The Continuous Loop To Success
Success Is Not A Straight Line Or A Zigzag Line
In this Growth Engine daily video, I want to talk about the entrepreneur’s continuous loop.
What do I mean about the entrepreneur’s continuous loop?
Firstly I see lots of things on social and entrepreneur meetings where they say, the journey to success is not A to Z it’s a squiggly line, it’s never a straight line, it’s, a squiggly line to get to the end.
Well, I’m going to challenge, everybody who follows that concept.
Let me tell you why it’s neither a straight line because that’s just unrealistic, the path to success is not A to Z, we know that.
But neither is it a zigzag line with many diversions.
The Continuous Circle
What I call it is the entrepreneur’s circle, a continuous circle and that’s because you set out on a journey.
That journey is a straight line to start with and then you get that deviation and it goes around that bend, but what it actually does, it comes full circle.
That bend is usually a problem, an obstacle, where other people describe it as a zigzag on the way.
But here’s the key difference.
Once you get over that or you navigate that, you then go back on another track.
You think you’ve solved it and you go on that back run up the track.
So you’ve come across, you’ve navigated that problem around and then you’re coming back on yourself.
Then the entrepreneur actually thinks that they’re carrying on but they’re not, they’re coming back around, because of every single life, every single year, should I say, in business, and I started my business in 1994.
This is recorded in 2018, so 24 years, been in an around family businesses since 21.
So 27 years in and around business but 24 of my own.
Another problem will come up or another opportunity and that’s another curve.
You solve that and it goes back on and the reason why it’s a continuous loop and never a straight line or a zigzag line to success is that if you’re a serious and true entrepreneur who’s constantly growing;
- You are always bringing in new products
- You are always facing new challenges
- You are always getting new opportunities and that’s why it’s a circle
You never finish.
As a true entrepreneur, the only time you finish is when you decide to stop being creative.
Because people will say to me, “Mike, but as an entrepreneur “you should never start a business unless “you know when to exit it.”
Absolutely right.
I never get involved with a business unless I know what the exit point is going to be.
That exit, but does it mean I stop being an entrepreneur?
Does it stop me, I stop being involved with businesses or developing myself?
No, it’s a continuous loop, it never ever ends.
Even when you retire, whether that’s at 50 as early retirements, 40, 65 or 85, it doesn’t really matter.
Most people don’t switch off, they’re looking for new opportunities, they’re looking to develop themselves and that’s why it’s a continuous circle.
The Running Track
Imagine it like a running track.
You sprint off out of the gate, you’re going down that straight, you navigate that bend, you’re back on the straight, you navigate that bend, you’re back on the straight, you navigate that bend, you’re back on the straight.
Unlike athletics, there is no finishing line for true entrepreneurs.
- You keep growing
- You keep challenging yourself
- You keep pushing yourself and depends on which side of the entrepreneur curve you are.
Are you an ideas person who creates it, gets it too, or gets the idea to a formed basis and then pass it on to somebody else to finish?
Or are you at the receiving end of that where you work with ideas and creative people who then give you the product to go and take it forward?
Doesn’t really matter, either way, you’re both in the circle.
So I hope you’ve found that interesting and it gives you a third dimension on the path to success which is an ongoing loop, not either a zigzag line or a straight line.
