The hardest thing I’ve done this year…

Summary

• When facing stress in business, I remind myself that it's a season of stress and prepare to tackle challenges with the understanding that stress is temporary.
• Making bad financial decisions is part of business, and viewing mistakes as a cost of doing business can help avoid the feeling of needing to bounce back.
• It's crucial to differentiate between shiny object syndrome and valuable new opportunities by focusing on clarity of vision and asking whether the new idea aligns with the ultimate goal.
• To resist distractions, one must have a compelling vision and be dedicated to the long, hard path to success, understanding that discipline leads to large-scale achievements.
• When choosing a company name, I recommend simplicity and making sure the name clearly reflects what the company does.
• Determining whether a business or career fits you involves knowing what you like and dislike and envisioning the lifestyle you want, from daily activities to the kind of people you interact with.
• Acquisition.com aligns well with my personal strengths and preferences for patience and strategy, reinforcing the importance of aligning business choices with personal traits.
• Building a strong company culture starts with picking values that truly resonate with you and organically integrating them into the company's decision-making processes.
• My fashion inspiration comes from matching my internal self with styles that are angular and embody feminine strength with a business edge, favoring black and white for simplicity and versatility.
• To remain competitive, businesses should focus on telemedicine and remote services, prioritizing delivering results that match customer preferences and experiences.
• When seeking a job or change in career, it's essential to take proactive steps, such as reaching out with resumes and aligning careers with personal vision and strengths.
• To attract talent, consider developing in-house training systems to foster desirable traits and ensure that the employee value proposition meets job seekers' expectations by gathering direct feedback.
• Successful organizations match their internal structures with their external market strategies, ensuring that their internal strengths support their goals, as demonstrated by acquisition.com's hands-on growth partnership approach.
• Role clarity within an organization stems from understanding the purpose of each position and how it contributes to the company's overall strategy in the market.
• Managing difficult periods in business involves setting realistic expectations, accepting the impending stress, and focusing on the temporary nature of challenging seasons.

Video

How To Take Action

I would suggest implementing the idea that stress is a temporary season. When things get tough, remember it's not forever. Prepare to face challenges head-on, knowing this tough time will pass.

A good way of dealing with mistakes is to see them as a normal part of business. If you make a bad financial decision, don't beat yourself up. Think of it as a learning cost and move on.

To avoid "shiny object syndrome," focus on your main goal. Ask yourself if a new idea helps you get there. If it doesn't align with your vision, it's probably a distraction. Stick to one path to success.

Choosing a company name? Keep it simple. Make sure it tells people what your business does. Write down what you do and pick a name that reflects that.

When deciding if a business fits you, consider what you like and how you want to live. Match your strengths with the business. This can help you be more patient and strategic with your decisions.

Building a strong company culture? Pick values that matter to you. Talk about them, use them in decisions, and lead by example. This can help your team understand and follow the culture too.

For fashion, match your internal self with clothes that make you feel confident. Black and white are versatile and easy to match, saving time and money.

In business, look into telemedicine and remote services. People like online options. Give customers what they want in the way they prefer it.

Job hunting? Take proactive steps. Send out resumes and explain why you're a good fit. If talent is hard to find, maybe create a training system to develop the traits you need in your team.

Finally, when times are tough, set realistic expectations. Accept that stress is part of growth. Knowing it's only for a while can help you stay calm and focused.

Quotes by Leila Hormozi

"The only reason that you need to bounce back is because you have put yourself down"

– Leila Hormozi

"Think about your vision – will this help me get there faster or not?"

– Leila Hormozi

"Sticking with the plan is more important than being distractible"

– Leila Hormozi

"What do you want your life to look like, and does this career fit into that vision?"

– Leila Hormozi

"Choose the right values that define your culture"

– Leila Hormozi

Full Transcript

decisions in the company I told myself this is going to be a season of stress I'm going to answer a bunch of questions including how to bounce back if you've made a bad financial decision in business how to differentiate if it's shiny object syndrome versus something new you should do and then lastly one of the toughest things I've had to overcome in the recent year the only reason that you need to bounce back is because you have put yourself down making bad decisions is part of business there will be times when you might even make the right decision and it will still have negative Financial ramifications on the business does it mean that the decision making criteria is bad sometimes yes sometimes no there are so many times where I take risks and I will lose money does that mean that I am bad at business or bad at investing no if you look at your mistakes as a cost of doing business rather than something that's wrong with you or the business then there is nothing to bounce back from because it's just accepting the fast but that is part of the game come to terms with reality and it won't feel so bad most of the time the reason that people don't know the difference between shiny object syndrome and a good new idea is that they are very unclear on the vision of where they need to go oftentimes people have like four really big Ideas people start with one vision and they're working their way towards it but then they get distracted with something else and they start trying to work towards that and then they get distracted with something else and it's like you have three paths and all three are incentivizing but the reality is that you're not going to achieve any one of them because you haven't committed think about your vision will this help me get there faster or not and if you can't answer that question then you need to go back to the vision crystallize where you want to go what it looks like when you get there what your surroundings are like what the circumstances look like it's really easy to get distracted because the thing that you're working towards is not compelling therefore you are distractible for me it's easy to say no to things for acquisition.com because I feel confident in the vision that we have of the fusion what that looks like you're always going to feel like oh I could have done that that could have looked better that is human nature new shiny things always look better sticking with the plan is more important the most disciplined entrepreneurs and having the biggest businesses because they can commit to the long hard path everything always takes longer and is harder than we expect I see the people who are winning they are staying committed to their path in order to even achieve that big Vision they have to be that committed because that's the only way you get people to help you get there if they say you're not committed how the are you gonna get them to be committed you're just not if I were trying to take my name out of a company I would just ask myself what does the company do acquisition.com makes sense because we acquire stake in businesses Jim launch made sense because we launched gyms I think that making names as simple as possible where the most amount of people can understand and from the name itself delineate what it does or doesn't do that makes the most sense to me what does your company do write those words down and then find one that you like I don't also consider myself an expert at this like I'm not Elon Musk I don't know why it's called Tesla I don't even know why it's called SpaceX I have no idea the way that I think through if the business or career is right for me is like I don't one believe anything is right for me we all have preferences and most of the time we want more of the things we like and less of the things we don't like and a lot of it comes from just knowing what you like and don't like because most people don't even take the time to think about it they just feel things and react to the feelings that you can start with what you want your life to look like what do you like want to be doing every day what do you want to feel every day what kind of people do you want to talk to every day what kind of things do you want to study every day and then does this career or that career fit more more into that vision for me I looked at gym launch when we started the company we did not have that thought process we weren't like what do we like Would we not like in terms of what our days look like what we're studying what we're having to do to grow the business as I became more mature in owning that business I started getting more in tune with like what do I like what do I not like what kind of company or do I like running what are my natural strengths and weaknesses and how can I utilize them best for me personally I think that acquisition.com is a much better fit for my skill set I like things where like I have to be patient to win I've always known that about myself because every big thing I've accomplished in life has required patience and so I've been reinforced for that I have my ultimate what would I prefer my life to look like and then how does everything else fit into that what kind of business does it look like what kind of marriage does it look like what kind of and for me they're all intertwined so it's really easy to make decisions because like I have one big vision and everything falls beneath those things most people ask how they can create a strong culture in a startup and the reality is is that most people just don't do the basics and I have not had yet in my career to do beyond the basics to create a really cool culture so what are the basics like really choose values that actually mean something to you I think about our values I use them to make decisions I talk about them all the time it comes naturally to me because they mean something because they are organic to who I am and to who Alex is because of that we talk about them all the time we use them in decision making people in a small team see that and they mimic they mimic what you're doing which is like using the values to make decisions talking about the values referring to the values the best thing that you can do is choose the right values that Define your culture I think that if you can do that you're already 90 steps ahead of everybody else because everyone says that they've chosen great values and then when I ask them like tell me your values and then they have to look at a piece of paper and it's like you already know that you've lost if you can't even rehearse them then they're obviously not meaningful to you what's your fashion inspiration God no I'm kidding uh I just try to match the inside I like a lot of Asian Japanese fashion which has a lot of angles Alexander Wang or Alexander McQueen they have a lot of that kind of style what do I want my fashion to look like I think a representation of myself which is probably like feminine with an edge meets business professional I like to wear black and white primarily because I don't like picking colors and I feel like it complicates your wardrobe and the thing about black and white is that they all match each other I can just always mix and match it and it always matches each other versus if you have like yellow and pink and green it just makes it that much more complicated if you like to buy nice stuff you can buy fewer things if you wear black and white you can match them all to outfits you want to be outside the status quo I would say that there's two things which is telemedicine is booming any way that you can translate your services or your business into one that is online and remote people have already voted with their dollar so that is something that they value and that they would prefer that to in person because of the inconvenience one deliver results in the way people want to buy now which is remote and then two is deliver the experience wrapped around those results by also focusing on how you make them feel throughout the entire experience you went there to get an arts degree to do what if you really want that thing what's the first step to getting there what's the first job you have to get I would be emailing people my resume selling them on why they should give me an interview because even if a place isn't hiring if somebody is excellent and they have the balls to do that a lot of people consider you and you're having a hard time finding this talent to come work for you I would look for more how you can develop a training system within your business where you can just find people and sell them on the opportunity of like how much money they can make within this business so you find people how to write character traits you bring them in you train them that's kind of like the exchange that you're giving the other route to just consider is what is your employee value proposition you might not be providing what they want you might not be solving a problem that they have is it that you're not paying enough the description of the job is very boring and monotonous you have to figure out what the hole is and so a good way that you could do this is that people that pass on the opportunity you ask them why what is it about this opportunity that wasn't incentivizing enough for you you people will give you an answer I can tell you that I've gotten the most amount of information from asking candidates themselves basically getting Market feedback rather than trying to guess the mistake that people make in terms of like when they build out their organizational structure is one most people just think like triangle like I am building an org and it looks like this the most successful organizations which only 20 of organizations actually even do this is they match the external strategy they have their strategy in the marketplace to acquire customers and such with an internal strategy as well the strengths internally should match and support your external goals acquisition.com most people look at our organ they would be like you have too many people for a PE firm and I'm like right for a traditional PE firm because what most traditional PE does is they bring your business in they financially engineer it and then they try to flip it within say three to five years they don't do a ton of value ad they don't try to organically grow any piece of the business acquisition.com is a growth partner therefore we have a head of marketing ahead of sales ahead of customer success we actually come in and try to help people organically grow the business before we do other Acquisitions or financially engineer any of that stuff you have to understand what your external strategy to the marketplace is and you have to match it internally so if I were to have this tiny little team would that be conducive to helping people grow their business probably not there wouldn't be enough resources having a lack of clarity in the organization just stems from having a lack of clarity as to why the organization exists in the first place if you don't know why the overarching organization exists then how can you know why each role exists and role Clarity comes from knowing why each role exists and what function it plays to the company into the greater strategy of it in the marketplace what is the toughest thing I've had to deal with in the last year and a half for myself in business I knew that I need to make a few hard decisions in the company which was going to create a lot of work for me I told myself this is going to be a season of stress and so I reset my expectations with reality so then when I made some hard decisions and I had to accommodate to those changes I felt totally fine about it in a weird way I had told myself and already accepted and chosen to do this anyways knowing that I was going to feel stressed what I used to do was that I would seek out a situation that would be challenging but I would cross my fingers and hope that I wasn't gonna be stressed and anxious or sad or upset I've accepted that those things are going to happen I might have stress about the situation about a fluctuation workload about having more responsibility for a period of time but I don't also have stress on top of that feeling like why am I stressed about this why am I upset why am I sad I'm at peace with the fact that there is stress rather than trying to fight it which causes more stress it's a season it will pass