How To Overcome The Startup Growth Plateau - Don't Be A “Rugged Individualist” - Dan Lok

Key Takeaways

[Music] let's talk about the rugged individualist now as an entrepreneur when we start a business who do we rely on ourselves so we make that we make things happen we we we hustle we we make it work we sell we Market we get it out there we meet people and money starts coming in and things are were working and you writing checks check go to you know checks going out checks coming in and you're making money and you're selling and you're hustling you're making stuff happen and that's good and things start to happen and that goes on and on and on and on now suddenly more more things are happen happening more opportunities more clients now you're kind of dropping the ball a little bit but you keep still you're pushing forward and pushing forward and you're making money and you what happens is your your your cash flow pattern your income so at first your business maybe you know a little bit slow right and and then you kind of figure a few things out and then you kind of make it happen and then you kind of like okay you're making money you're happening it's like and then you hit what I call aass last ceiling you hit it what last ceiling okay you hit this ceiling of complexity and now suddenly you exhaust it you retire you're dropping the ball you're making mistakes but you keep pushing forward and then your income actually is not going up it plateaus it what plateaus every entreprene experience this and then you're making more mistakes and you drop the ball and you now start pissing off some clients because you're not handling all the clients properly and and then you try to hire some people and you and the people turn out not to be as good as they could be and then try to spend time fixing the mistakes now now you're putting more hours but then your income slowly actually goes down how many have experienced this okay and most companies usually fail at this point Winston experien this a lot of people experien this that's when they fail if usually they don't get help from here they're done because by this time the entrepreneur has lost the confidence they burn out they don't know what to do they think I've done as much as I could I try everything that I could I maybe this is not meant to be maybe this doesn't work then they may start something else but usually that's that's that's it it's done for this business or or when you hit the glass ceiling and in this case you need to do something else as a worker individualist what happens is in the beginning because you the one that makes everything happen you the go-getter you the bread maker you mean you are the one that actually grow the company to whatever Point could be could be quarter million could be half a million could one Million number don't matter but you hit that point and it actually plateaus and it goes down what happens is this because when you hit this point it requires you to reinvent yourself what does it require you to do rein here's the biggest challenge for rurs the very thing the very skills the very belief that may you successful in the first place is exactly what's holding you back from having that breakthrough that's the problem what made you successful is exactly in the first place is exactly what's holding you back from going down to the next level because you're good at this you're very good at it because our brain is basically a survival mechanism what is it survival me so when you hit this point sometimes you get a mentor whatever it might be it doesn't matter there's a turning point when you get this so you're telling me the things that made me successful in the first place that got me everything I have so far at this point you want me to let that go yes and that's why it's very difficult because the survival Instinct kicks in no no no you want to survive it's dangerous you don't want to do that you don't want to let go look that's how you made all that money in the first place you don't want to let that go that's your brain talking let brain but if you don't let that go you cannot go to the next level yeah that's exactly the issue and that's why most entrepreneurs they kind of most most most business stay small they can't get through it they're good but they just kind of like uh that's what they just make a living getting a little paycheck maybe a little bit better than a job and most businesses they stay here most of them big chunk of them actually and most of them that's why first five years don't make it die after five years later they die they just can't get through this it's very very very difficult just doing it by yourself it's very difficult so rck individualist exactly as a r individualist hey you know what hit that glass ceiling doesn't work I don't know what to do but I'm going to do everything myself I'm going to keep working harder I'm going to keep putting in more hours it does not work how many can see this do not work how many think that's like oh how many just got an AA moment yeah yeah the very skill that may you successful in the first place exactly what's holding you back right now so what do you do yes but what do you do change mind to what change your mindset to what next yeah but how don't give me this short how you have to be open letting go and bringing people on to help you yes you have to be open to what letting go and accepting accepting hell yes what else building a team building a team yes building a team knowing it's not about you anymore the whole thing just shift when you get to that point it's not about you at all in fact the less it is about you the more successful as the company is going to be yes supp what people call a mastermind Alliance a mastermind Alliance getting some new ideas some new strategies uh let me give you a a very simple tip one thing I notice that helps people to break through that level is you if you if you could like a mastermind or or some kind of peer group that you could align yourself with and you hang around with people let's say you're making half a million a year example okay you want to get to that million dollar Mark but you hit that ceiling of complexity you don't know what to do you burn out but when you talk to the people who are running one two three5 million company you totally get a different perspective you get a totally different you know oh my God these guys they're not running everything by themselves they have division they have people they are manager just by exposing yourself to another possibility it will start to shift does that make sense yeah I find that it's it's not rocket science but just by talking with other entrepreneurs at a different level you get a new different perspective it's very difficult to get that perspective locking your door and just by yourself it's very difficult but when you talk to someone who's running guess what when you talk to someone who's running a 10 times bigger company than you are it's a different conversation yes David now just just so the group understands I yes you don't take a direct call from somebody but if somebody was to email you from the group you would answer their question yes I would how many have emailed me directly did I answer yes or no yes yeah yeah I do now so knowing that with myself the way I protect my time is a is a good lesson here remember when we had I had a a mastermind with all my mentees right a few months ago what was it may was it may uh April was April May anyway a few months ago doesn't matter so it was from 9 to 6 right everybody's doing their thing we had a whole bunch of people in there we were brainstorming and and I think what Gary I was talking to Gary that uh my phone cell phone never rang and I never check right and I think is was you you that that's asking me or who I forgot maybe maybe it was you anyway yeah so what does that mean I'm in control of my time the cell phone if you someone calls and you have to answer that means who's in control they are they are in fact if right now most of the time 90% of the time if I don't have an an appointment I schedule all my time my phone home phone it's unplugged it's unpluged I almost never take any incoming calls that are not scheduled I just don't because nothing is that urgent nothing is that urgent this the way I structure my time now sometimes David text me if I I'm afraid I would reply right away it does take hours yeah so sometimes I'll reply have an urgent but it takes hours it could be the next day yeah it's just the way sometimes we reply the next minute but you get back to it I get back to it but not immediately so here's what the philosophy exle yes please he was in China yeah had a situation we needed another microphone he got a hold of me through DJ who we planned it all out and then I'm not here he wasn't even here no because what I learned is when you let your team do their thing you get out of the way they figure something out they just couldn't get a hold of me and they got to mix stuff happen and they mix stff happen but when you're control freak do that again choking your business to death right he's like no no I don't want to make maybe they make a mistake maybe they don't maybe but chances are if you have good people in place in the first time they would exceed your expectation only when you have lousy people then they're not so good so with that in mind with that in mind rocket individualist do you want to be a rucket IND viil yes or no do you want to be rucket IND vigil no no that's what's holding you back 10 times your finances 10 times your business 10 times your marketing 10 times your life hit the Subscribe button now