A couple months ago I wrote about the 5 Steps to Success, and how they all come together to improve the results you get from your planning. The 3rd step, LEARN, is the most often overlooked or poorly implemented step on entrepreneur’s road to success.
The Myth
Many of you have probably heard some version of the saying “Your future results depend on people you associate with and the books you read”. There are many versions of this, and they each tell the same story, and it’s not the story told in “The Secret” where by hanging around rich people you magically get rich.
The Actual Secret
The real secret to hanging around the right people and reading the right books is that both actions are incredible ways to LEARN more, and not only that, to learn how others have implemented the learnings. How many of you know someone who has read every book, listened to every podcast, been to every get rich quick seminar, and yet their results in business and life haven’t improved or changed one bit? It’s a waste of time to learn if you aren’t going to do anything with what you learn.
The true secret to getting more out of your business, whether it is more profit or more free time or however you measure success, is to learn more and then put your learnings to work for you. You need to apply what you learned, to actually change something you are doing as a result of what you learned.
One of my favorite sayings about this is “Learn More to Earn More.” You can substitute whatever you want More of with the word Earn. There are so many ways to learn these days – you can take classes in person or online, you can read or listen to books, you can listen to podcasts, the list goes on and on. Then take something you learned and actually do it.
3 Top Ways to Achieve Success through Learning
There are lots of ways to acquire knowledge with little effort or cost using the power of the internet to search for topics. What you often miss when you just look for the book is the implementation part of learning, so here are my 3 favorite ways to learn the right knowledge at the right time and apply it as well.
- Join a Mastermind group, a group of like-minded business owners who share best practices, help you be accountable and brainstorm new ideas when you get stuck. We’ve been doing Planning Workshops for 15 years now, and the feedback has been consistent over those 15 years that no matter how we change up the planning process or what speakers we bring in, the most valuable part of the day is the time spent talking with other business owners.
- Read a book or watch a video every month on a business or personal improvement topic, and then (again), implement what you have learned. We teach our clients to pick the top 2-3 things they learned and then put a plan in place to actually put them into action.
- Get a coach or mentor to help you choose the right strategies at the right time. Too often I see business owners focused on learning the latest fad instead of learning what they need to know to deal with the challenges their company has right now. Your coach will help you pick the right learning at the right time for maximum results.
If you are ready for a structured approach to your learning that encompasses all three of these ideas, then check out our new ActionMEMBERSHIP program, which you can attend for FREE here.
Author: Mark McNulty, Business Coach in Louisville, KY