The New Entrepreneurial Golden Resource Originally Run 072018 Ep 214

In the Gym Secrets podcast, the host discusses the underestimated entrepreneurial resource of attention. He shares insights from mentoring entrepreneurs and his friendship with a billionaire, emphasizing that successful individuals manage attention far better than time. The host argues that attention is the true golden resource, more so than time, and that entrepreneurs must focus on where they allocate their attention. He stresses the importance of simplifying one's life, reducing distractions, and mastering the art of saying no to grow a business effectively. The host also shares personal experiences, such as hiring a coach to manage attention and the positive impact of eliminating alcohol to resolve underlying issues. He concludes by advising entrepreneurs to focus on one venture for success and to be disciplined in their entrepreneurial journey.

• Effective time management is crucial, but attention is identified as the "new entrepreneurial golden resource."
• The speaker mentors entrepreneurs and notices a distinction in resource management between highly successful individuals and others.
• Attention management is key to scaling a business and personal growth.

"I would argue that attention is money, and that is the golden resource."

The quote emphasizes that while time is traditionally seen as valuable, it is attention that truly equates to financial success in entrepreneurship.

• The speaker mentors four to five people informally, providing guidance based on observations from more successful entrepreneurs.
• The speaker has befriended a billionaire who exemplifies excellent attention management.
• Mentorship becomes less tactical and more strategic as one progresses up the success ladder.

"And what's happened as a result of that is that I obviously obsessively look at what people who are doing better than me are doing."

This quote indicates the speaker's dedication to learning from those who are more successful, implying that to mentor effectively, one must continually seek greater knowledge and understanding.

• Successful people, like the speaker's billionaire friend, limit distractions by controlling their accessibility.
• Scaling a business requires focusing one's finite attention and reducing attention drains.
• Entrepreneurs must adapt their character traits to progress from one level of success to another.

"The only way to scale you is because you do have a finite amount of attention."

The quote underlines the necessity of managing one's attention to facilitate personal and business growth, as attention is limited and must be directed wisely.

• The traits that help entrepreneurs start their business are not the same ones that will help them grow it further.
• Entrepreneurs need to develop and change their character traits to succeed at higher levels.
• Growth-oriented individuals understand the need to pass on skills and focus on developing others.

"The things that got you here are not the things that are going to get you there."

This quote reflects on the evolution required in an entrepreneur's journey, highlighting that different skills and approaches are needed as one advances in their career.

• Billionaires and successful business owners maintain a quiet and clean space to minimize distractions.
• They exhibit tranquility and a low tolerance for disruptions due to the high demands on their time and attention.
• Successful individuals forcibly remove themselves from situations that do not warrant their attention.

"I look at how quiet and how clean they keep their space."

The quote signifies the importance of a clutter-free and peaceful environment in maintaining focus and managing attention effectively for high-level entrepreneurs.

• Entrepreneurs often struggle to grow their businesses beyond a certain revenue point due to divided attention.
• The speaker illustrates this with the example of a gym owner who expands to four gyms but earns less than when they had one, due to diluted attention and fixed costs.
• Growth requires doing less, not more, through delegation and strategic decision-making.
• High-level entrepreneurs must learn to say no to increasing opportunities as they grow.
• Success at higher levels demands discipline and the ability to resist the innate desire to do more.

And so in order to grow, you need to do less. In order to grow, you need to do less. And that comes from both delegation and also choosing what not to do.

This quote emphasizes the counterintuitive strategy for growth, highlighting the importance of delegation and the selective pursuit of opportunities.

• Scaling a business is difficult because it requires an entrepreneur to exercise discipline and make tough decisions.
• Entrepreneurs must identify which opportunities to decline, a task that becomes harder as their success grows.
• The innate characteristic to do more is not sufficient for advanced success; it only helps from the start-up phase to initial growth.

The better you get, the better the opportunities that you have to say no to. Which is why becoming a higher and higher and higher level entrepreneur is more and more difficult because it requires discipline.

This quote explains that as entrepreneurs become more successful, they face more opportunities and must be disciplined to choose the right ones.

• An entrepreneur's identity must be fluid to adapt to different stages of business growth.
• Early-stage traits like hard work and independence are essential, but later stages require different skills like delegation and leadership.
• Success at different levels requires different character traits and skills.

And the more you grow, the more you realize that your identity needs to be fluid, because what it needs to be is exactly what it needs to be at that given time of development.

The speaker reflects on the need for personal growth and adaptability in an entrepreneur's identity, aligning with the business's evolving demands.

• Attention is a finite resource that entrepreneurs must manage wisely.
• The speaker personally invested in a coach to learn how to manage attention effectively.
• Managing attention can lead to discovering and resolving toxic relationships and other personal issues that distract from business focus.

For 90 minutes every single day, all I did was talk about what I was thinking about, think about that. Every day I paid attention to where my attention was.

This quote demonstrates the speaker's commitment to mastering the management of attention, which they credit for significant business growth.

• Entrepreneurs should resolve personal issues, referred to as "open loops," to reclaim their attention for their business.
• The speaker uses the metaphor of a bowl of marbles, where each marble represents a unit of attention that can be allocated to different areas of life.
• By handling unresolved issues, entrepreneurs can focus more attention on their business.

So when you have something that you're like, I haven't resolved this, then you need to handle that and you'll get that attention back.

This quote underscores the importance of resolving personal issues to regain attention and focus, which can then be directed towards the entrepreneur's business endeavors.

• Attention is described as a valuable resource for entrepreneurs and is likened to potential energy.
• The speaker emphasizes the importance of focusing attention on growing one's business.
• Collecting and quieting smaller distractions can increase the potency of attention on the main goal.
• The speaker does not use ads, sponsorships, or sales to grow the podcast, relying instead on word of mouth and the goodwill of listeners.

"But the thing is that sometimes you need to quiet and collect all of these other little marbles so that you have more potency, more potential energy, more potential units of attention to spend on the one thing that you're trying to grow, which in this case, would be your business."

This quote explains the concept of attention as a finite resource that must be managed and focused for effective business growth. The metaphor of "little marbles" represents minor distractions that can dilute one's attention from their main objectives.

• Attention allows people to perceive and solve problems more effectively.
• Rest, such as sleep, can provide clarity that makes previously difficult problems seem easy.
• Wisdom is equated with the ability to see what others cannot, which is enhanced by the focus of attention.
• Clarity leads to simplicity in tasks and decision-making.

"And what's interesting is that what happens is that things that deep as difficult become really easy. And I don't know if you've ever had this happen, but if you were in college or you were in high school and you were like, man, I can't solve this problem, this math problem, and you were exhausted. And then you go to bed, then you wake up the next morning, and then all of a sudden it seems really easy."

The speaker provides an anecdote to illustrate how rest can lead to a clearer perspective, making challenging tasks seem more manageable. This underscores the importance of taking breaks and allowing the mind to recharge for better problem-solving.

• The speaker debunks the myth of the extravagant entrepreneur lifestyle, stating that successful entrepreneurs lead quiet lives.
• Billionaires and high-level entrepreneurs are described as isolated and protected.
• The speaker gives a personal example of having layers of protection to maintain focus and avoid unnecessary distractions.
• It is suggested that discipline is required to maintain this level of focus and simplicity.

"Every single billionaire, every single high level entrepreneur is quiet, unbelievably quiet. They keep themselves completely isolated. They have a bubble around them of layers of protection."

This quote challenges the stereotype of the flamboyant entrepreneur and emphasizes the disciplined, quiet lifestyle that successful individuals often maintain. It suggests that a protective bubble is necessary to preserve the attention needed for high-level decision-making and business growth.

• The speaker encourages entrepreneurs to define clear goals, such as a specific number of clients or revenue.
• Clarity in goals allows for focused attention and simplifies decision-making processes.
• Discipline is required to ignore distractions that do not contribute to the defined goals.
• The difficulty in ignoring distractions is cited as a reason why many entrepreneurs do not succeed.

"At our gym Lords event, one of the things that we had to do, or that I had everyone do, was simply define the number that they needed to have in their gym, number of efts, in order to have the lifestyle that they wanted to have."

The speaker stresses the importance of having a clear, quantifiable goal to focus one's attention on. By knowing the exact target, entrepreneurs can streamline their efforts and make more strategic decisions.

• Entrepreneurs must learn to act against their natural inclinations to achieve success.
• Changing one's behavior to align with their goals is described as a challenging but necessary process.
• The speaker suggests that this transformation is why most people do not become successful entrepreneurs.

"And so you have to learn how to not be yourself in order to be the person that you want to be."

This quote encapsulates the idea that personal growth and success as an entrepreneur often require a transformation of one's natural habits and character. It implies that self-discipline is crucial for aligning one's actions with their aspirations.

• The speaker conducts regular meetings with entrepreneurs to assess where their attention is focused.
• These check-ins are used to determine if an entrepreneur is scattered or focused.
• The speaker uses the term "coach" loosely but emphasizes the importance of these interactions for guidance.

"And the question that I always ask is, what's your attention on? Where's your attention?"

The speaker reveals a key question used during meetings with entrepreneurs, which serves to evaluate their current focus and identify potential areas of distraction. This practice is aimed at helping entrepreneurs to realign their attention with their business objectives.

• Attention is a critical resource for business growth.
• A scattered focus impedes the ability to expand and develop a business.
• It's essential to examine life aspects, such as relationships and habits, that may be diverting attention.

They're super spread thin, they're less able. So of course, they can't grow their business because they don't have the very horsepower, the main resource that allows them to grow and push.

This quote highlights the idea that a lack of focused attention is a significant barrier to business growth. The "horsepower" metaphor emphasizes the necessity of concentrated effort to push a business forward.

• Drinking as an example of masking unresolved issues.
• Stopping a habit can bring underlying problems to the forefront, necessitating confrontation and resolution.
• Resolving these issues can eliminate the need for the habit that was masking them.

And so, one by one, what happened is that when I stopped drinking, everything got really loud, and so I had to face and confront the things that I had not resolved yet.

This quote illustrates the speaker's personal experience with how ceasing to drink made unresolved issues more apparent, forcing a confrontation with these issues.

• Focus on a single venture is more effective than managing multiple side hustles.
• Success comes from concentrating efforts on one business rather than spreading oneself too thin across many.
• The belief that having multiple businesses is necessary for more income is a misconception.

Do one thing, focus. Do one thing, focus.

The repetition of this phrase emphasizes the critical advice given to individuals seeking business success: to focus on a single business endeavor for optimal results.

• Limiting beliefs can hinder business potential and growth.
• High achievers do not subscribe to these limiting beliefs; they operate with a clear, focused mindset.
• Removing negativity and distractions is part of maintaining this high level of operation.

And I can tell you that the higher up you go, all of those limiting beliefs disappear.

This quote conveys that as one advances in their career or business, limiting beliefs tend to fall away, revealing a clearer path to success.

• Consolidation of businesses can lead to significant revenue growth.
• The speaker has advised individuals to focus on one business, resulting in a substantial increase in revenue.
• Attention is a valuable asset that should be directed towards the most impactful areas.

And then within a matter of 30 days, two of those people had a multiple of three x on their total revenue, but between of what they were doing before within a 30 day period, just by getting their attention back.

This quote provides evidence of the tangible benefits that can be achieved by consolidating businesses and regaining focused attention, as demonstrated by the revenue increase experienced by individuals who followed this advice.