Daily Update
You’re one day closer to the end of the covid lockdown!
Yesterday’s brief prompted over 10 people to ask me a question: “How did you find the motivation to turn your gym around when it wasn’t going well?”
The common business mantra is to “remember your why.” But that didn’t work for me.
Back then, knowing my “why” wasn’t enough. I was done. The only thing that saved me was my list of “why nots”: my daughter, my wife and my mortgage. If I didn’t figure it out, my wife would have had to go back to work after maternity leave, my daughter would have had to go to daycare (she hated daycare), and I’m not sure if we would have kept our house.
When I realized why I just couldn’t fail, my next thought was: “I am not going to keep them waiting while I try to figure this out on my own.” I got a mentor and—yada-yada-yada.
What I didn’t appreciate at the time—and it’s perhaps hard for you to see it now—is that every experience you have now will give you a 10x return later. Einstein called compounding interest the “eighth wonder of the world.” I believe in compounding time. Every hard experience, when it’s over, will yield far greater growth over time.
If that wasn’t true, none of us would have this job (see Hans Selye’s general adaptation syndrome: Place an organism under stress and it will super-compensate when the stress is removed). That’s the real miracle, both in anatomy and in business.
The stuff I learned in my darkest hours is the stuff that’s given me the best returns over time. Believe it. You’re almost there!
Today’s Tactic
Follow the advice in this podcast: “What to Do When It all Goes Wrong”
News
Dallas hair salon owner jailed for reopening her business early: CNN.com
Key Resources
Gyms in New Zealand await the government’s announcement of their reopening. Here are the guidelines they’ll be held to: “Play, Active Recreation and Sport at Alert Level 2.”
Sanitation guidelines: Sportnz.org
Workplace health and safety guidelines: Worksafe.govt.nz
