How to Create 'Overnight Success' in Your Business
by Mark Silver
Published on this site: July 1st, 2005 - See
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A person I admire has a very successful business. He's sharp,
personable, funny, smart, and helpful. And, the products and
services he provides are top-notch. He's sold thousands of
them, and his business is operating at a level much higher
than mine.
Then he announced that he was celebrating three years in
business. What! Only three years? How'd he get so far, so
fast?
He's created for himself an overnight success. I'm doing
the same thing, following the same steps he did. And, you
can, too.
Here's the secret to his "overnight success": He
spent 15 years prior to starting his "overnight success"
business in his industry, learning, growing, making mistakes.
Jim Collins, in his groundbreaking book Good to Great, wrote
about "the Flywheel and the Doom Loop." In the companies
his team studied, the ones who had outstanding results just
kept incrementally improving, learning, making mistakes, learning,
continuing. These efforts created momentum on their "flywheel."
The Flywheel is an analogy Collins used- a Flywheel is a
huge, very heavy wheel that takes a tremendous amount of effort
to get it to turn even a fraction of an inch in its rotation.
However, by pushing steadily at it, it gradually picks up
momentum. Then, you hit the moment when it's moving so fast,
nothing can stop it.
In contrast, companies who didn't take the Flywheel approach
were caught in the "Doom Loop." Lurching around,
trying a new thing every year or two (or month or two!), trying
to hit the lottery. Sound familiar? Unfortunately, it doesn't
work.
In other words, "overnight success" only looks
that way from the outside. When you finally hit your momentum,
it won't feel like overnight success to you. But it may look
that way to others.
I have found this to be true without exception. EVERY "overnight
success," when I've looked at it closely, wasn't really.
My mentor coach looked like an overnight success, going from
$0 to a full client load in 90 days... except that she had
years of experience in running a different practice before,
and had the internal confidence it takes to enroll clients.
There CAN be a sudden big jump in results, and this, no doubt,
is what makes people think to call it an "overnight success."
But, it just ain't so. The sudden big jump is because the
slow, steady incremental pushing of the Flywheel suddenly
hit the tipping point. You are inching up the see-saw, and,
a little bit past the mid-way point, the see-saw tilts in
the other direction.
The real question isn't "Can you get the see-saw to
tip?" The real question is: "Can you keep from getting
thrown off when the see-saw does tip?" How many lottery
winners hold on to their millions? How many sudden superstar
athletes or musicians are overwhelmed by success, and fall
into drugs and reckless spending?
It's strange but true that many participants in my Heart
of Money Transformational Journey have a bigger struggle appreciating
assets they already own, than they do in facing their financial
liabilities.
The real secrets to "overnight success" are:
- It only looks like "overnight" from the outside-
it took a lot of incremental work over years;
- You have to prepare yourself internally;
- You should look around and find contentment in your heart
where you already are, so you can feel enlivened to continue
the journey ahead.
You don't have to be afraid of success, but you do have to
prepare yourself spiritually in the same incremental manner
as you do your business. If you work on both the internal
and the external parts of success, then you'll be ready for
the tipping point when it comes, inside and out.
Keys to Your Overnight Success
- Comparison is an evil force. Seriously. Although it's
great to watch others in order to learn, if you are comparing
yourself to someone else, when each of your situations is
unique, you ignite havoc in your heart as you struggle to
be someone you aren't.
- Stop comparing yourself to others. You don't know their
story. You don't know how they did what they are doing.
And, you probably don't even know the full truth of how
successful they really are. People can look successful,
and still have their struggles.
- Appreciate your assets. This is the third chapter of
Section Five: The Heart of Money, in my book, and it is
surprisingly challenging for most people. Try facing something
you own, maybe a bigger ticket item, and notice how your
heart feels as you face it. This item is yours, it's been
given to you, you have full responsibility over how to dispose
of it.
- Don't be surprised if it's an overwhelming feeling. But
take time to accept what you already have into your heart.
Digesting like this will help make room for more.
- Don't do more than one difficult thing at a time. Don't
raise your prices, start a new marketing campaign, and try
to create your first DVD all at the same time. Pick one
challenging area, and immerse yourself in it until you feel
you "own" it. Then move on to the next. Don't
worry if you don't have a blog, or a DVD, or whatever latest
and newest thing everyone is touting. You'll get to them,
if it's truly important.
Instead focus on the most challenging thing in your business
that isn't working to your satisfaction, and take it on. Learn
about it, chew on it, integrate it into your heart, and then
you can move on to the next.
My very best to you and your business,
Mark
Mark Silver is the founder of Heart of Business, and
the author of the forthcoming book, Unveiling the Heart of
Your Business: How money, marketing and sales can deepen your
heart, heal the world, and still add to your bottom line.
He has helped hundreds of people in small business succeed
without losing their heart. Mark integrates 1400 years of
spiritual tradition with plain, no-nonsense business practices.
Get his free workbook Getting to the Core of Your Business,
among other free resources, online: http://www.heartofbusiness.com
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