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The Long Pole of Success

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Truth & Consequences.

A few years ago I spent a day finishing my first book, because I wanted to go to New Zealand 21 months later. If I didn’t do it that day, the trip was in jeopardy. Why? Because the Long Pole of Success is very predictable.

Imagine a mile long pole you’re holding against your stomach, and someone else is holding the other end against their stomach, and the goal is to shake hands without them having to move.

What happens if you take one step toward them? If you both keep the pole against your stomachs, a mile away they will have to take a step back. You’ll never shake hands that way. If the game is to keep the pole directly in front of you, the only way to get there is to start cutting off lengths of the pole. Cut off enough and you eventually end up where they are without them having to move.

I’ll just do it tomorrow
The Long Pole of Success illustrates why today is so important to getting to your objective months or years from now. Too often, “the future” looks far enough off that we feel we can ignore it for now and just pay attention to it later.

To finish my book I needed one solid eight hour day. On Tuesday, June 2 a few years ago, I looked at my 2-Page Strategic Plan and saw that I was supposed to be done with the chapter by May 31. The next day, Wednesday, June 3, was supposed to be a gorgeous 80 degree day and I had no appointments. Memorial Day weekend’s weather blew chunks so I was going to make up for it with golf and a bike ride on Wednesday. But now I had a choice to make – finish the book or enjoy the day.

My Business Maturity Date, with a 3 1/2 week celebration trip to New Zealand, was 21 months off. The book was one of a number of strategic things I needed to accomplish to make it to my BMD, which included taking Fridays and the last week of every month off after I hit that date.

I looked at my schedule and realized that it would be at least six weeks before I had another full day to finish the chapter. Doing it in 1-2 hour pieces just didn’t work for me – I needed to be able to focus and get it all knocked out at once or it likely wouldn’t flow well.

Cutting off a chunk of the pole
I had a Long Pole of Success decision to make. Since finishing the book was one of many strategic keys to hitting my BMD, putting off the completion of this chapter for six weeks would push back the publishing date of the book by six weeks, and potentially push back my BMD 21 months later, by that same six weeks.

To keep the BMD from moving, I had to cut off a length of the Long Pole on Wednesday and get the book done. I finished the book and the other strategic things we needed to do in order to build a business that would run while we’re on vacation (hiring people, putting processes in place, etc.). 21 months later we left for New Zealand to celebrate our BMD, on the exact day we hat targeted almost four years earlier.

Today Matters
When things seem a long way off, we don’t see much issue with putting off doing something that might just impact that seemingly far off goal. But the fact is that every time we turn today into tomorrow without completing the strategic things that will build our business, we automatically push back success by one day.

And it’s really hard to make it up later. With the pole tucked into your stomach, you can’t reach 50 yards in front of you and cut off a big chunk all at once a few months from now. The only way to do it without delaying success down the road, is to cut off small pieces regularly every week.

Success is quite predictable
The Long Pole of Success is unforgiving. Either regularly cut it off in small pieces or expect to push off success by each day that you don’t do the small and simple things that will eventually get you there. But success is actually quite predictable, if you’re doing the right thing. Chipping away at the Long Pole will very predictably get you to your goal.

Next year, will you end up where you are?
Are you making decisions based on where you are, or where you want to be? Think about the Long Pole of Success the next time you say, “I’ve got a whole year. I can do that strategic thing tomorrow.”

How to Get Five and a Half Months Off Every Year

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After 15 years of not.

Two partners I’m working with are doing $40 million a year with 35 employees. For years they’ve had 2-4 weeks of distracted annual vacation, filled with Crackberry emails and calls, while the family was having fun. Now they’re both going to get five and a half months every year. How?

They haven’t changed who they are. They aren’t smarter, better educated or more enlightened than they were for the last 15 years. But somehow they’re going from a lousy lifestyle to a great lifestyle in just 15 months.

You get what you intend, not what you hope for.

For years they intended two things and hoped for one. See if you can relate:
Their two intentions for 15 years:
1) To work really hard.
2) To make some money.

Their one big hope for 15 years:
1) …and we hope it all works out.

They got exactly what they intended – hard work and some money, but not what they hoped for – a life. The fatal assumption coming out of the Industrial Age is that if we just have money, we’ll somehow get a life, too. These guys are living proof that money doesn’t equate to a great life.

So how did they make such a life-changing transformation of their business in such a short period of time? Simple. They changed their intentions.

1) They no longer intended to work hard. Why in the world would you make that an intention? But we all do.

2) They intended to get a life, not just hoped for one, then started making all their decisions to accomplish that objective.

3) And they intend grow the business and make more money in less time.

Peter Arnell wrote a book called “Shift” where he described how he went from being a 406lb man to a 150lb man. The first step – “I decided to do it.” The strength of that initial decision determines the outcome. If you are tired enough of the treadmill, you will intend to get a life. The partners in this business made a clear and final decision that things were going to change, and change radically. If you’re not at the end of yourself yet, you won’t make this decision.

The second thing Peter did to go from 406lbs to 150lbs was even more important. He said “from that moment on [after making the clear and final decision], I saw myself as a 150lb man.” He even went out that week and fired some clients who he felt were the clients of a 406lb man. He wasn’t hoping, he had clear intention to get to 150lbs and saw himself already there. And every decision he made going forward was filtered through the question “Is this the decision of a 150lb man or a 406lb man?”

My clients have done the same thing. Once they decided to both take five and a half months a year off, they started making all their decisions in light of what they needed to do to begin to take five and a half months off per year, while still growing their revenue. Their intention changed from working really hard to working really effectively, distributing the workload, finding geniuses already in their business to take over things, and a long list of other actions designed to get them off the treadmill.

You get what you intend, not what you hope for. The biggest reason this is working for them is because they changed their intentions, and decided they could make more money in less time.

They got what they intended.

You Only Need One
By the way, they’re not special or unique, and neither are you. Every business owner can do this – every single one. As Henry Ford said, “If you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” Intention. There may be 1,000 ways to keep you from doing this and only five ways that it might work for you. How many do you need? Just one, and the sold-out intention to make it happen.

What are your primary intentions? Are you intending to work hard and make money, or are you intending to get a life as a result of owning a business?

What’s the one way off the treadmill that will work for you? Stop focusing on the 1,000 ways to keep you from doing it and focus on the one way off.

Intend to get a life, then make every decision intending to make more money in less time. You’ll get what you intend, not what you hope for.

Then go public here and declare your intentions. I look forward to hearing how you’re doing it.

You get what you intend, not what you hope for.

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Our Intention – New Zealand

When we started this business four years ago we decided we wanted it to grow up and make money while we’re gone. Today we leave for New Zealand for 3 1/2 weeks while others run the business. We’ll do things like that regularly going forward. We weren’t lucky, just intentional.

What do we usually decide to do? Work hard for 40 years and make some money. So what do we get? 40 years of hard work and SOME money.

We decided to do it differently and USE our business to build our Ideal Lifestyle.

We decided we wanted our business to give us back both time and money, not just money. And we decided we didn’t want it to take 40 years, but only four, so we could have decades to create significance in the world around us; not just after we “retire”.

We decided we wanted our business to give us a day a week, a week a month, and a month a year – 52% of the year to wake up each day and ask the question, “What should I do today?”. We decided that if we did this, we would never have to retire – it would become a non-question. We decided to replace retirement with an Ideal Lifestyle that we could reach long before the age of 65.

And we decided to do it by growing a Mature Business in exactly four years.

Four years ago we decided to celebrate our Business Maturity Date on this date, Friday, February 18, 2011, by having an 8:30am meeting with our staff, have some Mamosas, and leave at 10am to head for New Zealand. When we decided that, we didn’t have any staff, just the beginnings of a business.

Today, four years later, we have 22 people working with us throughout the U.S. UK, and Ireland, and we’ll grow exponentially this year worldwide. All 22 of those have come on in the last 11 months of this four year journey, starting with our cornerstone, Nora A’Bell, who had the courage to join us March 1 of last year.

We couldn’t be more excited about the world class people who will carry the business forward while we’re gone, and over the next few decades as we go international. This isn’t ours anymore. It has grown up and is leaving home. This isn’t even a business anymore, it’s a movement.

Four years ago and over that first year of our business we made a lot of decisions that are now coming into full bloom. We’re not lucky, we’re not even smart. We’re just relentless.

You get what you intend, not what you hope for.

1) Make a decision
2) Put a date on it.
3) Go public.

It’s time to get ready for our Business Maturity Date celebration in an hour with those running our business, then head to the airport. That over-sized bottle of champagne sitting our our dresser for the last few years is going to get a work out at 8:30am this morning.

We decided to Live Well by Doing Good.

What are you deciding?

A Business Maturity Date Really Works

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We bought our tickets to NZ today.

Two years ago, in March of 2009, I wrote this blog http://chuckb.me/xF about how I started my business 3 1/2 years ago in March of 2007. Four years after we started we’ll have a Mature Business, which is what we intended to do.

In March of 2009, I wrote about March of 2007:

“2 years ago this week, March 6, 2007, I started my business…

But something is different. I have a Business Maturity Date…

In 3 years, 11 months, 2 weeks, and 22 ½ hrs. from when I started, I expect to be done building a business that makes money when I’m not around. I’ve got a lot of work to do and the clock is ticking relentlessly, the train is screeching, belching, and going in circles, and at the same time I’ve got little time left already to build this business to maturity.

My Business Maturity Date? Friday, February 18, 2011, at 10am – 1 year 11 months and two weeks from now. At 8:30am on that morning I will have a staff meeting and turn over the business to them to run, leaving the office in good hands, and be out of the office by 10am to pack my bags. At 6:10pm that evening my wife and I will be on a plane to Auckland, New Zealand, her dream vacation, for three weeks of celebration. We land in Auckland at 7:25am Sunday morning. The trip will cost $12,380.”

There were three problems with that blog post nearly two years ago. 1) The plane now leaves at 5:30pm, not 6:10, 2) it lands at 7:05am, not 7:25am, and 3) the trip will cost $12,840, not $12,380.

But other than that we’re on schedule. Our business will be making money while we’re on vacation for three and half weeks in New Zealand and it will be in great hands while we’re gone. In most ways we’re farther ahead than we thought we would be in 2009 when I wrote that blog post.

It shouldn’t be surprising because I’ve said for four years “You get what you intend, not what you hope for.” And for a number of years we’ve been intending to build a business that would make money while we’re on vacation.

We stopped intending to work hard and make money a long time ago because that always gave us exactly what we intended – hard work and SOME money.

Does it change you a little bit even reading this? Imagine what it’s done to me, and what it will do to you when you make the same commitment. It will change you forever.

What are you intending to do?

Business Owners Should Always Be Normal, But Never Average

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I think businesses should grow up. I don’t mean “it would be nice if it happened.” I mean we should all, every one of us, expect our businesses to grow up and start giving back to us and to the world around us. We should assume that at some point in the first few years our business would move from survival right through success to significance.

There are many artificial constructs in life that mark various stages of maturity, but the only artificial event we’ve been given in business that tells us we’ve arrived is “selling the business”. The problem is almost no one actually wants to grow a business just to sell it anymore than we want to raise children with the express purpose of never seeing them again.

So we spend decades changing the diapers in our business and continue spending as much time, emotion, and money on our business as we did the day it was born. Why would we so eagerly anticipate the maturity of our children and never expect the same for our business?

If you want a mature business you can enjoy for decades and that makes money while you’re on vacation you might need a new view of business to get there. For years your business has trained you to focus on making money (and other unproductive distractions), and unfortunately when you look at other businesses you see that most of them are focused on making money, too. But these “average” businesses all set a bad example for us.

The point? It’s not normal to have a business that never grows up. It’s clearly average; everybody’s doing it, but it is definitely not normal. I intend for my business to have the minimum basics of maturity (run and make money without me while I’m on vacation and not be a mess when I get back) on February 18, 2011, at 10am, which is four years after I started the business. I believe that’s normal and that any business can get to this minimum level of maturity in 3to5Years from the printing of a business card.

Are you building a business that will depend on you for decades, or give back to you and the world around you for years to come? We get what we intend, not what we hope for. Don’t intend to work hard and just hope your business will grow up. It doesn’t work that way. Intend for your business to grow up so you won’t have to work so hard the rest of your life. Intend to move your business from survival right through success to significance.

Intentionality is everything.

Why I wrote “Making Money Is Killing Your Business”

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I built five businesses from the ground up. Each time in the process I found myself as a hostage of my business, never knowing how it would work out, how I would get off the treadmill, or most importantly, a firm date for when I could look forward to enjoying my business. It all seemed to be up to chance, and that the best I could do was work harder and increase my “chances”.

Along the way I learned two valuable principles that transformed me and my businesses, and helped me build a business I could enjoy for decades:

  1. You get what you intend, not what you hope for… and…
  2. He who makes the rules wins.

Throughout a number of my businesses I intended to work extremely hard and make money, and I got exactly what I intended – hard work and some money. While growing those same businesses I “hoped” they would result in a great lifestyle and worked even harder to increase my chances. But we get what we intend, not what we hope for.

I learned that unless I very intentionally designed my work around building a great lifestyle, that all I was going to get was hard work and maybe some money. I decided I was going to turn the whole thing on its head, stop working for my business and make my business start working for me.

It dawned on me that “He who makes the rules wins”, and that I had been allowing my businesses to make the rules by just “hoping” they would give me a great lifestyle. I added “use my business to create a great lifestyle” to my intentionality, having grown into the belief now that business should not just give us money, but it should give us three things – money, time, and the opportunity for significance, or meaning.

This led me to develop simple tools that would keep me on track to create that lifestyle:

  1. The Big Why – those with a great vision for what to do are more likely to be successful.
  2. A Business Maturity Date – to give me a very clear, measure of the time, money, and significance I now intended for my business to bring me, and a specific date for when I intended to be there – Friday, February 18, 2001, at 10am.
  3. A simple 2-page Strategic Plan – to help me stay above the daily Tyranny of the Urgent so I could focus on the things that would build a business that makes money while I’m on vacation.
  4. Process Mapping – to get me off the treadmill, allow me to train others to do what I do, and create repeatable and consistent experiences for my clients.
  5. Outside Eyes – I have others I meet with regularly who are helping me keep on track. I’m too subjective about my own business to make the kind of progress I regularly should.

February 18, 2011, we’ll be on our way to New Zealand celebrating the maturity of our business, and we fully intend for it to make money while we’re on vacation. Why don’t most businesses get here? Simple, the owner is doing what I used to do – intending to work hard and make money, and “hoping” it will all work out in a great lifestyle. We get what we intend, not what we hope for, And when I realized I could no longer let my businesses make the rules, I was on the road to freedom.

What are you doing to build a business that makes money while you’re on vacation?

UPDATE: The book is now out and available.

Kids and Businesses should both grow up.

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Within a few weeks of the birth of our first child, Diane and I were already imagining and anticipating how it would be when he was all grown up, had graduated from college and was out on his own. We had these same conversations after the birth of all three kids.

From very early on we really looked forward to having adult children whom we could enjoy, and with whom we could build adult relationships. We’re now reaping the rewards of those early years of investment and simply couldn’t have better kids to be around.

We haven’t stopped being parents (we were never fans of being “your kid’s best friend”), and will continue to always play a role in giving unwanted advice and meddling where we shouldn’t. But we fully expected and looked forward to that point in our relationship when it would change from one of complete dependency to what we have now, a reciprocal relationship with our young adult children where they now give back to us on a regular basis with their lives.

Maybe Diane and I are weird. From the beginning we thought of our kids not just as kids, but also as adults in the making. We were very aware that at some point the great amount of personal time, emotion, and money invested in guiding our kids would eventually grow into a more of a two-way street. We hoped that as adults, we could all invest in each other, help each other find significance with our lives, and simply enjoy each other for decades.

Maybe that perspective is why I see business differently than other people. I think businesses should grow up, too. I don’t mean “it would be nice if it happened”. I mean we should all, every one of us, expect our businesses to grow up and start giving back to us and to the world around us.

We should assume that at some point our business would move from survival right through success to significance. Everyone would agree that we should intend for our children to grow up, leave home, and become grown-ups we could enjoy for decades, and yet when was the last time we had a similar conversation about our businesses? It’s normal for children to grow up, so why isn’t it normal for businesses to do the same thing? Frankly, we’re in charge of both of them at birth, and if you have had kids, you’ll know that you’ve got more control over the maturity of your business than the maturity of your kids.

And yet most businesses never grow up. We spend decades changing the diapers in our business and reporting to the vice principal on a regular basis to get it out of detention. Twenty years after we hung out our first sign we seem to be spending as much time, emotion, and money on our business as we did the day it was born. Why would we so eagerly anticipate the maturity of our children and never expect the same for our business? Shouldn’t we expect to be able to enjoy our mature business for decades as well?

I would enjoy your thoughs on this.

Conation – The Most Important Business Word You’ve Never Heard

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I have somewhere I have to be.

The only motivation book I will recommend to others is Self-made in America, by John McCormack. John introduced me to an obscure English word that I now use as a cornerstone of my daily activity – conation.

I’ve truncated John’s working definition: Conation – the will to succeed that manifests itself in single-minded pursuit of a goal. – to:

Committed Movement in a Purposeful Direction

Social scientists have long talked about the Three Aspects of the Mind. Cognition (doing), Affection (feeling) and Activation (doing) are the three legs. Conation is when we take all three of these and figure out where we want to go, then start going there. Conation isn’t thinking, it isn’t feeling and it isn’t doing. It’s having crystal clarity on where you want to end up, and doing anything you have to in order to get there.

I find it fascinating that almost everyone I know has a good handle on what cognition, affection and activation are, but virtually no one I know is familiar with the word that puts them all together – conation. The most important of the four words, the one that creates action as well as results, is nearly unknown. Why?

Our educational system has promoted thinking and feeling almost to the exclusion of even activation – doing. Conation is most closely related to doing. If you don’t do, there is no conation.

We are all taught that if we just get enough information into our heads and feel good about it, that we’ll eventually do something about it. I believe the reason this valuable word hasn’t gotten much attention is because we’ve all bought into that idea handed down from the ancient Greeks on through that

We think our way to a new way of acting.

We see cognition – thinking – as the all important fundamental on which the other two swing. And of course we all like to feel stuff. So affection gets plenty of attention, too.

But we do not think our way to a new way of acting.

We act our way to a new way of thinking.

Even Einstein supported this when he said, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

Want to grow a Mature Business? Add “conate” to your daily verb count. The will to succeed that manifests itself in single-minded pursuit of a goal, or

Committed Movement in a Purpoesful Direction

Clarity – I know my goal. Hope – the will to succeed, that comes from knowing my goal. Risk – singleminded pursuit.

How do I know I’m conating? I’m already moving in a purposeful direction, with complete commitment to getting there.

Get out of my way, I have somewhere I need to be.

Make More Money – Stop reacting to shiny objects and winds of change.

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Small businesses with the fastest growing revenue know exactly where they are going. According to Inc Magazines 28th 500 fastest growing small businesses list, approximately 88% of them have a statement outlining where they are going. The other 12% are living dangerously.

That’s no surprise. As simplistic as this next statement sounds, it’s incredibly profound – People moving in a clear direction tend to get somewhere. The rest simply react and respond to the world around them by changing direction every time an outside influence creates adversity or opportunity, wandering and wondering their way through years of aimless business stagnation.

The smaller your company is, the more you need a vision statement, because you are more affected by every wind of change that comes along. A small boat is much more affected by small changes in the weather than a big ship.

Small business owners are so buried in the day to day Tyranny of the Urgent that coming up for air to see where the boat is going is never a high enough priority. Not knowing where the boat should go makes this the biggest issue a small business owner has. He who aims at nothing hits it every time.

Ever wonder why you’re on the treadmill? It’s because you don’t know where you’re business is supposed to take you. What is the end game? As my Irish friend John Heenan says, “If you don’t have a vision for your own life, you become part of someone else’s vision for theirs.”

Start with a vision statement for your business that has the following attributes:

  1. Simple, short and devoid of business-bingo words like “growth”, “success”, “best practices”, and other such fluffy and meaningless business-speak.
  2. Expressing your personal values into your business. Use your business to get you somewhere. The vision statement for my business is “Live well by doing good.” We have a number of very specific, measurable ways we can unpack this in our business, and we know exactly where it is leading us to the date and time (we intend to arrive at Business Maturity on Friday, February 18, 2011 at 10am) It drives everything we do.

Find out why you’re doing what you’re doing and where your business is supposed to take you. Then go that direction – relentlessly, tirelessly, with the will to succeed and in single-minded pursuit of that objective.

Stop reacting to shiny objects and winds of change. Take control of your business direction and you will make more money in less time.

How I bought 10-15 days off, 21 mths from now.

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We had five days straight of overcast, rainy, sloppy weather Friday thru Tuesday in Denver, something we almost never see. It dominated Memorial Day weekend and kept us all inside for the most part.

Finally Wednesday was a gorgeous “Chamber of Commerce” day. Not a cloud in the sky, no wind, no humidity, and no appointments the whole day. Seemed like a great day to “reward” myself, play some golf and ride a bike. Why didn’t I? Am I workaholic? No, to the contrary I worked Wednesday because I want more free time, and sooner.

I manage my business using a Two-Page Strategic Plan. The central pulse of my Strategic Plan is my Business Maturity Date. I know very clearly what my business looks like at maturity, and much more importantly, exactly when I expect to get there. Everything in my Strategic Plan is tied directly to the centering influence of my Business Maturity Date like the kiddy chair ride at a carnival – everything spins from that center – my BMD.

As a result, I know exactly what I have to do this month to build a business that makes money while I’m on vacation.

Wednesday I could have easily rewarded myself for having worked hard the last few weeks. The Monthly section of my Strategic Plan told me I needed to get the first draft of my book completed by May 31. Wednesday was a writing day, and I could have blown it off because I am right on schedule. I wasn’t under any pressure, I simply had a choice to make. Do I want to goof off today or gain a day in pursuit of my Business Maturity Date?

I believe that every day saved on the front of an objective can save us 10-15 days on the backend in not having to “catch up”, similar to investing money on the front end creates more on the back end. I made the decision to get ahead on the book to help ensure I meet or beat my BMD, with the belief that I will get much more time to goof off later if I get to my BMD sooner. I’m not a workaholic. I was still able to take a great bike ride late that afternoon.

My Business Maturity Date and my Strategic Plan run my business, and keep me focused on creating a business I can enjoy, with a lot more time to goof off later if I stay focused now. My BMD and my Strategic Plan have made me “ambitiously lazy” – working hard to create more free time, sooner.

My Business Maturity Date is Friday, February 18, 2011, at 10am (see “Is there a Business Maturity Date ticking in your business?” for more on this). I expect to get there a few days earlier because I wrote Wednesday instead of golfing. I expect I’ll get to golf a lot more, a lot sooner because I’m so focused on beating my Business Maturity Date.

What’s keeping you moving and on track?