Success isn't pretty.

Some how, some where the reality of high performance; the shock of achievement; and the “wait what” of success completely got off track.  Everyone seems to not realize that being successful is hard, you have to get dirty rather often, and the process is completely exhausting.    Whether you are an athlete trying to get better, or a student trying to learn a subject, or boss trying to scale or grow a company, or a parent trying to parent, or a pastor trying to preach the process to achieve will break you.  You will actually feel broken rather often,  you will feel pain that doesn’t whisper it screams, you will often not know if you will make another dollar, and you will most surely want to get divorced, and I can tell you from the mouth of many pastors they question it all rather often.

The notion that success doesn’t break you is what we have been sold by the current social media and news outlets.  Because they show you the end point of the rare people who stick it out and sort of neglect to even show you the 10,000 times that successful person was broken.  Take the Olympics, that is the end point of countless hours and days and years for that person or team to make it to the success point and all we get to see is the 10seconds of that process.  And we walk away inspired and say to ourselves I wish I could run a 9 second 100 meter or swim like Mike Phelps.  And we all think wow and google this or that person in top form and for some reason that inspires us.

Most are inspired and decide to start working out again.  We all are enthusiastic up to the point of the first work out where we cannot even run 100 meters or swim 100 meters without something hurting.  80% of the people stop at that point and go back to doing minor inconvenient things that don’t break us and clearly don’t lead to success.  Because, to be successful you have to keep breaking and feeling broken and being confused, and being beaten down by others. 

There in lies the greatest paradox to the human growth idea.  Success isn’t pretty at all but we all want to be successful.  We all want to be in shape, smart, have money, be married to our sexy soul mate, and be one with whatever god we follow.  To do that we have to pass through pain, confusion, scarcity, separation, and meaninglessness and that is the deal. 

Tiger Woods is a clear example of the paradox and the dirtiness of success.  Tiger broke, unraveled, got divorced, everyone crushed him and thought less of him.  It was a dirty, ugly, he couldn’t walk well, his back and shoulders needed reconstruction, he had to change every thing.  Everyone said he was done, he even questioned himself.  Yet he came back from Hell.  Now everyone loves him again and no one sees what it takes to succeed just he 10 seconds of fame at the end.  Everyone wants that.

This deception in the media wasn’t always the way.  There was a time longer ago that need be that youth, and that teachers, and that coaches and athletes, that business owners and employees knew of the dirty process to succeed.

Success isn’t pretty it takes a long time to get there.  What does it take?  Let’s reinvent the process and get rid of this entitlement to failure.

What does it take to succeed in athletics?  Here is an example one that is a struggle for everyone:  weight loss.  I am not a fan of abstract weight loss but the process is real.  This is free I will tell you the process to lose weight and look sexy.

It takes 3 months.  Don’t start unless you are going to do it for three months.

You have to workout, run, or anything physical every day for an hour for 3 months.  Every day you miss you basically have to add another 3 days.

You have to plan and maintain your five small meals a day for three months.  If you miss a day you have to add three days.

You have to drink 8 glasses of water a day for three months.  If you miss a day you have to add three days. 

Wait I didn’t mention what workout is best.  Hey listen it doesn’t matter really.  That is just a sales related subject of what type of workout is best.

Plan your meals and stick to it.  It may matter what you eat but I have found 1 out of a 1000 even have the strength to plan every meal they eat and fewer can actually drink 8 glasses of water a day. 

Everything not mentioned is a hack and may or may not work.  And if you do the above for 3 months you will lose weight, look amazing and be rather fit.  And you can do this at any age.

What does it take to 2 x your business?  Yes 200 %.  I can say that because of the people issue that exists in businesses.  People are rather not efficient and not engaged and random.  We have 2 x’ed many companies in the past three years by applying this basic formula.  It takes 9 months of 9 sets of 21 day cycles.

Each cycle has three hours a day baseline work.  That is all.

1.     One hour a day focusing on your target market, your target products.

2.     One hour a day selling, yes selling.

3.     One hour a day tying up or doing admin or paper work. 

You have to do this every day for 21 days.  No weekends off.  If you take a day off you have to add three days to the cycle.  After that you can actually not even go to work, and we notice toward the end most companies don’t work much during the off weeks. 

The retention is off the charts,  the sales is so on point it makes you laugh, and the people are so happy. 

What really happens during the weight loss and the 2x’ing your business.  Even though those points are simple, they are not easy.  In the weight loss, working out and eating right and drinking on point is hard.  Your body will definitely hurt from day one to day 90.  You will pull a muscle, you will probably get a random illness.  You will be tired.  You will be hungry and hide candy around the house so no one sees you cheat.  If you are a business person and travel eating well is a beast.  Drinking that amount of water in the first month makes you go the bathroom and wake up 100 times a night.  You will have every reason to quit and most people do.  If you make it 3 months wow look in the mirror and weigh yourself and you will be amazed.  No one can do this without a coach, no one.

What happens in business.  The hardest most dirty part of the 3 hours a day, is selling.  For god’s sake it is as if selling is like asking someone on a daily basis to poke their eyes out with hot pokers.  Many people like the safety of planning and doing paperwork and no one wants to sell.  I call it hunting.  You will hear no more than yes, you will question yourself, your boss, the product.  You will hide and make yourself sick just so you don’t have to sell.  You will not do it on the weekends because you will excuse yourself for winning and the weekends are the biggest excuse from business success in the world.  And no company can do this 9 months without help.

Success isn’t pretty.  If you want to succeed you must commit to the process of dirty.