Happy Independence Day everyone! If you don’t celebrate this particular holiday, let me explain. On this day 12 years ago, I was fired from my government job as a county attorney. It was that event that allowed me to take my first steps on this incredible journey as a small business owner. Thus we celebrate this day in our house, because it made our life possible. This year in our business, I’ve been thinking a lot about something Tony Robbins says about patterns. Here is what he says (distilled for brevity):
Recognizing and using patterns is your pathway to power.
- The first step is recognizing patterns. Recognizing patterns moves you out of chaos. For example, early humans learned that nature has seasons. Crops grow in spring and die in winter.
- The second step is utilizing patterns. We utilize patterns in order to achieve better results. It makes sense to plant crops in the spring and not the winter so that they have time to grow.
- The most powerful way to use patterns is to create them. Then you move from managing your circumstances to creating your life.
That’s really an entrepreneur’s journey in a nutshell. When I first started a business, we were learning the ropes. Learning what patterns existed. Where do people look to find a business like mine? What do people pay for that service? What sort of things should I spend money on to run the business?
Then, after a while, we used those patterns to do our business better. Learning what advertising works the best. What scripts work best to book business. How to optimize our business to do more with less.
Where a business really takes off though is when you figure out a problem or a product that people need that doesn’t exist and provide it. You create a pattern. And your business takes a 10x leap.
Doing that doesn’t just happen. And it doesn’t just happen one time. It’s a constant cycle of thinking, and trying, and tinkering, and creating, and failing over and over again. Of growth, and stagnation, and going backwards, and then exploding forward, and taking three steps back, then exploding again.
That never-ending process of creative growth is fun and the magic of entrepreneurship. That’s why, 12 years later, I’m still just as excited about my business as I was on day one. If not more excited.
This year, we are leaning into real estate investing more than ever. We have always acquired properties here and there, but now we’re acquiring multiple. We’ve purchased three within the last quarter, and look like we’ll do that every quarter this year. I feel like we’re creating a new pattern for ourselves and are once again on the verge of another 10x.
So here’s to Independence Day! Today I celebrate our business, and all the other awesome businesses in the world. Keep creating patterns!