I remember the first time I did something I was truly proud of.
Something that made me think: Yes, I did that!
I was 19.
I dropped out of university and moved to Paris for 6 months. (Long story.)
By the time I came home, I spoke French fluently. (I worked hard at it.)
I was proud of that.
Over the next 10 years, I learnt a bunch of languages and started a business teaching languages.
I became an “authority” and people would seek me out for language learning advice.
- The Open University asked me to make a course for them
- I was in a BBC documentary called “The Superlinguists”
- One of the world’s largest publishers bought the rights to my books
From a career perspective, this was cool.
But from a teaching perspective, it was weird.
See, everyone thought learning a language was hard. An impossible code to crack. They wanted me to reveal the secrets.
But for me, there was no mystery…
There were no secrets…
You just had to do the right things and work hard at it — just like I had in Paris. Do that and anyone can learn to speak a new language.
I didn’t think I was special.
I certainly didn’t feel I deserved the attention I got.
You just have to… work at it!
These days, I’m having a bit of déjà vu creeping back in with my business brand.
Let me explain…
On Saturday, I sent a case study about Chris Ritson, who I mentored last year. We 2X’ed his business (from ~ £300k to ~£600k) and cut his working time in half.
Happy days.
Now, if you read that case study carefully (which I highly recommend you do), you’ll notice that there really wasn’t any great mystery behind it.
All we really did was:
- see the business with a true view
- identify the 2-3 levers that needed pulling
- pull those levers
I dare say, with the benefit of hindsight, it all seems pretty obvious for Chris now.
But it certainly wasn’t obvious at the time…
…as Chris expounds on in the video we made.
Just like with language learning, it’s only hard when you’ve never done it before and don’t know what you’re looking for.
It was the same story for Ken, from Counselling Tutor, whose case study I sent a few months back.
Ken’s business was already 7-figures, so much bigger.
But the way we got him a 300% profit increase (and early retirement) was exactly the same:
- see the business with a true view
- identify the 2-3 levers that needed pulling
- pull those levers
Same story with Chris Orzechowski, where we 2X’ed his profit and cut his working hours by 66%.
- see the business with a true view
- ident…
Ah, heck, you don’t need me to repeat it a third time.
Point is, I’m starting to get that same déjà vu feeling now as I did with my language career, where I never felt like my “secrets” warranted the attention.
There is no great mystery to growing a business.
With each of these three entrepreneurs, it was just a question of clarity and execution.
Now, of course, it’s never easy or obvious from the inside.
It’s only ever obvious from the outside.
And that’s why it’s go important to get help.
But there’s more:
Growing the business itself is the easy part.
(See the earlier point about levers to pull, etc.)
What’s hard?
Building the business you love and want to wake up to every day.
The business that gifts you the lifestyle you want… and doesn’t crush you under the weight of a 100-tonne hustle bro.
You might have noticed a pattern to the three business owners I mentioned above…
It’s not the revenue or profit growth.
It’s the working hours:
- Chris: 50% fewer hours
- Ken: Retirement from the business
- Orzy: 66% fewer hours
Ask any one of them, and I’d bet you the largest steak in Texas that it’s getting their life back that they value most — far more than the revenue.
Traveling with their family.
Going for walks.
Working in the garden.
Whatever the hell they want.
From my perspective as a mentor, that’s the hard thing to achieve. There are always 10 different ways to grow. But usually only 1-2 ways that actually buy back your time.
Namaste,
Olly
