Business Myth “Busted” #01 - Small Business Advisor

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Hi and welcome to the MythBusters. This is Gordon D'Silva.

I want to bust… partly bust one of the myths that I believe very strongly exists. Is the myth that business is really easy. Businesses is really easy to run, really easy to make money at, easy to be successful in.

And while I believe 100%, there is no better way than a business to reach your financial goals. And maybe your life goals through your business.

It is my belief also that it is not simple. And let me tell you that when I became an accountant and I thought I was an expert in business, that's what accountants are. But little did I know that all I knew was tiny subset of what makes a business successful.

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It's controlling the numbers, understanding the numbers, understanding the story, the numbers tell. There was a whole range more including hiring, getting leads, getting customers, making sales, getting teams together, leading, collect money, getting the administration right, getting the assets right, investing in the technology, getting systems and processes in place.

Making sure everything runs right. Then there's a whole range. We wear many hats as business owners, and so in a business is not easy, but one of the things that allows us to continue thinking businesses is easy is because there's this prevailing myth and we sometimes get sucked into it and then it becomes a norm.

Let me give you an a bit of a slightly different analogy. One of the things we do is we go off to Grand Canaria every Christmas. It’s a couple of weeks before Christmas. It is a retreat where we think a lot about business. I think about where I'm going for the next year. I plan out my next year. I look at things. That’s all very good.

But one of the things I noticed is every morning, I'd go for a long trek in the in the hills behind me at the resort. And when I go back, I would just relax and go for a shower or something. Then I noticed a lot of people in the sea and I thought, well I want to one day, I was going to go and try this.

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This is like, after about four or five years of going there. I went to the sea, and I dip my feet in. It was freezing. If the Atlantic, if it's close to Christmas, I mean it just felt really cold. I don't know. I'm not doing this. This is too much like hard work. And so years went by. There's often, three years later.

It was just a norm for me to go from my trek, an hour and a half, two or three hours and then come back and then go and have a shower. I thought, I'm going to just go into, it was happened to be a really warm day. And I went to the ocean and I dipped in. I just went straight in cause I was really hot from walking for two and a half hours and there's already hard trek, absolutely beautiful.

And the water was freezing. But when I noticed within about 20 seconds I got used to, it was so refreshing. It was lovely. And in fact, I came out more refreshed. Then when I woke up in the morning and when I went from before, when I came back for a shower, it was the most refreshing thing I've done on this trip and I thought, I'm going to do it again tomorrow.

And we were there for two weeks and I went every single day for two weeks. It was completely normal. And then the next year we went. Without any hesitation, I went for my walk and straight in the sea, you know, straight into the ocean, really cold, beautiful, refreshing, nice swim.

small business advisor

And there was no better way for me to finish off my than that. It seems that now I've changed my identity. That has become a norm. Whereas the norm before was to go for a walk and well, that was it. That's it. Go for a shower, and then I'm ready for the day. This was a new norm now, this was a new identity.

And sometimes, unless we have a catalyst to change, and sometimes that comes from within, like it did for me, for my swim. Very often in my career, it comes from outside sources. My coaches, my mentors, training I go on, people I meet, and things I see. And I would wonder, you know, in business we get so sucked into thinking this is the norm, this is average.

This is okay. This is my lot in life, it’s not going to get any better. And we get sucked into this idea of this is okay, this is as good as it's getting, and it isn't.

Every time I thought I've exceeded my previous target. I find another target and I exceed that and I'll find another target and I exceed that because I'm constantly being fed and challenged by new ideas, new people, and in business sometimes it sort of frustrates me because there is so much potential in business, which is why I believe there is no better way to live the life of your dreams than through an owner managed business.

small business advisor

I'm equally frustrated that people settle below their dreams. They set up their business to be like me, to be more self-sufficient, to call your own shots and years later we end up, living a life of somewhat mediocrity where our business is telling us what to do.

Not telling your business what to do. We are being determined as to our work and how many holidays we can have and how much time we get to have off and more hours we have to work by our business rather than the other way around.

I've demonstrated that time and time again in my business and in other businesses I've consulted with, that it doesn't have to be that way for you.

I want somebody to shake it up and I'm hoping this video shakes it up a bit. And just think what could be possible. We would do this thing with clients when we first meet them. Which is a business potential process where we look at the business and find a way.

You want us to get what the potential is and we plot it on. It takes about 45 minutes and it, and it just blows their mind. They go, you mean this is possible? Just by small tweaks. It is remarkable. The change of direction. Change of mind, the change of influence can have in your business.

I'd say, look for that. And hopefully this video, it's a small step towards that change, that catalyst that I hope you find in your business.

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Anyway. That's enough of a rant from me. This is Gordon. Sorry. I get a bit passionate about business and business owners and I don't apologize for it.

This is just who I am. It is what I love. And it is what I believe in.

So hopefully you will comment below, you're telling me what you think may be that I am talking rubbish or you tell me you're right, it's happened to me, my business comment below. Let's keep the conversation going.