Today I want to talk to you about why most entrepreneurs were once beggars, and how you can stop begging and start leading in your business.
I want you to think about it this way. Imagine when a boy reaches puberty. Think about that age when a boy realizes, “Hey, I like girls,” and he wants to date girls. There’s normally a girl in school he likes. Generally young boys fall in love every other minute with someone new. And a lot of times, boys beg girls to date them. And girls don’t like beggars. They don’t like a guy that begs them to date him.
Let’s just say eventually a girl says, “Yes! I’ll go on a date with you!” They start dating and become boyfriend and girlfriend. Then, the boy or girl may manage the other person. And what happens when you manage someone? You hover over them, and try to control them. And then what typically happens? You lose them.
Eventually you go from managing to leading in a relationship. The same is true in every single business.
Here's how it works:
Typically when you start in business, you start selling. If you're an entrepreneur, you're selling something. For example, you may be selling an idea or a concept, and why people should do business with you.
Everyone goes through the same process that looks like this:
"Please do business with me! Please buy from me! Please look at this opportunity! Please take a look at this! Please. . . I'm begging you! Please, please, please!"
And that's fine. The word please is a powerful word.
And everybody starts off begging. Don't think of this as a bad thing. I'm not telling you that you should stop begging. We all, in one way or another, ask for help from other people, right?
From Begging to Managing
After begging, entrepreneurs get some clients, agents, employees, or people who want to work with them in some way. At this stage you graduate from begging, because you've created a reputation where people say, "This is someone to do business with."
At this stage, entrepreneurs often make a mistake to start managing and controlling what they have, a little too much. And when you try to manage and control, you somehow, someway, tend to lose those you begged to come work with you.
Check out this related video and article:
From Managing to Leading
Eventually, an entrepreneur or salesman gets to a phase where they lead their clients. They lead their sales reps. They lead their employees. They lead their team and that's when it starts expanding bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
My Challenge to You
If you're a startup entrepreneur, if you're a new business person, I understand there's a phase of begging. But when you get to the managing part - and you do have to manage - minimize the amount of time you manage. Instead of spending 90% of your time managing, spend 90% of your time leading, and 10% of your time managing your business.
If you do 90% leading, 10% managing, you should have a pretty successful career as a business owner or an entrepreneur for a long time to come.
