Wisdom

 

By three methods we may learn wisdom:

First, by reflection, which is noblest;

Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and

Third, by experience, which is the bitterest.

Confucius

Should you pay a mentor?

 🔥 SHOULD YOU PAY A MENTOR?

It’s a question I hear almost daily.

And the answer I give is this... 👇 

Let’s look at it from a different perspective…
 
If a mentor CAN HELP YOU…

🔥 Remember your ‘why’
🔥 Create a plan to make it a reality
🔥 Keep you on track
🔥 Get more leads, more consistently
🔥 Convert more leads, more consistently
🔥 Keep your customers for longer
🔥 Increase the value of each customer
🔥 Introduce new products and services
🔥 Streamline your operations
🔥 Turn your business into a repeatable, scalable system
🔥 Get you working ‘on’ instead of ‘in’ your business
🔥 Be a better leader
🔥 Give you clarity over what you should be doing
🔥 Get the most out of your team
🔥 Know who to hire (and who to fire) and when
🔥 Have those difficult discussions
🔥 Get your cash-flow sorted
🔥 Find cash-flow to fund growth
🔥 Get pitch ready
🔥 Find and connect with the right investors
 
And if they can;

💪 Open your eyes to ideas you hadn’t thought of
💪 Be your sounding board and voice of reason
💪 Pat your back when you do good
💪 Be your spark when you get stuck
💪 Make BETTER decisions, FASTER

And through doing so,

💙  Massively reduce your stress levels
💙  Stop you feeling overwhelmed
💙  Stop you feeling lonely/alone
💙  Save HUGE amounts of time and money that would otherwise be lost through trial and error
💙  Put the fun back in your business

Well, then...

Why WOULDN’T you pay them?

source: James Sewell, founder, MentorConnex, Sydney Australia, via LinkedIn

Feedback vs. Advice

 

Asking for feedback creates a critic. 

Asking for advice creates a partner.

Musk on being CEO

A recent news story it claimed that Elon Musk was hoping that Apple would buy Tesla when it was in dire straits, but Musk's condition was that he would become CEO of acquirer Apple, whose.CEO Tim Cook told him what he could do with that idea. 

Here's a recent tweet on that topic:

We all know Elon Musk is smart. What's his take on being CEO? 

"I don't want to be CEO of anything."

I gotta love it. This is some advanced thinking. And it was something I realized about 30 years ago when I got burned out on being CEO of a bootstrapped, fast growing software company that I started with absolutely nothing... no co-founder, no savings, no credit cards, no car... Getting started was easy enough, but after the business settles down to an operational routine after a few years, and the stress of all-or-nothing roll of the dice existence, what I realized is that the true secret of entrepreneurship is to recruit CEOs. The elemental fulcrum of success in business is to Recruit CEOs.

That's not exactly what Musk says, but that is certainly what he implies. 

Being a CEO is the easiest job to get, and the toughest to keep.

To get the job, just start something. And we all know that startups have a 90% failure rate, so the odds of keeping your high-pressure low pay CEO job are about as good as an ice cube in August. 

The problem is caused by the fact that as the business grows, the snowplow effect begins to manifest. The business starts running the management. Inherent friction increases. Joy turns to Fear. Not a happy place. 

The antidote is to Recruit CEOs who are better at operational skills than they are at startup skills. You, the founder, can more easily and freely and joyfully contribute most effectively by elevating yourself to Chairman of the Board and Recruit a CEO.  Be like Musk.

Full disclosure: I hired two different CEOs to take my place at TeleMagic, and they were both short timers. So it's a tough job to fill. 

Finding an operational CEO is really difficult. They are much different than what is needed for a startup CEO. And few successful startup CEOs can evolve into successful operational CEOs.

It's a high stress, low pay, 24/7, high turnover, thankless and lonely job.

Of course there are the few outliers like Musk, Jobs, etc who make it look easy, but the vast majority of CEOs are treading water, fearing death. They need help. Most CEOs never get the help they need and suffer in solitude until everything falls apart. Many find help in the community of other CEOs in groups like Vistage, YPO, Ycombinator, etc. 

Others recruit an executive coach. Their best day will come when their coach suggests they Recruit a CEO.

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Update:

Inc. Magazine published recently picked up the story, focusing on the huge money Musk makes as CEO, but Musk himself is not really all about the money.