CHAPTER 10
The Business Leap (Purpose, Unleashed)
Corporate accounts payable, Nina speaking. Just a moment. In 1999, the movie Office Space was released with minimal fanfare. Starring a young Jennifer Aniston, the movie flopped. Years later, it’s considered a cult classic and one of the most influential comedies of its time. It’s hard to find anyone who hasn’t seen it, and the references are endless. The movie hit it big because it connected with a core theme: people’s disdain for their work, including the disconnection stemming from a life off purpose, surrounded by people you don’t like. It’s an over-the-top yet honest look at how we spend most of our time. And (unfortunately) true. Often, the biggest, boldest and most impactful leaps you’ll ever take will happen with your work. A study conducted in 2017 determined that only 19% of people are fulfilled and satisfied in their work life.1 I’d say that number is understated, and what most consider satisfied is a low standard to clear. Regardless, the status quo isn’t working. To be fulfilled with our lives, we must feel connected with the value we create for others. We must find meaning and purpose where we spend most of our time and energy. Otherwise, we’ll be out of alignment, and find ourselves stuck. This feeling spreads like a cancer to all the other areas of our lives, and then we wonder why things aren’t working. The slide to mediocrity with our work is a slow descent starting with taking the safe path others have sold us on. But it doesn’t have to be. Your business leap is the gateway to unparalleled levels of purpose and meaning. It’s the obstacle in the way from you feeling inspired. It’s what’s holding you back from thinking and being big and bold. Once taken, there is a radically clear before and after. The before is robotic, routine, and stagnant—the same routines, with the same people every day. There are big promises, yet little to show for them—an insignificant increase in salary and perks, with uninspiring work; a lack of challenge, and spending more of your energy on politics and busy-ness. Your after is a sense of autonomy and freedom. You’re in a place of thriving. You experience fulfillment that can’t be found when you live another person’s vision. You have vigor for what you do, and you’re excited about the journey. It’s not something you want to avoid, it’s something you can’t imagine not doing. When it’s hard, you don’t care. It’s the first thing you think of in the morning and the last thing you think of at night. When you hit this state, it’s what Warren Buffett refers to as “tap dancing to work.”2 You feel re-invigorated, even though you’re on four-and-a-half hours sleep. You smile at adversity, because you’ve chosen this path. Most importantly, your mindset has completely shifted: You don’t have to do anything. You get to. Specifically, you get to experience the following: Figure 10.1 The key of alignment. There is no doubt your business leap has the potential to change every part of your life. It’ll change your perception, your vitality, your energy and the way you engage in relationships. But you’ll never know if you don’t first release what’s in the way and create urgency. Otherwise, the potential to be anchored to the illusion of safety can and will hold you back. And sometimes, that anchor becomes too heavy to let go. None of us wakes up from our nightly slumber, starts clapping and says, “I want to spend most of my time and energy in a place I can’t stand, doing work with little meaning while I put all of my dreams on the back burner labeled ‘someday.’” And yet, how often do we find ourselves there? The strongest anchor we’ll ever experience is our work. It gives the illusion of safety and the world tells us we should be grateful for even having a job. Phrases like it could be worse start to take over and we cling to something we never wanted in the first place. Now, I’m not saying there isn’t a time to hold steady. But often, the adaptability of the human condition to (painful) circumstances becomes our predictable downfall. In other words, early on you and I can feel pain and discomfort, such as knowing our current jobs are slowly killing us. But time has a funny way of making the painful more tolerable. Months pass, we make the uncomfortable tolerable; we wake up seven years in the future and nothing has changed. Worse off, we’ve missed out on the countless opportunities we could have had if we had only had the bravery to make a bold decision. As we’ve explored earlier, the cost of opportunity is real in its impact on our lives. Most people already know what they have to do. But they’re lacking the courage to make a bold decision to step into their greatness. “Well, I’m going to wait until things settle down, and then I’ll get started.” I’m sitting in my office in downtown Phoenix talking to my client about launching his platform, and I can’t believe the words I’m hearing. He has already declared what he wants to do, and yet he’s still waiting. We’ve all been there. Knowing something must change and yet we put it off in hopes for some distance future. Not anymore. With my clients, we use a simple test I call the excitement test to figure this out. It comes in the form of a simple question: Do you wake up excited for your work, or do you wake up with dread? In other words, if I were able to record your inner monologue during your entire morning before you start what you do, what would I learn? For many, it reads like the latest Hollywood horror script. That’s all you need to know. There’s no need to explain it. You don’t need to rationalize it. The excitement test is my preferred question, because it’s simple. You can’t fake your way out of it. Honor your answer, because too often, people will talk themselves into believing now is not the right time. However, with great freedom options come great responsibility. In a world with unlimited ways to monetize and make a living, which do you choose? You’ve already done the hard work during Chapters 5, 6, and 7, which has provided you precious insight to know what you really want. If you want to be able to live your fullest life, value freedom, and want to tap dance to work, you must figure out what you can’t not do, and take what most consider an unconventional path. Robert Kurson was nearly the writer that never was. Being accepted into Harvard Law School is an exceptional feat, and one most would be thrilled to experience. It is the pinnacle of success. And yet, something was missing. This was the safe path, carved out with a near assurance to experience a version of accomplishment everyone would be impressed by: full bank accounts, a fancy title, and access to be in the 1%. Except for one thing. Kurson loathed law school and knew it was the incorrect path, yet he persisted. He talked himself into staying, thinking practicing law would be much more fulfilling than studying it. It wasn’t, and to his surprise it was worse. Every Sunday, the theme song for the famous CBS show 60 Minutes would come on. This became his queue; another week is coming. The show became a constant reminder that, come Monday morning, he’d be back at his desk doing work he despised. Already making six figures, Kurson was destined for the corner office, a partner position, and potentially making millions. But he didn’t care, and he needed a way out. Fast. He started with a simple process: writing stories in the evenings when he’d come home from a long day. With no direction, he’d write about memories of happier times when he had hope and looked at his future with enthusiasm. He realized even though he had no formal training as a writer, he lost track of time while he was doing it and was halfway decent. And then he quit. No plan, no blueprint, and—oh yeah—zero experience being a writer at all.He expands: After I decided to make this Kierkegaardian leap of faith, I had a realization: I had no idea how to become a writer. But I was certain about one thing: I was willing to starve in order to leave a career I hated in order to break into one I might love. Trading a six-figure salary and a path etched in gold, he eventually found a job at the Chicago Sun Times doing data entry for $23,000. Although it was a fraction of his original salary, he was having the time of his life. He’d taken his leap. Today, Robert Kurson is an accomplished, two-time New York Times bestselling author, who has written for Rolling Stone, Esquire, New York Times Magazine, and many more. He loves what he does and is living his purpose of telling riveting stories through the written word. He traded someone else’s path for his, and never looked back. He’s not only successful in his craft and career, he’s inspired by his work as are the millions of readers he’s garnered. Kurson manufactured his leap by having the courage to listen to his inner voice. Despite the pressure of staying on a safe path, he leaned into what he knew to be true in his heart; this wasn’t his path. I encourage you, too, to listen to the voice inside that knows without a shadow of a doubt if you’re on the right path in your career. You must be willing to listen to it regardless of the external forces at play. But we’re not always this bold. Sometimes, you won’t have the courage to take the leap on your own terms. In March of 2011, I found myself in that place working at one of the largest sports and entertainment companies in the country. Like Kurson, I hated it too, until one Friday afternoon when a phone call came in. I glance down—the caller ID shows two letters: HR. Human Resources never called me and especially not at 4 P.M. on a Friday right before the weekend. Shit, I think. And that’s when I knew: I was a goner. A sinking feeling starts at the bottom of my stomach and all the way up my spine. Stress starts to overcome me. Then I remember—this is what I want. For the past six months, I’d been tirelessly working behind the scenes formulating the plan to launch my own fitness-training business, which was my passion at the time. Walking down the stairs, I sense relief. I approach the dark conference room and there she sits—my boss’s boss, a person I’ve never met. Before she spoke, I already knew what was coming. I want the corporate drivel to be over. As she finishes the long- winded, politically correct routine she’s practiced hundreds of times, I smile. In the moment, I want to high-five her, but choose to do so virtually inside my mind instead. That was it. I was free, released to the wild. No longer bound by the shackles of the corporate experience. That afternoon, I rushed to Barnes & Noble, plopped open the laptop, and began the process of launching my fitness business. I’d taken the leap—kind of. The truth is that I didn’t have the courage to take the leap back then. I’d forced myself to get fired, so I’d be able to rationalize everything with my parents and those around me. Either way, it worked. Would I rather have made the bold decision in a blaze of glory? Sure, but at the time, I needed a way to give myself permission. We all want to experience the courage of taking our leap, but sometimes we’re going to have our backs up against the wall with no other choice. How you get there matters less than getting there. What kind of business leap will you take? They come in all different forms, but with similar results: a radical shift in the way you experience work and share your value with the world including the following: You’ve been in the same spot for years, and nothing is changing. You’ve heard big promises, yet there’s not much to show for them. You’re in a career that is no longer serving you or you’re in the wrong industry. The career leap is exactly as it sounds, making a radical shift and finding more alignment and connection with your work. Often, people become encumbered as time passes by and the enthusiasm of a new position starts to stale. They witness others receiving the opportunities they were promised, and it’s time for a shift. The changing of an environment is always powerful, and tends to increase our energy, vitality, and enthusiasm for what we’re doing. In the career shift leap, it’s a matter of stepping closer and closer toward aligning with something you truly love. You’ve had a brimming purpose and passion yet you’ve been waiting for the right time, when it made sense. You’ve been waiting for someone outside of you to give you permission, which will never come. But then you realize it may be too late. You’re launching your business and going all in on you. You’re ready to put your skills to the test and have a dream worth pursuing. This is the zero-to-launch leap where you’re able to experience the autonomy of running your own show. Often, we’ve known what we’d like to do, yet didn’t believe we could go out there and not only replace our current income but also achieve a level of financial prosperity we’ve only dreamed of. Zero to launch is exactly as it sounds and is a leap full opportunity and an abundance of energy and inspiration—although they must be used wisely. We’ll explore how to maximize this leap for your success. You’re already in the game as an entrepreneur, but you’ve simply outgrown what you thought was your purpose. As we mentioned in Chapter 7, purpose is an evolution, and the vehicle of delivery we use to get there can change. Scratch that, it will change. When our purpose no longer fits, it’s time for a pivot. Pivots are as big a leap as anything else. They’re designed to re-align you with who you are today, and they can create a tremendous amount of creative energy. They’re designed to serve the audience you feel called to serve. Often, people wait to follow through on their pivot until their backs are up against the wall. Tom Bilyeu had been grinding. Along with his two closest friends, he’d started what was a successful technology company. On paper, everything seemed to be working out. Except it wasn’t. After eight years of pushing the pedal to the metal, he’d had enough. He was exhausted from creating something only for the purpose of getting rich. And that’s when he told his partners: “I’m completely miserable. I quit.” He exhaled, not knowing what was going to happen next. To his surprise, they felt miserable, too. What followed came to life by asking a simple question: “What would I do and love every day, even if I were failing?”4 and that led to starting a protein-bar company. The problem, however, was this market was incredibly saturated and owned by big players in the game. And again, they had zero experience. It didn’t matter. Bilyeu’s purpose this time around was personal; he’d seen his mother and sister deal with obesity his entire life. He knew there had to be a way to help people eat healthier, with foods that still tasted great. The rest is history, and Quest Nutrition grew 57,000% during its first three years, created a new niche of bars, and came to be valued at over $1 billion. These days, it’s impossible to meet anyone who hasn’t had, or at least heard of a Quest bar. And therein lies the magic of the pivot: knowing full well the expiration date on your career is past due and having the courage to step into something new. Bilyeu’s question, much like Kurson’s statement, reveals the power of doing something you have chosen for yourself. This self-reliance and freedom allow you to detach from the external result, and yet, paradoxically, create a container for that result to come to life. It’s a beautiful thread across all leaps where success comes from the inside out. You’ve been in the game as an entrepreneur or feel deeply fulfilled and connected to your work and career. Sometimes, a leap is required to create an exponential shift. After years of incremental growth, you no longer feel challenged, which is key for finding meaning in our work and personal growth. Your leap may be this type of shift—a move that re-invigorates your work life. The exponential shift may look like adding a new product or service, making the key hire you’ve been putting off, or simply a catalyst to re-invigorate you to create the palpable energy you once had for your business. Mostly, the exponential shift is exactly as it sounds; you’ve felt stuck personally and professionally and are ready to move up a level. To my surprise, one of the great challenges that comes with successful entrepreneurs is boredom, although they wouldn’t trade their success for the world, they do miss the early days of having their back up against the wall and overcoming what seemed like daily challenges. The key, here, is to get back to a powerful place of inspiration with a bold move to become the catalyst for exponential growth. They’re waiting for you, but they won’t wait forever. The people who are waiting to be served by you, however that may be packaged, are ready. But as time passes and you ignore the leap you know you must take, someone else will step up to the plate and serve your tribe. Right now, there are enough people out there who have a demand for what you’re offering that could make you the revenue required to take your leap. The median household income in the United States is (a paltry) $51,939. A study published in the Nature Human Behavior surveyed 1.7 million people and discovered fulfillment in life happened at the $95,000 a year mark. I share these numbers with you for one reason: you’re much closer than you think. Now, I’m sure you have bold aspirations and those numbers don’t do much for you. I get it. I want you to be able to create a level of financial prosperity you’ve only dreamed of. But I also want you to know your leap is attainable, and there is no reason that you can’t feel fulfilled, inspired, and excited about bringing your work to the marketplace while getting (handsomely) paid for it. But remember: they’re still waiting. Not taking your business leap is selfish. Yeah, I said it: you’re only thinking about yourself. You’re focused on your shortcomings and your insecurities at the expense of the impact people are waiting for. Next time you think about making an excuse, imagine them out there. Pick one person and the pain they’re going to continue to be in without your product, service, or offering. If that doesn’t create desire to get rid of your excuses, I’m not sure what will. I find so many wrestling with all the emotions associated with not taking the leap. Yet, once they do take it, they recognize the truth: the worst-case-imagined scenario never happened. They’re in a place they could have never imagined, and now there are people who are standing up in support of their message. These people are willingly placing their hard-earned attention, time, and money in your hands. Without meaningful work, we perish. Without a core essence of a purpose, we lose our spark. Without stepping into a place where we add value to the world on our terms, we can’t serve at our highest capacity. Without taking bold, decisive action, we begin to resent ourselves and stay stuck in a never-ending loop of stagnation. Taking the leap of your life with your business will change everything about who you are. But remember, it won’t happen while you’re watching Netflix and fantasizing on the couch. It won’t happen daydreaming about what could happen. You’ve got to get in the game, and we’ve detailed the path to get you there. Often, I’ll witness people who have the spark. They have a moment of clarity about their business leap and about why the time is now.Their energy of possibility is palpable. They’re on fire. And then, a few months later when asked about it, they say, “Oh yeah, that thing. I’m working on it, but it’s on pause.” You and I know how this plays out: it never happens. I’m committed to making sure this doesn’t happen to you. Deep down, I know you are too, or else you wouldn’t be here. Let’s examine some of the most common narratives and excuses you’ll use to not take your business leap and instead stay in the same exact place. You’re going to start … once. Once life slows down a little, you’ll start. Once life becomes less busy, you’ll get going. Once the kids grow up a little, then you’ll be all in. Once you get that next promotion or big client, then you’ll step into it. Once you make an extra $10,000, then you’ll take your leap. Waiting for the right time is the most lethal of all excuses. Why? Well, it’s a convincing argument and easy to buy into. Make a bold decision. You know the truth: it won’t get easier, life won’t get less busy, and you won’t be experiencing less stress. The right time is created the moment you make a bold decision. This is when the world conspires to help you and starts to create the conditions to ensure it’s the right time. Because it’s the only time you and I have: right here, right now, the six-inches in front of our faces to choose something new. “Well, I’ve got a good thing going, and I’ve got the benefits I need.” Fake gratitude is when we talk ourselves out of making a bold decision by masking our disdain with cheap and plastic gratitude. Instead of honoring ourselves with how we really feel, we say all the right things. We cling on to fake gratitude and use it as a reason to not act. We use it as a way to justify mediocrity, and we know it. We rationalize away our possibility in exchange for phrases such as: This is fake gratitude, and it’ll drink every last drop of your leap until it no longer exists, and you cling on to your current circumstances even though you hate them. Show real gratitude for what your life is giving you today. Use it to remind yourself how much you appreciate what’s part of your life today, while honoring your feelings about wanting to change. Often, people can get confused about gratitude and how to feel (authentically) grateful while deeply wanting to change their lives. I asked Mastin Kipp, author and creator of Functional Life Coaching, about this dilemma during an interview:5 People often think wanting more means negating what they currently have. You can simultaneously be grateful and dissatisfied. Whenever someone says you should be grateful for what they have, they’re afraid you’re going to change and leave them behind. Next time you use fake gratitude, simply catch yourself. Remind yourself this is a mechanism designed to keep you in the same place. Instead, use real gratitude combined with ruthless honesty to compel you to step into your leap now. Research has shown the average adult makes 35,000 decisions per day. Sure, some of these may be as trivial as what socks to wear, but these add up. And if the old adage of life being a bunch of decisions is true, this is a big deal. However, how are we making decisions and what is our point of reference? This is what distinguishes those who stay stuck, and those who achieve exponential growth with their leap. The difference is most people make daily decisions based on who they are today, or worse—on who they’ve been. This creates a predictable future: one in which most things stay the same. Sure, incremental improvement can happen here, but it’s painfully slow. Make decisions with your leap in mind. Take yourself to the place where not only your business leap has happened, but also where it’s been a success of astonishing proportions. Make decisions today based on what that version of yourself would do. Often, I’ll find when I do this with myself and with clients, what seem like big decisions today end up being matter-of-fact ones with the future version of ourselves. For example: You can see where this goes. And while making these bold decisions will have a powerful effect on your life today, they’re also doing something else; they’re collapsing your future right in front of you. This is the quantum model of decision-making: taking a future as a possibility and bringing it down to today. The old model, the Newtonian way, is one of cause and effect, and one of predictable, linear growth. Although you will experience life-defining leaps in business and your purpose, they’ll never end. At each new level of growth, you’ll have an opportunity to take a new leap. This again, will require you to step into a new level of courage and self-trust. Daunting? Not quite. If you’re simply getting started, it may feel that way: but don’t fret. Keep your focus on the leap in front of you, and then you’ll realize business is a series of leaps. They won’t always be massive leaps into the unknown, but they can feel as terrifying. But remember: you’re here to grow, and if you’re not growing, you’re going to slowly slide back to comfort. The biggest killer of results and growth in business is complacency. The moment you and I decide we’re in a comfortable place is the moment we begin the slow slide back to mediocrity. Your next leaps in business will come in all shapes and sizes, including the following Early on as an entrepreneur, you operated out of blind passion and faith. It worked, and now you’re in a place where growth isn’t as fast as it used to be. Furthermore, you find yourself doing way too much. This is where the key hire becomes your leap. I’ve worked with countless entrepreneurs who’d taken the initial leap but were just as hesitant to make the key hire standing in their way. Whether it was hiring their first full-time admin, operations person, CFO or anything in between, this key hire was the leap required not only to create massive growth but also to get back to a place of freedom and vitality in their business. And yet, they waited and took way too long. They thought they’d need to add the key hire’s salary in new revenue, which is reverse thinking. It’s playing small, and relying on incremental growth, when the professional realizes the key hire is exactly the domino in the way to create an abundance of profits. In every case of working with someone who needed to make a key hire (including this guy), it came six months too late. Without a doubt, the number-one theme that came up time and time again was a variation of the following: “I wish I would have done this sooner, this is incredible.” One of my clients, Jeff, realized he wasn’t making his key hire because he didn’t want to give up control of his baby. But his baby wasn’t growing, and it was keeping him up every single night riddled with stress. He’d been running successful financial planning firm yet felt stuck. We worked together, got him clear, and he pulled the trigger. We created a deadline for him, a two-week, European vacation. Upon arrival, we talked, and he had concern in his voice. I’d thought it hadn’t work out as well or there had been a crisis at home. He said: “Tommy . . . I don’t know how to say this, but um, I realized I was barely missed. I expected to come home to endless emails and putting out fires, but she (the key hire) and the team not only handled it perfectly, we grew. I’ve realized I’m needed less than I thought.” For a moment, Jeff was a little down, until he realized this was his dream; he now had the freedom he had so long sought out and why he started the business in the first place. All it took was a little faith, trust, and deciding to use the quantum model. Jeff expands: The results were so incredible, I’d started to beat myself up for not doing this at least 24 months sooner. What I realized was the future self, the Jeff five years down [the] line would make this hire in a moment’s notice. Once I recognized this, everything changed. We’ve grown more in the last 8 months than we did in the prior four years.6 This is the power of making the key hire your business leap and never looking back. Most entrepreneurs will experience a moment where they realize they’re spending too much time in the trenches. Because of the all-in approach of launching and growing, it’s easy to get stuck and comfortable working “in” the business, instead of “on” it. In the business means spending your time on the fulfillment of your brand, product, or service. In other words, doing work employees can and should be doing, including details that make the business run but don’t necessarily make it grow. There comes a point when an entrepreneur must transition to working mostly on the business. This is where leverage is created—long-term strategy, planning, and the creation of new initiatives. Without the burden of always focusing on the micro, the entrepreneur is able to stay on the cutting edge. This transition can be incredibly difficult and is considered a leap. On the other side of it is growth, freedom, and powerful creative energy. With growth in any business, there comes a time when doing the same of what got us here won’t get us there. This is when leaps are required, and investments come in various forms: marketing, system, infrastructure, branding, and more. Whether that’s upgrading from your home office in the basement to a real HQ or investing in a marketing firm to help you with the big launch, these leaps are essential to endure growth. Sure, it’s easier to make decisions once you have more cash to work with, but I’ve often found the following to be true: when you have something to lose, it can be much more tempting to play it safe. These core pillars of your business are designed to build a foundation to stand the test of time. Most importantly, they provide stability as the business grows. There’s nothing worse than having a business hit it big, only to realize they don’t have any of the systems and infrastructure to support or fulfill the growth. Last, your business leap could come from launching a brand-new offering, product line, or service and further evolving in your marketplace. This is when creative energy thrives on how you stay on the cutting edge, for yourself and for your clients. On paper, this may seem so apparent you may be rolling your eyes. But how many companies suffer a fall from grace because of their lack of innovation and keeping up with an ever-changing marketplace? Kodak invented the world’s first digital camera in 1975 but were too hesitant to introduce anything except their core product with film. Blockbuster was king of the mountain until they ignored where the consumer was headed (delivery and streaming) and stayed stubborn with the belief the consumer would come find them. Borders Bookstores had a massive retail footprint, but failed to embrace the ever-changing landscape of books through the Internet and digital delivery. I’d be able to fill the rest of this book with examples, but the point is simple: stay on the cutting edge or be left behind. As of 2014, 88% of Fortune 500 companies from 1955 were gone or no longer existed.7 And while you may be thinking you don’t have a multinational conglomerate with thousands of employees, stagnation and lack of innovation happens in every business. It’s the local salon that doesn’t embrace online booking and loses market share to the audience that prefers to make appointments online. It’s the teaching and education platform stuck on the traditional model instead of finding new ways to create experiences for people through digital distribution. It’s the real estate business focusing on the same old referral techniques instead of embracing video marketing to attract high-end clients. You get the drill: there’s always a leap you can create to reach the next level of growth and impact with your business. Remember, your business leap can and will transform every area of your life. But life is never linear, and it is impossible to fully compartmentalize. That’s exactly where the other leaps in your life may actually become the precursor or catalyst to creating a shift across all the others, including business.Your Business Leap Will Impact Your Entire Experience
The Strongest Anchor Out There
The Excitement Test
The (Not So) Safe Path
Either Create Courage, or Let It Be Created for You
Types of Business Leaps
Business Leap 1: The Career Shift
Business Leap 2: Zero to Launch
Business Leap 3: The Pivot
What Would I Do and Love Every Day If I Were Failing?
Business Leap 4: The Exponential Shift
They’re Waiting for You
Eradicate Your Excuses … Start Now
Waiting Around for the (Right) Time
Instead, Make a Bold Decision
Using Fake Gratitude
Instead Show Gratitude
Making Decisions Based On Who You’ve Been
Instead Look Toward the Future
Business Is an Endless Series of Leaps
Making the Key Hire in Your Business
Stepping Away from the “in” to the “on”
Investing in Marketing, Systems, and Infrastructure
Launching a Brand-New Division, Product, or Service
Notes