Start With A Win - Take Your Ass To Market

Episode Date: March 29, 2019

The topic of this episode of the Start with a Win podcast is “getting your ass to market.” Adam recounts one of the famous Aesop’s fables about an old man, a young boy, and a donkey. The old man decides to take the donkey to market to sell it, so the three set off walking to the market. Along the way, they encounter several people with opinions about how they should be making the trip, and because the old man takes all of their suggestions, the donkey never makes it to the market to be sold. This results in a large loss in livelihood for the man, but a deep lesson for all those who learned from his misfortune: if you try to please everyone, you never get where you need to go.In the current business environment, everyone has an opinion, and they are quick to give unsolicited and uneducated advice. There are four types of people who give their opinions:Uninvested, uninterested – These people are the most likely to give unsolicited advice; just say “thanks” and move on.Uninvested, interestedInvested, uninterestedInvested, interested – You should consider how much of what they are saying is true and what their stake is in the situation.Even if you don’t take their advice, just listening to them might cause you to doubt or rethink your plan of action and cause unnecessary delays. You don’t make money on things you don’t launch, so just be a “doer” and get things done.Links:“The Man, The Boy, and The Donkey”: https://www.bartleby.com/17/1/62.htmlConnect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/ https://www.facebook.com/adamcontosREMAXCEO/ https://twitter.com/REMAXAdamContos https://www.instagram.com/REMAXadamcontos/ 

At top of the 12th floor of the REMAX World Headquarters, you're listening to Start With a Win with CEO Adam Kantos. And welcome to Start With a Win. Adam Kantos here at the top of the 12th floor of REMAX World Headquarters in beautiful Denver, Colorado. I'm here with producer Mark. How are you, Mark? So good. Why am I not surprised? Why are you not surprised? Because you were always so good, man. I know. I am. What can I say? Things are just great. It's beautiful here. I got a puppy. Oh, you did get a puppy? Oh, I got a puppy. Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot of work. You get any sleep? No. No? I was like three, you know how hard it is to start with a win when you're up like

four times in a night. Yeah. It really pushes you, but I'm committed. But it's a puppy. It is. You know, people have been like, oh man, like, how are you doing that? And I'm like, well, your love grows all of a sudden. Totally. It's like, all of a sudden it's like, well, I got to pick up your poop again. You're kind of cute. All right. Yeah. You get the puppy kisses, the sharp little bites where they rip up your face. Yeah. Nip at your sweaters. Right. You know, it's, um, it's definitely, uh, I've never owned a pet. Well, I mean, I did only, I owned a pet when I was, my dad bought me one when I was in fourth grade. That was a little while ago.

Yeah. And then, and then my freshman year high school, my stepmother donated it to the pound without me knowing. Oh, it was, it was a tough time. Heartbreaking. So then ever since my freshman year high school, I've never had a pet. So this is my first, uh, adventure. How are your kids doing with this?

Oh, they're like in love. You know, the dog should live about, what, 15 years or something like that. So I'm hoping that I'll slowly wean myself off of all the responsibility, make it an amazing dog that starts with a win every day, and then I'll push it off to the kids, like feed your dog, take the dog for a walk. Keep thinking that, buddy. You know, it's convenient that we're talking about animals. Yeah. Because

I think we're talking about animals on this show. That's today's story. Yes. So I want to start this show with a story because this is a really, really powerful fable. And it really means a lot, particularly for people in business. I mean, even if you work for a company or whatever it is, but, but ultimately for the entrepreneur, for somebody who's in a startup, who's running their own business, whatever people run into this problem a lot. And it's totally illustrated by this ASAP fable. So, so let me tell you the story. Okay. So there's, there's an old man and a young boy and the old man needs to take his ass to market. He needs to get this ass to market to sell it as donkey. Okay. So he looks at the young boy, he says, boy, let's, let's take this thing to market. So, so they're walking along this,

this road, you know, they're in their, their sandals and their robes and stuff. This is a long, long, long time ago. And they got a little ways to get to market. So walking along and they see a farmer out in the field. He's got an ox in and he's pulling a plow and the farmer stops. He says, Hey, old man, hey old man, what are you doing with your boy walking along? Why don't you give the boy a ride? I mean, you've got this, this ass and that's what they're for is to carry things. So, I mean, do you not know how to use this ass? And the old man's going, all right, okay, I get it. And so he puts the little boy on the donkey. And they're walking along some more and walking along some more,

and the old man's kind of shuffling, getting closer to market. And they come across this guy who's sitting under a tree in the shade. And the guy goes, why are you working so hard, old man? You got this ass. The boy's riding the ass. Couldn't you take a clue? Why don't you get on the ass and ride? So the old man's like, okay, all right, whatever. So he hops up on the donkey and now him and the boy are riding on the donkey kind of working their way to market. And the donkey's kind of, kind of working, getting him there, you know, donkeys struggling a little bit. And he comes across all these women standing on the side of the road. They're, they're

coming back from, from getting water in the market and they're carrying their water and they look at him and they go, Hey, old man, you're ruining your donkey. You're ruining the ass. You're wearing them out. And he's going, Oh, geez, I can't win. So he goes, all right, boy, get off the, get off the donkey. Let's get off. We're almost there. We just gotta, we just gotta cross this bridge and we'll be a market. So let's carry this thing over there and get the donkey all rested up so we can sell it because we need the money. So they get off the donkey and the old man picks it up and he's like, here, help me carry this thing. So he's got part of the donkey. The boy's got part of the donkey and they're trying to carry this thing. So these two people trying to carry this donkey over this bridge to get to market.

And the bridge goes over a river. So picture this, these guys are struggling, trying to get this donkey over the bridge. And the bridge is kind of old and shaky. And the donkey's looking down going, oh my gosh, these guys are going to drop me. And the donkey starts kind of shifting around and getting scared. And the old man's trying to hold onto it. And the boy's trying to hold onto it. And then they drop the donkey and the donkey goes overboard into the river. They drop it off the bridge into the river and it washes away and it kills the donkey. And the old man's looking at the boy. He's like, come on, let's get off the bridge. And they go, they go over to the market and they sit down and he's sitting there on the ground with the boy. And the boy looks at him. He says, what happened? And the old man looks at the boy. He goes,

he said, boy, there's, there's a moral here. And that's that if you try to please everyone, you'll never get your ass to market. Everybody had an opinion. Nobody was invested in this situation except for him. And all he did was he listened to everybody's opinion. And he never was able to get his business going. So powerful story. Yeah, totally. Powerful story. Now, how does that work in today's day and age in business? So you think about it, even, let's say you even work for the government. Let's say you work for, you know, you're on a project team, you're in a company somewhere, or you own your own business. Let's say you're in real estate or something like that. You're going to have critics. You're going to have people telling you their opinion of things. They're going to say, no,

no, don't do it that way. And they're going to do these flybys of who you are, where you are, you know, if you're in technology, if you're in marketing, if you're in sales, whatever it is, they'll give you their take on things. They're unasked for, uneducated many times, opinion, right? Uninvested in. You got it. You ever see that happen? Yeah, totally. So it's, I mean, you run a business. Everybody wants to give you their two cents and then they run away. And ultimately what happens is you're focused so much on everybody else's opinion that you never end up getting done what you need to do. Well, you know, it's one of those things that I see constantly and to feel myself from time to time, right? It's you're trying to do something and then maybe you shared a cocktail party or with somebody like, oh yeah, well, you

know, I had a friend who did it this way. And then you start doubting yourself and you start thinking like, oh, maybe I need to do it that way. And then it sets you back maybe, you know, a few weeks or months or, or, you know, whatever it is. Exactly. And all they're doing is giving you an opinion that frankly, they don't care whether or not that changes anything. So, I. So what do you think you do with that? I mean, is it something that you just have to kind of ignore everybody around you that's trying to give you advice? And if you get set on something or feel like, all right, this is what I'm going to do, then you just have to follow through and not listen?

Great question, Mark. So you've got the uninvested, uninterested. You've got the uninvested, uninterested. You've got the uninvested, interested. You've got the invested, uninterested. And then you've got the invested, interested. So there are four types of people here. So let's take the extremes, uninvested, uninterested. That's typically what you're dealing with here. They don't have anything in it. And frankly, they don't care. Those people are most likely to give you their opinion. So you know what you do? You say, thank you. I appreciate, I appreciate the feedback and file it away and move on with your plan. Okay. As you move further down towards the invested and interested, you need to consider how much of what they're saying is true. Because if somebody's invested in what you're doing and they're interested in it,

they have a stake. So you need to decide who has a stake, how much of it is there, and will that really sacrifice anything for me to explore those changes and will they do any good? So, um, well, if the changes will do good, Hey, consider them. If not, don't waste your time. So, you know, you can write them down, you can write them on iteration two, you know, V2 board, Hey, here's what we're going to think about next time. But ultimately, um, a good idea launched is better than a great idea, unlaunched. And ultimately, that's what's going to happen is you'll end up possibly the great idea. You may end up with a worse idea, but you'll never get it to market.

You don't make money on things that sit in the closet unlaunched. Things that just stay in your head or things that stay on the design table. You never make any money on those. How many times have you heard somebody who said, oh, I had that idea. They see something and like, oh, I thought about Twitter before Twitter even came out. It's like, okay. Great. High five, dude. I mean, yeah. Great. I'm glad you did something about it. But that's the difference, I guess, between the entrepreneur, the doer and the wanter, is the doer does, the wanter watches. So you kind of have to sit back and go, all right, what are you?

Be a doer, which means you're not going to make everybody happy. Launch it, get your ass to market. Thank you so much for joining us today. Make sure to head over to startwithawin.com to get more great content. Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow Adam on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. And remember, start with a win.