What You Can’t See

What You Can’t See

What you don’t see takes you out…and…

what you don’t see keeps you in the game.

Here’s what I mean:

We all have things happen to us that we can’t predict. Change is happening so rapidly (AI anyone?), there’s no telling exactly what will come our way.

Walk with the wise,

so that you’ll be wise.

Lots of hype about AI and economic cycles.

It turns out, humans are pretty bad at predicting the future, even though we have some historical patterns that are good at showing us where we’re at.

If you walk with the unwise, enjoy the rollercoaster of fear and excitement as you chase one thing after the other!

If you walk with the wise, it’s no guarantee you’ll escape bad situations, but you’re much, much more likely to see the punch that could take you out.

If you walk with the wise, you’re also much more prepared to respond when you get the punch that could take you out.

Things like:

• Key team member quitting
• Sales drying up
• Skyrocketing costs
• And more

Conversely…

What you can’t see is also what will keep you in the game. That’s the foundation.

Fun fact:

• The deepest foundation accounts for 21% of the building (from the bottom of the Petronas Towers’ foundation to the very top of the building).
• The foundation for the tallest building accounts for only 6% of the building. (From the bottom of the Burj Khalifa’s foundation to the very top of the building).

The biggest difference? The Petronas Towers are built on poor soil, and the area is known for high winds.

Lesson:

• The ground you build your foundation on matters. A lot.
• The depth of your foundation depends on a) where you’re building, b) how tall you need to go, and c) exactly what you’re building.

Few people pay attention to the foundation…

But a strong foundation can keep you from being taken out by:

• The size & weight of what you’ve built
• The winds that come against you
• The shifting ground of where you’ve built

What is this in business? It’s things like:

• Solving root issues for customers
• Embracing continuous improvement
• Building a defensible competitive advantage
• Creating redundancy in your business
• Embracing excellence in all that you do
• Embracing shifts in economic & market trends
• Developing a listening ear for wisdom
• Doing the inner work that causes so many people to sabotage their life & work
• Processes that eliminate human error & allow them to do what humans do best

One example:

I recently consulted with a business owner who’s in a great niche that’s hot and is taking almost no marketing whatsoever.

Just some Facebook Marketplace posts, lol.

He’s looking at a $1MM run rate, up substantially over last year with little effort. However, he’s wanting to lock in the market.

My advice?

(Besides some non-conventional advice that no agency would have given him…and that he was skeptical about until he paid for our consulting session…)

My other advice?

Ride the wave.

But put something in place to keep tabs on profitability, including what it costs to generate a customer. And make sure that number stays below the “lights & sirens line”.

And if he finds the market has shifted (might be 1 year, might be 10, maybe 100), he’s gotta be ready to push the eject button.

Could be that once it cools off, he’ll have a nice cash cow printing off dollar bills for him…

Could be he needs to get out entirely…

But:

• If he gets his ego involved, or
• If he stops paying attention,

It’s not gonna be pretty.

Only 1-2 other people may ever know that he’s got this spreadsheet that he’s keeping his eye on.

But that is just one example of a foundational tool that can save his hide years from now…

And it’s completely hidden.

Fundamentals.

Foundations.

That’s how you win in a world of extreme change and uncertainty.