I’ve gone through a million different strategies and tactics over the years in trying to figure out a way that guarantees that I succeed in building a successful business.
The key here is long term because anyone can succeed short term, but it’s maintaining that success of a long period of time that is challenging.
And no matter what I do I keep coming back to the same conclusion.
If you want a guaranteed path to success for your online business then you have to strive to be the best at what you do.
Read that again carefully.
I say you have to strive to be the best. You don’t have to be the best, but you need to always reach for it.
Why?
Because that will continue to push you and ensure that you aren’t getting lapped by others.
But what does it mean to be the best? I guess that’s something we need to explore so let’s do it.
The Game We All Play
What’s funny is that when you’re building a business you become very aware of everyone else that is doing what you’re doing. This makes it seem like everyone is playing the same game and that’s the trap.
Because you start to look around and take notes. You start to do what other people are doing so much so that somehow you’re now in the same game as them.
And that’s the problem because you don’t want to be in the same game. You want to be playing in a game all to yourself.
That’s how you want your audience to view you.
You don’t want them to look at you and think if you’re better or worse then the next person they scroll to see. You want them to view you as a one of one.
I like this person because they do this.
You aren’t a gas station where people are deciding between price and location.
This is the challenging part because you’re going to look at what other people do and some of it will seep into what you do. That part is fine.
What isn’t fine is when everything you do looks like everything that other people do. And I’m not talking about the tactical stuff.
Everyone posts on social media. Everyone is sending emails. Everyone is creating content in some capacity.
The difference is going to be how far you push that content and very few people take this approach to building a business.
Stay In the Middle of Race
Let’s say I issue you a challenge. There are 100 cars on the Interstate including yours.
I’ll give you $100,000 if you can remain car #27 until the day is over.
That part might not sound hard, but here’s the rub. I’ll give $100,000 to everyone that finishes in the top 10.
So you have two choices:
- Try to stay #27 which you think might be easier
- Go for the top 10
If you think that get #27 is easier then consider everyone else that is trying to get into the top 10. That’s 99 other cars that want to get into the top 10.
Staying #27 will be pretty damn hard and yet that’s how most people treat their businesses. They think that if they can simply remain good enough for a little bit then they’ll be fine.
The reality is that people are constantly climbing to get into the top 10 and that doesn’t even count the new people that enter the race every single day.
It’s much harder to stay in place than it is to continue to try and climb to be better.
The Best Can’t Be Measured
Some of you are reading this and wondering how do you measure the best and the answer is simple: you can’t.
You just have to be the best in your audience’s mind. That means to them you’re the only one.
This is why if you’re selling information that long form content becomes so important. There are a ton of people out there now teaching you how to grow a business, that only do short-form content which sells the dream.
If you want to dive deeper into anything else they tell you that you need to buy the course. The truth is many of them can’t go deeper with content because they haven’t gone deeper themselves.
They don’t have the experience and it’s why many of them don’t last. They try to stick around by selling the next trend, but eventually they all fade away.
But those people who are constantly pushing themselves in their topic because they want to get better for themselves are unstoppable. You can’t touch those people and their audience sees their growth.
Building a Successful Business Over the Next 100 Years
Before you try to jump down my throat and tell me there are a million different ways to build a successful business so creating long-form content doesn’t make any sense.
You’re right.
But we are talking about a Pocket Business built by a single person. One that doesn’t always have all of the time in the world and actually wants to live their life without being tied to the thing that they created.
That is a different beast than the 19-year old drop shipper who can hustle 19 hours a day until things finally click.
So when I’m talking about building a successful business, I’m talking about it from someone who has the perspective of working on multiple brands at once that make money without me living on the computer.
With all of that being said, here is how I’m taking the approach of building successful businesses over the next 100 years.
(Note: And no, I don’t expect this take you 100 years to do, but the thought it how do you create something that lasts 100 years or more.)
Be the Resource
A watering hole in the middle of the desert is one of the most valuable things in the world. There is always a reason for the animals to come back to it.
Everything I do with regards to the different sites is to build them into resources that people can come back to. They need a reason to come back to them instead of spending all of their time on social media.
The more time they live on the site, the more they become part of the world. If you don’t understand this concept then check out why world-building is what the ultimate business people do.
There is another reason to create a resource and this might be the most important one.
To learn.
Remember, the goal is to be the best and the best only happens through continued learning. There is no reason to keep that learning secret.
Learn something. Document it. Share it. Get more people.
The formula doesn’t have to be hard.
Figure Out the Current Destination
This feels like it should happen first and if you know exactly where you want to go then by all means make it the first step.
But often I’ll think I’m heading somewhere only to find that I’ve taken myself in another direction so I don’t press it too much.
For example, when I thought I was working on being really good at copywriting what I really wanted was to get good at storytelling. It’s a slight difference but it makes a difference with your mindset.
So as I continue to build a resource I always take a step back to look to see if I’m heading to the destination that I want or do I need to change course.
And changing course is okay. Your business isn’t the destination. Your business lies in the journey that you share.
When I started working on building online businesses I began by learning web design so I figured that was going to be the thing that I would become the best in. But then I switched to blogging.
Then there were other things, but along the way I continued to document everything and share the resources along the way.
Share
There is this weird myth going around that sharing is preventing you from making sales. Specifically sharing educational content and I’ve found that rarely to be the case.
The more I share about my own journeys the more money I make because people see that I’m doing what I’m talking about. That has a greater impact on people than those who simply share philosophies which I’ve been known to do a lot.
If you share how to do something then share how you did it. That adds a story element that doesn’t make the content feel like an IKEA manual.
Once people see that you’re the one that has done something then you become the one they listen to.
Help People Get What They Want
Why is this one last? Because it’s important that it aligns with what you want to do.
If not, you’ll find yourself building a business that you do not enjoy and then it stops being a business and simply becomes a job.
The point is that if you do the other steps first, then you’ll have a specific group of people coming to you that align with what you’re doing. When you ask them what they want they’ll tell you that they just want to do what you do.
That makes it a lot easier to give them exactly what they want.
Dive Deeper
I’m too tired to give this a spiffy ending so all I can say is that if you want to dive deeper into a lot of this philosophy then check out the free course.