199. 1% Inspiration, 9% Validation, 90% Perspiration

If you're an entrepreneur, you've probably heard the phrase that work is 1 % inspiration and 99 % persuasion. I think that is an awesome quote, but I think it's a little incomplete and I want to help you with that. So the 1 % inspiration, if you're an entrepreneur, you're extremely familiar with us. We get ideas, we get excited, we wake up in the middle of the night, we're ready to take on the world. We get this flood of energy, of possibility, of hope, of what could be. And that inspiration, that passion, that sense of what could be, is what drives most entrepreneurs to take that risk, to take that leap, to be part of the 10 % of the workforce on the planet that says, I'm going to do it alone. The 1 % inspiration is hugely important and we need to honor it. But there's more to that. Now, the original quote talks about there being 99 % persuasion, and I do think that's true. But I think we can be a little more precise in how we break down that 99 % per spiration, so we don't get hurt. As entrepreneurs, very often, we are ready to go from idea to execution right away.

There's that saying that some entrepreneurs will say, look, I am ready, fire aim, I'm just off, man, I'm already going. And that sounds great. It sounds epic. It sounds mythical. It sounds like a hero out of a Greek tragedy or Greek God story. And yet, so many of us have got our butts handed to us and our wallets handed to us and just lost so much money, time, and frustration and caused hurt relationships or bad business relationships because we went too quickly. We were too excited. And like a teenager that gets an idea and thinks that every good idea needs to be acted on, we move forward without thinking further. So if we can be a little clearer, we can say we're going to take that 99 % of perspiration and we're going to break it down. And first, we're going to do 9 % of validation. And of course, these numbers are concepts. It might not be the exact allocation of your time. But what we're going to do is we're going to do some research. Admittedly, this is the part I, as an entrepreneur, can't stand. It feels like work. It feels like being an employee of somebody.

It feels like answering to somebody. You don't understand. I have my passion. I want to go. I have my idea. I'm ready to execute. And yet, once you get your butt kicked a couple of times, a few times, lose 10,000, six figures, whatever it might be, you start realizing there's a step in between where I need to be more intentional about this, or at the very least, I need to take small steps, micro experiments, micro advances forward in a way that allow me to see where I'm going and make sure I'm doing well. This strategy is perfect for somebody who wants to start a side hustle. So a side hustler often will get really impatient and say, I just want to quit my job. I want to go ahead and just do my business. And again, I've got this 1 % inspiration, and it's telling me to do that, and yet the income is not yet there. And so if you ask most people that have been around as entrepreneurs, they'll tell you, of course, you want to make sure that your side hustle income first is enough to replace your income as an employee.

And then you want to make sure that at least for a period of, let's say, six months to a year, that that income is steady enough that you can count on it. So again, that's another way of looking at it as validation to say, yes, this is something that has legs. This is something that is worth investing more in, more advertising dollars, more time, more commitment, more sweat equity, and yes, more perspiration. Now, the 99 percentperspiration, slightly shifting that to say 90 percentperspiration, again, assuming we have our 1 % inspiration and we have our 9 % validation where we say now I've seen some successes. If it's a product, the validation would be I've seen a couple of sales. If it's a coaching situation, I've done some individual coaching and I've confirmed that the clients are getting results in an individual coaching situation, and now I'm going to scale into a group coaching situation, whatever it might be. Now we say with that validation, it's much safer for us to invest a lot of that sweat equity, our perspiration and move forward in a way that is likely to succeed, not likely to bankrupt us or cause us to have to go backwards 5 to 10 steps, and allows us to still honor that yes, there is work, there is hustle, but it can be intelligent, it can be intentional and it can be directed.

I hope you find this helpful. This is something that really... Gosh, I wish I saw this 20 something years ago because I can at least count 2 to 3 to 4 projects where my pure inspiration, my one idea, right away that day, I've got to act on it yesterday. It's going away. If I don't do it now, everything's just going to explode and it'll never happen. That sense of scarcity thinking, that sense of excessive urgency, almost crisis thinking, and that fear that drives it is what has led me to my worst financial and my worst entrepreneurial decisions. I hope this serves you. As always, if you need help, please feel free to reach out to me. You can go to threeday gameplan. Com to start your three day weekend game plan and also see how you can connect with me to talk about strategizing and creating your own plan. As always, look forward to helping you impact more people and make more money in less time. Do what you do best so you can better enjoy your family, your friends, your freedom, and your life. Thanks so much for listening.