9 out of 10 businesses fail within the first 3 years.
Wait… what? How is that supposed to happen…
Presumably all startup founders are always seen grinding and hustling… And squeezing a quick 20 minutes for a workout is never possible! Why do most of them still face the same fate?
Wrong business model? Poor marketing strategy? Getting the wrong people on board? Do we need MORE cutting edge business models, more up to date marketing tools and more effective KPI management system?
Millions of dollars are being spent through the process of “MORE”… BUT! When it comes to the talk on the importance of the well being of entrepreneurs, you hear, crickets… Sometimes not even crickets. Sometimes it’s quieter than crickets gone sleeping.
The sad truth is, most startup founders are unaware that at the end of the day, the business rises and falls on them.
Yeap. Sad truth. Unlike a business that’s already systemized and automated, a startup’s existence in the market is a question mark everyday. It is fragile, delicate and ready to break kinda existence.
And for a startup founder to be putting his or her well being in the back burner and letting everything else get the priorities, it’s almost like driving a car with screws, nuts and bolts coming loose slowly and doing nothing about it because steering the wheel is much more important.
Yeap, you might be able to fix it here and there, every now and then when necessary, but it also doesn’t guarantee you that your car won’t dismantle all at once during the drive… Now, that sounds like death doesn’t it?
I’ve built two 6 figure studio businesses in less than 4 years and now with an IPO within the horizon in the next 7 years. But to be frank, I got into the first studio business purely based on zero knowledge in business. All this while, I only knew a few things
- I could turn flabs into abs.
- I could also turn guys from scrawny to brawny.
- I could make people hate me for the workouts, but love me after.
Yeap, nothing much that would keep a studio business afloat with somewhat high monthly operating cost… It was so high that it used to take me the whole year to make that amount! But there was one thing I counted on, it was all based on the teaching of a world renowned personal transformation coach who stood at 2 meters tall with a larger than life presence.
Tony Robbins!
He was a big believer that your emotional state determines your action, and your action determines the outcomes in life and therefore, by having the power to control one’s emotional state is ultimately going to dictate the course of life. But how do you do that? How do you get into the driver’s seat of taking charge of your state?
Tony was a big advocate of priming your physicality, which means anything that gets your blood flowing, heart pumping and has you gasping for breath such as working out, incantation or power breathing.
To me at the time, it was rare to hear someone of his caliber who wasn’t from the fitness industry spoke in such a way. It resonated with me immediately since everything else I was looking out for at the time to improve my business know-how was too dry and technical for me.
Moreover, it was a fresh breath of air for me to view keeping fit the Tony’s way because for the longest time, no one in the fitness industry had effectively conveyed the correlations between keeping fit and its impacts on other areas of life such as business, marriage and finance. Many times, it just stopped at the typical talk of fat loss and muscle and strength gain.
Now… that’s where the problem is! And that’s why for startup founders to put everything there is to do on hold to sweat and “suffer” (in their eyes) makes no sense when shredding a few pounds of fat or sculpting some muscles would make no difference to stabilize their startups.
Knowing that stress, the overwhelming type was granted… And knowing that my inability to cope with stress could result in the loss of focus, loss of motivation, the loss of calm and ultimately the loss of the entire ship I was steering… It could only mean one thing.
I needed to GET FIT!
Still not convinced? Still thinking success is about plowing through endless hours in front of the computer screen from wake till sleep? Still thinking that having the bragging right to clock an 80 hour week while looking frail will give you the significance you need?
Well, take a look at Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook. What do they have in common? Apart from having started companies that are now worth billions and trillions, they are all known for having regular exercises as their rituals.
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Pic description: My buddy Elbert, Founder of Empire Fit Jakarta had the opportunity to take Richard Branson through a workout back in 2019 when Richard was on holiday!
To achieve success, sometimes it ain’t about looking at what has been done right in terms of the strategy and plan. But rather, look into the lives of the person running it. Dig deep into their habits and routines…
And there my friend, you might just stumble across the hidden gems of what’s helping to peak the state and the mind of someone you aspire to become.
Now, what can you do in terms of an exercise routine? Well, in fact, you won’t need to complicate things as success leaves clues. Go take a look at what kind of routine is being done by the guys like Mark, Richard, Bill or Tim, and find one that suits you best.
Don’t expect it to be fully structured and customized to you just yet, JUST DO SOMETHING… As I always believe that SOMETHING IS BETTER THAN NOTHING. Because the moment you start complicating things by thinking you need to have a gym membership, get up at 5am for that, drive 30 minutes, do a full hour of lifting loads of weights and doing lots of HIIT…
You’re setting yourself up to “I’ll do it tomorrow” and tomorrow never comes or… You won’t be able to sustain till the age of Richard Branson!
Don’t be surprised that their exercise routines could be quite short. Even if it is 10 minutes, just do it anyway and DON’T downplay the benefits that will come with it versus doing nothing.
So, there you have it. I’ve made it compelling and simple enough for you to say yes. Start small and build up slowly.
Tony Robbins once said that “If you don’t have 10 minutes to do so, you don’t have a life”.
As running a startup is a marathon, not a sprint, the question you gotta ask yourself is, what must you start doing, even with just 10 minutes a day to peak your body, mind and emotion from this point onwards?
