It’s easier to start something new than to grow what you have.
Ever been tempted to start a coffee shop, bike store or real-estate business? I have.
But what if you didn’t open a second business with a steep learning curve and just focused on your current business? You’d make fewer mistakes and build wealth faster.
Distraction is a killer for entrepreneurs.
Why do most gym owners fail to make $100,000 per year or achieve $1 million net worth?
Why are they burned out, overwhelmed and ready to quit way too early?
Distraction.
They just can’t focus on what’s most important right now and do the required work. Instead, they chase rabbits down holes.
Here’s an example: It’s cool and sexy to start a podcast and funnel clips onto TikTok. Lots of gym owners do that. But will a few Instagram likes grow your business? Or would you be better off doing the unsexy work of making sure every new client has a Goal Review Session booked on intake for Day 90 of membership? The answer is obvious.
Distraction hurts me, too. I have lots of ideas, and I get lots of pitches. I feel an urgent need to act on ideas, and in my early days as a gym owner, I pursued everything. For example, my gym needed more members at one point. Instead of solving that problem with focused action, I built an entire concussion-testing protocol. And when I was done, my gym still needed more members.
I’ve started, killed and occasionally sold many companies. But every single one of these diversions, even the successful ones, slowed the growth of my gym.
Focus and Growth
Tough love: You can only grow one company at a time.
You can own more than one, but you can only be CEO to one at a time. CEO is your job; if you’re not doing the right CEO work, your company won’t grow. And distracted CEOs kill companies.
Why do gym owners open a second location before the first gym is paying them $100,000 per year? Because they don’t know how to build and run a well-oiled machine that pays them $100,000, so they try to run two clunky engines that kick out $30,000 per year each.
We choose novelty over routine, even when routine is far more effective. We chase the “easy-hard work” of starting over instead of the “hard-hard work” of staying focused and growing our core thing.
You’re never going to run out of ideas, and the distractions will never stop coming.
So how do you lock onto your lighthouse and stay focused on a single point? With help.
I use a mentor to ensure I don’t chase distractions while my business crumbles—and I have a lot of distractions that try to pull me away from the tasks that will grow my business.
If you can’t stay focused on critical tasks, or if you can’t figure out what those tasks are, a mentor can help. A mentor can determine exactly what’s holding your business back and give you an exact plan to make improvements fast. And you’ll get the accountability you need to stay on track.
Want to find focus and earn more from your business in 2024? Book a call with my team here.
