for seven years now. Finally, we hit 100,000 subscribers this week; it was a goal I set at the beginning of theyear.
We managed the process by tracking click-through rates, watch time, views, and hits - diligently measuring results every day.
The more we measured, the more it was managed, the more results we got.
Lastly, I have been managing the biggest deal of my career for the last 18 months; it’s coming to a close in the coming weeks.
I can’t wait to tell you about it in the new year. I have learned a ton, and it has taken far longer than I wanted or expected.
The experience has taught me how to manage and measure my next big deal far more effectively.
That’s the last point, gang: experience and mastery—being in the game, taking the shots, tripping and falling, getting up again and again. Ten thousand hours of purposeful practice.
Time in the game really does help.
I was looking at my garden this week and wanted it spruced up. I thought I’d seek the wisdom of someone with ten thousand hours of experience - far better than me.
I know more about biscuit varieties than about making a garden look good.
So I called a landscape gardener to get some expert help. I found a nice chap; he came and had a look but couldn’t help.
Why?
He said it was portrait.
Anyone know a portrait gardner? if you do - send them my way.
Till next week, to your continued success!
James
PS. Buying Business Masterclass is coming back in March! With very limited tickets available, get yours here.
P.S. Buying Business is on the 25th March 2025 and I’d love to see you there. Find out more here.