Question Featured On: Episode 2 - #AskRussellAnything
First off, if youβre an entrepreneur, by definition of the term, you are not going to be completely sane. Itβs one of those things, especially after youβve gone through it. If you would have known what you had to go through to be a successful entrepreneur before, you probably wouldnβt have done it, to be completely honest. Itβs not all sunshine and roses; itβs more like walking into a boxing match and getting your face pounded in for a long time.
So if youβre in it, and I did a whole podcast on this yesterday, actually. If you listen to Marketing Secrets podcast, I did an episode. I said the number one way I know if youβre going to be successful or not. It has to do with what your motivation is, 100%. So if your goal as an entrepreneur is I want to make money. Almost 100% of the time, you will fail this game. Actually, probably 100%.
If you come in and your goal is, I want to help something or serve, whatever it is. If youβre fired up about something, that gives you the motivation to actually stick through the pain. Because you get beat up every single day. I saw Caleb Maddox just jump on here. Caleb knows. Caleb gets beat up on Facebook on comments. I get beat up. Itβs a brutal thing. You have to be so obsessed and passionate about the person you are serving that all that stuff just goes away. Thatβs number one.
Number two is burn out. Burn out is a huge thing, especially when youβre first trying to build something. People always ask me, βRussell, how do you keep your life so balanced?β Are you kidding me? Nothing good in life happens because youβre balanced. I want you guys to understand this. When you met your spouse, or potential spouse, someday you will. When I met my wife, my life was not balanced. 100% of my attention went to my wife, and everything else struggled. I kept doing wrestling, but school completely dropped off. You have to learn how to unbalance your life for a period of time to get greatness in anything.
When I was wrestling, my life became completely unbalanced towards wrestling so I could focus on it, master it, become that person. And everything else had to suffer and then it came back. It happens in my relationships, everything. The same thing happened in business. There is a time when life becomes extremely unbalanced, and you gotta be okay with that. And itβs going to snap back. If youβre trying to keep a balanced life, itβs not going to be okay. Thereβs going to be burnout.
But just understand that when it starts burning out, thatβs when you need to snap back and come back into these other things as well. I had someone I look up to, he was doing a presentation one time and he held up a rubber band, and heβs like, βLook at the rubber band, itβs really interesting, if you just hold it floppy it doesnβt do anything. Itβs just useless. Some people honestly, itβs their life, theyβre there and theyβre useless. Rubber bands are meant to be stretched. If you stretch them, they can hold things together. Theyβre useful when theyβre stretched. But if you try to stretch them too far what happens? Boom, snaps.β
So you have to understand and start learning yourself, you have to understand, if I donβt do anything Iβm useless. I need to be stretched to be useful, but if I stretch too far, Iβm going to break. So for me, I get unbalanced to be able to accomplish something great. Then before I snap I have to come back and get back into normalcy. So thatβs the big thing.
Then the third part of this question was about the spouse. Number one is Iβm a huge believer in you can only be as successful as your spouse will allow you to be. So if you havenβt picked a spouse yet, pick the right spouse is number one. Number two is if your spouse is not into this whole thing, then I would recommend sticking with your spouse and not this thing. Thatβs probably counter to what a lot of people say but thereβs a quote from David O. McKay that said, βNo success can compensate for failure in the home.β And thatβs true.
So if your spouse isnβt on board, itβs going to be hard for you to really succeed in this business. So a lot of times itβs better to not and get back to whatβs going to make you both happy because thatβs much more important than all this crazy stuff weβre doing.
Number three if your spouse is on board, itβs still going to be hard. What Iβve found, this is my personal thing. If I tell my wife in 15 minutes, or if I call her at 5:00 βHey Iβm going to be pulling an all-nighter tonight.β Guess what happens? She is pissed for a long time. But if I tell her three days earlier, βHey, on Thursday night, we gotta stay late. Is it cool if I pull an all-nighter?β Sheβll be like, βSure.β So for me itβs all about setting expectations ahead of time.
So if Iβm like, βTomorrow night Iβm going to fly off to wherever.β If I just want to take off and do something, super bad, horrible idea. If I tell her in advance, βHey two weeks from now I got this thing.β Then sheβs okay with it, she can prepare herself for it. Thatβs been big for me. The other secret, I probably shouldnβt share on camera, in case my wife hears. You guys want it? Just let me spike the mic if I get this one. For any of you guys who travel as entrepreneurs, you will find this. This is the good stuff.
If you guys like this, you have to share this show when itβs live, itβs important. As an entrepreneur, when you travel. Youβll be traveling and itβll be so much fun hanging out with people, being in seminars and events. Youβll be taking pictures of yourself smiling, eating good food and hanging out with people and youβll send it back to your spouse whoβs home with your kids, stressed out. Theyβre drooling and puking all night, stuff that happens as a parent. Theyβll see you having fun and guess what? They will resent you. It happens. Itβs not just with me. Iβve seen it happen with most of the people I travel with in this business.
The secret I found, one time I was on a trip and I was miserable. And when I messaged my wife I told her how miserable I was and she was so sympathetic when I came home. It was way better. So when I travel, guess what I donβt send pictures back of? The fun. Guess what I do? The stuff thatβs hard. Itβs a secret. Donβt tell my wife that. But I promise you this, it works.
Alright, you guys good with that? Did I answer the question? I donβt want to spike it though. Iβm going to drop it though.
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