How to be Successful in Business: Show up everyday for 2 years
Learning how to be successful in business isn’t rocket science. It’s easy to do in theory. You just need to show up everyday for 2 years. That’s the formula. Putting in all of your effort and energy into making the business work.
That’s what success takes. That’s the process of entrepreneurship. And it’s really how to achieve success across all areas of life. But most men, and people in general, simply aren’t willing to show up.
What is becoming successful?
This article is focused on how to be successful in business. But you can apply it to other areas of your life like getting good with women or learning a new skill.
Knowing how to be successful in business is deciding on what success means to you and then executing on that goal.
It could mean starting a business that will make six figures. Maybe it’s to start a business that will give you an income of a few million dollars. It could be to build your business into a 5+ person company. Whatever your goals are depends on what success looks like to you.
For me, building a successful business is where I’m making six figures, love what I do, and help the people I set out to. That’s you guys.
Your goals will be tailored to what you desire most. Many of you just want to have a business that will pay you 100k or 150k a year so you can escape wage slavery. And that’s a fine goal to have. You can always increase it later to trying to get rich. Because even just starting a business that makes it to 100k a year is hard. It’s doable for each of you. However, it’s going to take a lot of effort with seemingly no return.
Show up everyday for 2 years
Learning how to become successful in business isn’t complicated. You just need to show up everyday for 2 years if you want to learn how to be successful in business. I didn’t create this statement.
Seanwes show up
It was made by Sean McCabe at seanwes.com. If you follow the link, you’ll see what Sean posted, which I’m reposting here because I thought it was spot on.
Sean McCabe talks about how showing up everyday for 2 years will
- Make you money
- Build your audience
- Solve most of your problems
And the advice is spot on. Most want-to-be entrepreneurs think that their business is going to be making them rich after a few months of mediocre work. They fail to realize it takes a lot longer than that to build a business. If you know how to sell, then you can build up to enough revenue per month to quit in 6 months or so. But that’s if you already are an expert at what you’re doing and work your ass off.
Realistically, it’s going to take you 2 years to start to make real money, build a solid audience, and have a business that’s going to be really helping your life.
Making money
Let’s take making money for example. If you’re building a service based business, you can potentially make more money if you already know how to sell. But you’re also going to need to learn how to balance selling and servicing clients, along with collecting payment, dealing with employees, contractors, and so on.
If you make 50k your first year, you can try to make 90-120k your second year.
And even if you make 100k your first year if you’re good at sales, you can make 200k your second year.
No matter how you look at it, you’re more than likely to make a lot more money by the end of your 2nd year. But it takes staying power for you to be able to see that.
You don’t need to figure out how to be rich and successful if that’s not what you want. But you need money to have freedom. And it’s one of the ways to success in life. You don’t need to be a slave to money. When you have enough of it, extra is just a fun way to keep score. You can also use your money to support your family, community or donate.
If you want to know how to become your own boss and think like a pimp, then you need to be thinking about how to make your business more money.
Audience
Building an audience also takes a long time. If you have a blog, youtube channel, or otherwise trying to build traffic, it’s going to take a while. I’ve written so many blog posts that I thought were going to blow up and never did. But then I’ve had others do well that I never would’ve thought would be as popular as they became.
But it takes time to build an audience. It will grow and grow if you’re constantly there to be there for them and engage with them. Most people will check out your website or social media and leave once they see that you’re not a huge influencer / company yet. The people who decide to stay and see the value in what you do are the ones you depend on. Because their interactions with you will cause a snowball effect.
- Google will pick up on people staying pages longer
- Other viewers will see there’s a community and they’ll want to join it
- Your brand will start to grow
But it takes time to build an audience. Chances are you’re not going to get a lot of people to notice you in a year. 2 years can make a big difference. More momentum will build and you’ll have a lot more credibility.
Compound interest
You can learn how to have a successful business in 2 years. It’s a lot to do. But you can do a lot in 2 years. You’ll start to see a little bit of results in the first 12 months. But you’ll really see things take off at the 18-month mark and the 24-month mark. That’s if you’re really trying to figure our how to be successful in business and you’re putting in the work.
You won’t necessarily be a multi-millionaire within 24 months of working. But you’ll have taken the steps to become successful and can have a growing business that supports you.
Most people that start businesses will work a lot for the first 3 months. Maybe 6 months, and some the first year. Then they quit and go back to a bad job because their business wasn’t making much money or they didn’t build that internet following. They failed to realize it takes a lot longer than that for most businesses to be successful.
Your efforts will compound over time. This means the more work you put in, the more the momentum will kick in. Business usually don’t grow linearly. Instead, they suck, grow a little, suck, grow a little more, suck, then grow a little but more, still suck, and then they start to grow a lot!
The vast majority of entrepreneurs quit before they can see the compound interest of their efforts start to pay off. 2 years isn’t even that far into the life of your business. Nevertheless, you’ll start to see some of the payoff at this time. And this will motivate you to keep going.
What showing up means
There are many ways to become successful. They all involve showing up. Showing up means:
- Putting in the effort in consistently
- Working on your side business for 20-40 hours a week on top of your regular job
- Doing the work even when you don’t feel like it
- Knowing you’re going to be successful when you haven’t made any money yet
- Taking full responsibility for the position of your business
Consistent effort
You absolutely need to put in the work. Consistent effort is the key to how to succeed in life. This means working more than all of your friends and your family. Sacrifices need to be made. Less time needs to be wasted. In fact, you should master your time management skills so you’re not wasting any time at all. It’s your most valuable asset in building your money machine called a business.
If you’re working 40-50 hours a week at your regular job, this means you need to do an extra 20-40 on your side business. So at minimum you’ll be working 60 hour weeks. But 80-90 is more realistic if you want to break free form wage slavery and really know how to be successful in business.
Spending 5 or 10 hours a week on your side business isn’t showing up. That’s showing up for an extra day or two. You need to show up everyday. When you do that, and you can finally quit your job, then you can work 40-60 hour weeks just working on your own business. You won’t always be a workaholic. But you need to be for the next two years if you want to achieve financial independence.
When you don’t feel like it
That means doing the work even when you don ‘t feel like it. Any less is selling yourself short.
You won’t always feel like working at extra 4 hours after work when it’s 7pm. The beer in the fridge and the game on seems more enticing. Or that girl who wants to sleep with you is available right now. But you need to be able to ignore the sports games. And the girls… well that’s up to you. I recommend being a player and dating multiple women for a while in your life. Admittedly, it’s difficult to be a player and show up everyday for 2 years. You’ll have to be a part-time player or really step away from the game. Which means you’re a player for a while in your wage slave days. And then know you’ll have more time for dating once you get your business off the ground.
If you have a girlfriend then she’ll need to be very understanding of your schedule. And if she can’t handle it then you’ll need to choose between business success and her.
Because there will be many nights when you just want to lay a video game or have sex and you’ll know that your business is there. It’s waiting for you to work on it. Your business wants to give back to you and make you rich. But you need to first give to your business. Even when you don’t feel like it.
Knowing you’ll be successful
It takes a certain tunnel vision to determine how to be successful in business. There’s a time and place to be open about ideas. To evaluate that your business is viable and that you have a real value proposition to help customer. This is before you start your business and before you decide on it.
Because once you decide that this is a real opportunity and you’re going to make it happen, you must close your mind. Under all circumstances, you must know that this business will succeed and that you’ll be successful.
You need an assurance that’s almost narcissistic and conceited. This doesn’t mean treating people badly or only talking to others about your business. But it means that you know your business will be successful. And you’re going to learn how to be successful in business, with this business.
It had to be do or die. You can’t be working on it for 1 year, see some results but not enough, and then give up.
If your goal was to make 50k for the first year and you only did 30k, it’s not the time to give up. You fell short, but you still did 30,000. Which means you can do 60 or 80k the next year. Remember that business success is rarely linear.
You need to know that you’re going to be successful. Nobody will stop you.
Embrace the grind
Showing up everyday for 2 years is what it takes to begin a successful business. After 2 years, you should be able to see that will be a bright future for your business. You still may need to put in another 2 or 3 years of long hours before you can start to relax a little bit.
Embracing the grind is what it takes. Accept that you’ll need to eat shit before you can enjoy the fruits of your labor.
If you do this, then you’ll have the ability to stick with it. Combine that with the fact that you love your business and it’s your purpose, then you’re bound to be dedicated. It’s not just money you’re chasing for money’s sake. It’s having financial freedom. Controlling your destiny, doing what you love, and helping others.
And that’s really what it’s about. Remind yourself of why you’re doing what you’re doing. Show up everyday for 2 years and put in the work. Learning how to be successful in business isn’t hard to figure out. However, it takes a herculean amount of devotion for the first 730 days. If you have what it takes, then stop wasting time. You know the steps to being successful in business. Start building your wealth.