The School of Greatness - 274 Create Freedom Through Focus

Episode Date: January 7, 2016

"Start the chain reaction of greatness by knocking over your one big domino." - John Lee Dumas If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes and more at http://lewishowes.com/274

This is 5-Minute Friday, episode number 274. John Lee Dumas here, subbing in for my main man, Lewis Howes. There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world. Those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed. Ray Goforth. It's 2016, and time to set and accomplish your number one goal. But first, let's talk about a tale of two entrepreneurs. Both George and Sarah were

full of passion, energy, and fire. They both desired a life of freedom, one where they called the shots and created a value they could share with the world george had a lot of good ideas deciding to play the odds he went after a bunch of them every day he'd wake up do a little bit of this a little bit of that giving each project its due share of time george was a go-getter he was a hard worker he was putting in the time the effort the bandwidth a hard worker he was putting in the time the effort the bandwidth months went by george wasn't getting any traction on any of his efforts a little blip here a little blip there but nothing seemed to gain true momentum george started to spend more time consuming less time producing as he figured there must be some magic bullet he was missing. Those occasional blips even started to fade, until George felt like he was speaking, writing, and creating into a black void.

George had a runway for sure, but he figured he'd be generating revenue by now. He was six months in and seeing his savings dwindle each month. If George was being honest with himself, he was no closer to revenue generation than he had been on day one. But how could this be? George awoke every morning and he did the work. He pushed his multiple projects forward a little bit. He added his noise to the noise out there in the world.

But it seemed to get swallowed up in an instant. No matter what content or how much content or where he pushed the content seemed to matter. George started to doubt. The imposter syndrome began to settle in. It's no wonder no one's listening. Who am I to share my thoughts, my opinions, my feelings? The days seemed to grow shorter. Next month's rent check seemed to loom larger. George felt as though he was the captain of a rudderless ship. And George quit. Meet Sarah. Sarah had a lot of good ideas.

But unlike George, she sat down and she wrote out the pros and the cons of each one of those ideas. In the end, she chose one. one of those ideas. In the end, she chose one. She chose to focus on what she considered her best idea and was committed to following one course until success. Sarah knew there was a lot of noise out there in the world and she knew she had to be heard. So Sarah niched down. She niched down again. She niched down till it hurt. She found silence. Not on the consuming side, but on the producing side. So Sarah started to produce. She started to produce with a purpose.

And every day she filled her small niche with amazing content. Those listening weren't massive in number, but the only voice they heard was Sarah's. They began to know, like, and trust what Sarah had to share. And when their friends, who shockingly had similar interests as they did, asked what was going on in their world, they couldn't help but share Sarah's awesome content. Word began to spread. Sarah became the authority figure with a small but raving and growing follower base. A conference organizer was looking for variety in his conference. He was pointed to Sarah, the authority figure in her niche. He extended an offer. Sarah accepted. And two months later, she was on stage speaking in front of 200 people. Sarah asked her ever-growing audience, what are you struggling with? Then she listened. They shared their obstacles, pain points, challenges, and Sarah, their trusted leader, provided the solution in the form of a product, service, community.

in recurring revenue and growing monthly. She had replaced her cubicle salary and then some and awoke every morning with a sense of purpose, mission, and drive. Sarah had found her freedom and it felt great. What did George and Sarah do differently? George went one mile wide and one inch deep. Are you surprised that he made no impressions? Sarah went one inch wide and one inch deep. Are you surprised that he made no impressions? Sierra went one inch wide and one mile deep. She may not have made a lot of impressions, but those she did

mattered. My friends, it's time you accomplished your number one goal, not your top five, your number one. Start the chain reaction of greatness by knocking over your one big domino. If you're ready to set and accomplish that number one goal in 100 days, my book, The Freedom Journal is for you. Visit thefreedomjournal.com and ignite your entrepreneurial journey today. Thank you so much for listening today. And you guys know what time it is. It's time to go out and do something great.