Millionaire MBA Day 6: Habits & Systems
by
Millionaire MBA
SMASHWORDS EDITION
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Copyright © Millionaire MBA 2011
First Published 2011 by ELW Publishing Bath, UK
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Contents
Introduction
A few years back, 50 leading UK entrepreneurs and business owners were interviewed in their homes, offices and hotels. The purpose of the interviews was to find out exactly what made them successful, and how other aspiring entrepreneurs could replicate their business success.
Those digitally recorded audio interviews were turned into a 'timeless' business mentoring programme called Millionaire MBA. Millionaire MBA is regarded as one of the best programmes in the world to teach entrepreneurial thinking and the 'millionaire mindset'.
Millionaire MBA is a rich, deep mentoring programme which existing and aspiring entrepreneurs listen to over 40 days. Literally tens of thousands of entrepreneurs (like you) around the world have benefited from this programme.
In this ebook, you’ll find the actual transcription from one whole day of the mentoring programme.
To find out more about the full business mentoring programme or to listen to the audio version, please visit http://www.millionairemba.com/
Day 6: Habits & Systems
Welcome to Day 6 and the start of Week 2, "Habits and Systems."
Over the past five days, you'll have begun to train your mind to think differently.
By now, you'll have started thinking like an entrepreneur and will already be developing your very own millionaire mindset, replacing words such as CV, job and promotion with new words such as passion, self-belief and determination.
Let's take a moment to reflect on what we learnt last week.
Firstly, on Day 1 we examined the difference between employee thinking and millionaire thinking. We looked at the 12 elements of the millionaire mindset, and as homework you wrote down the things you're passionately interested in.
On Day 2 we looked at what makes entrepreneurs different. These are the 12 elements of the millionaire mindset, self-belief being the ultimate difference.
As homework you started to make notes about possible business opportunities that you've thought of.
On Day 3 we examined what motivates entrepreneurs to become successful. It's not always money, as most people think, but it's the sense of challenge, wanting to work for oneself or to live a different life to others.
For your exercise, you spent time thinking about your own motivation to become successful.
On Day 4 we looked at the secret of success. The simple fact here is that there's only one secret and that secret is you, the entrepreneur.
Your exercise for Day 4 was to have a friend score you out of five for each element of the millionaire mindset. Also, on Day 4 you heard the mantra that cash is king and the advice to watch the cash at all times.
Lastly, on Day 5 we examined failure and realised that it is indeed a vital element of success. Without failure, there can be no ultimate achievement.
In your exercise for Day 5, you looked at your own past failures and considered how you turn them into eventual success.
We now move on to Day 6, "Habits and Systems."
An important trait of successful entrepreneurs is that they've learnt to develop successful habits. This means that the things that they do and the way they do them contribute towards their success.
By contrast, unsuccessful people have unsuccessful habits.
These may include watching too much TV, procrastinating and wasting time, or focusing thoughts and attention on the wrong things, such as material items and passing fads. It's far better to focus your efforts on generating new business and creating income-generating assets.
Simply put, successful people have success habits. They realise that they must use their mental strength and control their habits rather than letting their habits control them.
They realise that the way they consistently do things forms their behaviour. It's therefore the way they behave at all times that determines their success.
Take a listen to Glenda Stone, the founder of Aurora Gender Capital Management, who shares her thoughts on this.
Glenda Stone
Good habits are that you need to know yourself very well, and you need to know what you stand for, and you need to know your behaviour.
For example, even things like, if you are constantly late for meetings - I know this sounds very obvious - but if you're constantly late for meetings, you are not prepared, you are always on the back foot, you will lose that battle, so to speak.
And I think the good habits that you make sure you do, such as have structure in your life, such as how you plan your day, such as how you force yourself to deliver some things when you don't even feel like it - I think they're habits that keep giving you the drive to keep carrying on because they become part of the way you live your business day.
Even at a very practical level, I know what phrases suit me best. I know favourite positions of how I like to stand. I know where I like to sit in a meeting and why.
And so these things are habits, you live them, and they become part of your repertoire. You take them on board comfortably.
Bad habits, you know, you can do in the same way, but as long as you're very self-aware, I think you tend not to develop bad habits without knowing that you're choosing to take on those bad habits.
It's very easy for both successful and unsuccessful people to slip into bad habits.
In many ways the difference between those who enjoy success and others is the action they take to address their bad habits. Part of this is about knowing yourself, which in itself is a habit of success.
Listen to our entrepreneurs on this point. It's interesting to keep in mind their comments on delegation, as the ability to delegate is a common skill of entrepreneurs and a vital habit to have.
Simon Woodroffe
I think the biggest habit that I've developed is knowing how I work, and that's on a real micro-level - always interested in looking at people's notebooks, and I've always observed how they keep notes; always interested in how people make decisions; how they organise their computer and their e-mail; how you keep efficient with your folders and your files.
That's my thing - being able to get lots and lots done very, very quickly. Always return phone calls, try and do things very fast, don't have a PA to do lots of things, do a lot myself and then have somebody more senior to actually be able to delegate things.
Delegating lots and lots, making quick decisions, moving on. That is my style. And then all the other things of how you meet people and how you talk and how you form relationships, using the right lawyers and all of those things.
Tim Etchells
I think it is very important that you identify your own personal strengths and weaknesses, and I think it's how you structure things.
My habits are that anything to do with the finance of this business, I have absolutely nothing to do with because it's not something that... I have a very good finance director, and I think it's very key, as I said earlier, that you identify your own strengths and weaknesses - no one in this life [is] given all the skills that you need to run a business.
It's just not possible. And there are maybe certain skills that you don't have. You identify those, and you delegate your weaknesses to someone who's clearly got strengths there.
That is a kind of habit, if that makes sense. That's our formula, and so all the events that we do sort of follow that sequence.
It's quite important to get that point across because when I started the business, I did think I could spin all the plates.
I really did think I could do it. I enjoyed the challenges of trying to do some of the things I thought I couldn't do. And that, in hindsight, was wrong.
And it was quite interesting: About four or five years after I started, I got an approach from someone to sell my business, and I was quite tempted. I thought, "This is the first chunk of money I'm going to get" and so on.
We went a long way down the line and did due diligence and all sorts of things, and literally at the eleventh hour, they pulled out. They rang me and said, "Sorry, we're not going to go ahead."
I was obviously upset because I'd probably by then spent the money in my mind. And when it came out afterwards, and I discussed with an intermediary as to why it happened, they just said, "Look, your books are in a mess.
The company's in a complete mess. You think everything's fine; you present very well, you sell very well and so on, but actually in the background, it's a complete mess. And you need to get that sorted out."
It's quite interesting how you've got these blind spots because you don't see them, but others do. And it's quite good when you have other people coming in, having a look at your business and kind of telling you where you've gone wrong.
That was quite a lesson to me because suddenly I could have made myself quite a lot of money, and I didn't because the business was in a mess.
And funnily enough, within a short space of time, we hired a very good finance director who now deals with that side of the business, and we haven't looked back.
As we just heard, part of knowing yourself is knowing when to delegate. You should know what you're good at and what you're bad at, and, therefore, what should be passed onto somebody else.
But delegation isn't the easiest of things to do and must be learned and trained as a habit itself.
Ivan Massow
The good habit, I think, is delegation, not doing anything that you're not good at. And that's the luxury of growing the business.