I know the grammar is bad – but this is something I have heard from folks who get out of lockdown who want that clean new start on life. We know that they usually end up doing dirt again, and getting caught again, and the beat goes on.
But some of these people took the time to learn a trade, get educated or whatever. They were in a place where they were stripped of everything except time. Time was their only commodity. It was also their burden. So these people took the only thing that they had in abundance – time and used it to their advantage. They leveraged their time to organize their hustle.
While I work, and while I drive and even right now as I type this, I am learning something. At work, I listen to the radio (news, business, current events) and sometimes I listen to podcasts. Podcasts are like MP3s on different things (business, money skills and stuff like that). In the car I listen to books on CD or talk radio. At home I watch business oriented shows like The Big Idea, The Millionaire Inside, Big Spender (Larry Winget), Kitchen Nightmares (I have two food establishments). American Inventor, Suze Orman, Dragon’s Den and on and on. I watch TV that fills my mind with ideas and tools to make a difference in my financial life. I use a Tivo to capture these shows when I am away and watch them at my convenience.
You never know where inspiration will come from. You never know where you will find that next big idea. But I know that if you only fill your head with mind candy, all you will have is mental constipation.
The point of this post is to help you realize that if you are struggling, you might need to change your approach. Take a look at your environment. What do you have in abundance? Are you willing to take a risk? Are you ready to do something completely different? You might embarrass yourself but who cares? Seriously, think about that… who cares? I did a presentation once where I was completely outclassed by the competition. I was the last presenter trying to earn a contract from a very big client for a multi-million dollar contract. The other presenters brought in teams of people. They were huge companies. I was the only person from my company. We had one office and my competition had two or three offices.
I gave my presentation and answered their questions. I had nothing to lose. I felt like I could not win in competition with these other companies. My only option was to either win or lose based on my integrity, ability and who I was. I had to convey what I was willing to do to win their business and fulfill the obligations that came with it. I was honest and blunt. I was blunt to the point where I told one of the board members that if they adopted a new policy, I would no longer do business with them (as a consumer of their product). This upset her greatly. But then I explained why. I also explained what they could do to keep my business but also accomplish their goals.
Two days went by and I had not heard anything. I sent an email to one of the executives that I met that day and told him that they shouldn’t worry about our size. I can hire the people it would take to do their work. They should just know that they will get our complete efforts and we will help them to succeed.
Within the hour, the executive called me back and let me know that we did not win the contract. They were compelled to go with the much larger company for logistical purposes. However he told me how impressed he was with my presentation. Not that it was fancy or special but that it was honest and candid. This is why he was stipulating in the contract with this other company that they were required to work with my company on special projects. So, instead of the huge contract, I got a piece. I was happy with a piece. That piece was worth several hundred thousand dollars of business. It also gave me the opportunity to be in a great position when the contract comes up for renewal – once I prove that they should have gone with us for the whole contract.
So, the moral is, I was nervous, outnumbered, unprepared and I didn’t care. I sucked it up and leveraged what I had – experience in that industry and the balls to walk into that meeting cold and dominate the room. I accepted that I would likely not win the contract so I didn’t have anything to lose. But I was hungry enough to chase after it like a starving dog after a bone.
And no one gets between a hungry dog and his bone.
Keep Hustling
Update
I got an email from a reader who asked which podcasts I listen to and where to find them.
I jump around a lot because some days I want to listen about investing, sometimes entrepreneurship or somedays maybe just marketing or sales. Anyway, here are a few places I go to find podcasts.
Podcast Alley
iTunes Podcasts but you have to use iTunes I think. I use iTunes a lot for podcasts.
Podcasts.com
Podcasts.net
Small Business Podcast Directory
Small Business Trends Radio
Duct Tape Marketing
Two words stood out in this article which I appreciate and respect “Honest and Candid”. Those who have actually been there and done that quickly learn that honesty and candor can be in short supply. Getting street smart and hustling for a living can make some dishonest and willing do to anything to get a job or land a contract. But hustling does not mean being dishonest and certainly it can be tough when you’re hungry to keep stay honest and focused on the task at hand. Sooner or later however honesty does pay off in the end and in marketing as in all other aspects of business it’s the long game that counts not the quick buck.
Thanks for understanding Marvin.
Until I went 100% straight, it was really easy to slip into old habits. It’s noting I am proud of, but what finally got me was I started to see that when I lied, when I stole, when I was dirty and dishonest in anyway – bad things would happen. I dont know if it was kharma or cosmic returns or if it was simply that I would attract the wrong kind of attention or surrounded by dirty people. Whatever it was, I saw the pattern.
That was it. I don’t steal and I don’t lie. With everything else going on in my life, it’s one less thing I have to worrry about. Another good thing is that doing dirt and quitting is like smoking and quitting. It is easy to pick up again, even though you shouldn’t and if someone else is doing it – you can smell it all over them.
That has helped me in deciding what kind of people I want to work with. I sat across from the conference table from a billionaire. I coud smell the funk all over him but I wasn’t calling the shots. My boss told me that we were going to take them on as clients. Not only did he not pay us for our services but he closed up the business screwing his partners and all of his clients. Of course, he is still a billionaire.
Honesty and candor is the only way to go. The problem with lying, apart from the obvious, is that to be a good liar you have to have a good memory otherwise sooner or later you will be found out. Same with stealing, you have to hide what you stole otherwise the wrong eyes might see. Trust, I believe, is one of the greatest commodities you can possess both in personal and business. Lie or steal and you will lose that trust and be left alone. So like you said, it’s one less thing to worry about. By staying straight you attract like-mind people and can prosper.
The title of this post is one of my favorite sayings, although when I first read it it was worded differently. Congratulations on how the contract worked out for you. Imagine what would have happened if you had just given up and walked away.