083: Laws of Success and the Problem Solver’s Mindset: Become An Above-Average Entrepreneur, Get Results Out of Every Course You Consume, and Succeed in Every Journey You Take
"I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it. -- Bill Gates
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Remember Four Daily Tasks? No matter how crazy or "complicated" you try to make your productivity and time management, this is what always keeps me productive:
- 10 minute early morning, 40 minute morning, 40 minute early afternoon, 40 minute afternoon
- three day window: forget about the 100 item to-do list or 4-week plan. What's this week?
- degrees of doneness: no chipping away, starting, continuing. What did you finish?
- accountability & encryption: list out the acronyms of what you're going to do
- distractions: don't check your phone, email, Twitter, or the news (it will find you)
Principle #1: Complete For Now / Minimum Viable Product
- Keep it simple. Don't fool yourself into thinking complicated is better, or 100x half finished things are better than 1 finished thing (don't replicate the mistakes) -- get the bugs out
- Abundance mindset: there's enough room for everybody. A rising tide lifts all boats.
- Continuous learning, childlike curiosity
- The Kid Test / The Mom Test: Can you describe what you're doing (list building, FB fan pages, Amazon FBA, etc.) to a five-year old?
- It's okay to spend way more time taking action than spending time thinking
Principle #2: Publish 100 Actions
- 100 blog posts, 100 YouTube videos, 100 Kindle books, 100 podcast episodes (but COMPLETE one at a time)
- 100 Days: Give it at least 3 months (100 days) of consistent daily action (and make some progress every day)
- Make some money as fast as possible as encouragement for you to keep going
- Appointment based business
- If you don't have your own system & schedule, everyone will pull you in all directions.
- Don't plan it out ahead of time, but "put out" 100 things
- Completion (day 1 isn't when you start learning, it's when your first "thing" is published)
- Repetitions. Fail forward fast. Do what most people won't do.
- You can't learn to drive by reading the owner's manual 1000 times.
- Have a morning routine to get a jump on the day and do what matters before things distract you
Principle #3: The Light at the End of the Tunnel
- Know exactly what you're building towards (i.e. 20 sales a day, 5k/month Fiverr income)
- Implement and experiment.
- Don't learn just to learn, re-teach or criticize.
- Focus on just one thing at a time. Improve just one variable.
Principle #4: Data Scientist
- Track your efforts and results in a spreadsheet
- Marketplace Need: Create blog posts, videos, podcasts, products, courses that deliver on what people are asking for
- Crack the code: make all the mistakes, correct them, streamline that checklist (remove instead of add), stop doing what isn't working
- Track it: You're fooling yourself into think you're doing so much
Principle #5: Computer Programmer Mentality
- break the problem down into manageable sub-problems or milestones.
- It's ok to admit you don't know. Find out what you need to know!
- Some questions have no answer, or just aren't important.
- Don't look for so many questions. Find "a" path to get where you need to go.
Principle #6: Rough Numbers
- Know your rough numbers (this is how 4DT came out, number of help desk tickets answered, clicks from emails, webinar attendees)
- Embrace the Chaos: you need some degree of "messiness" in your business. JVZoo, RAP, multiple membership sites instead of one
- Separate the forest from the trees
Principle #7: Get a Coach
- Admit when you don't know something: don't "juggle" it all in your head
- See what someone more successful than you is doing.
- Know what the "next" problem is that you're solving. Know how to ask a real question.
- Role Modeling & Anti Role Modeling: what would X do in this situation? and what would this unsuccessful person say about this?
Pitfalls to Stay Away From
- Don't go down the rabbit hole: learning to program when you just wanted to create an e-book
- Don't let the tiniest thing hold you up
- Don't wait. Just take the action. Don't fall into victimhood, martyrism, or "waiting" for the other person to do something
- Don't just fill time: it takes just as much effort to do nothing as it is to do something
- Don't be a pack rat: throw away your notes and "used up" bi-products
Don't Sabotage Yourself: One foot on the brake. Reversion to a comfortable state. Be uncomfortable now + comfortable later, or comfortable now + uncomfortable later. Whether you think you can or you can't, you're right. - Don't let the confirmation bias get the best of you: reinforcing what you already know or ask around until you find the answer you want
- Don't let anyone take you for granted. Have a good support system of encouragement. Be an indispensable resource.
Check out Time Management on Crack to get a handle on your success mindset and Income Machine to get your money-making system in place.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 58:25 — 53.5MB) | Embed
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Filed in: Archive 1: 2012-2016 • Mindset • Podcast