The Power Of Levers

In February 2016 I faced bankruptcy.

I had no money, no assets and a $385k debt.

I had much to prove to myself and those around me that I wasn't a failure.

That I had what it took to build a successful company.

I didn't know it at the time, but this was a colossal lever driving my success.

Since then, I've used other levers to inspire massive action. I want to break down how you can create levers and use them to drive success in your business.

Let's dive in.

What is a Lever?

Something you can leverage to drive (massive) action.

Things like:

• Responsibility to someone you care about

• Proving something to someone else

• Proving things to yourself

• Crisis and fear of loss

A Few Big Levers I've Used:

• Facing bankruptcy

• No money to provide for my family

• Proving something to myself and others

• Covid - Fear of losing the business

• Not living week to week

Use the feeling you have when you're fighting to put food on the table, get out of debt or save yourself from bankruptcy as a giant lever for action.

Ask yourself this dead-simple question by Gary Keller:

What is the ONE thing I can do right now, such that by doing so will make all other things easier or unnecessary on my way to achieving my goal?

It's about doing that, and only that until it is done.

Spend a minimum of 3 hours each day solving it and say NO to everything else - friends, going out, watching Netflix, everything.

Often when we're facing massive pressure there is no time for deep reflection to find the big lessons. There's also no value in freezing like a deer in headlights.

We just need to act fast on the right thing to solve our immediate needs.

Another way to look at the same thing is using the 80/20 Principle.

Here's how:

1. Write all of the things you could do right now that could get you to your goal if you did them.

2. Group them in similar categories/topics. You're looking for the handful of things that would solve the most things. IE the 20% things done that achieve the 80% of results.

3. Repeat again until you get to ONE thing.

Where It Can Go Wrong

When you start to reach goals and feel success it's easy to relax a little. You deserve it right?

At least, that's what I did...

When I was no longer fighting to put food on the table and drag myself out of a really shitty spot I took my foot off the pedal a little and relaxed.

But life has a way of kicking you in the arse when you do, so be prepared for more crises. Enjoy your moment for sure, but soon enough things like Covid, losing a key member of the team, illness and competitors will be lurking.

What To Do About It

Remember to set triggers to cause you to think differently.

This can be a simple calendar notification that pops up to take an afternoon off to assess what you can leverage in your life to drive motivation.

Or a more compelling way is to look at competitors, anticipate future (theoretical) fears and challenges and think about the experience of them destroying your current situation. That normally inspires action in me.

Here's How I've Applied It In Business:

Mid 2021 my business was going backwards. The company reached a tipping point where we had 140+ people and many inefficiencies plus we'd just closed one site to relocate and no longer had that revenue coming in.

We decided to share our situation openly with the team and explain that at that moment no one's job was at risk but we did need to find efficiencies.

We created One Hot Minute:

A three-month program where everyone in the company was tasked with finding at least 1 minute a day.

We then gamified it by adding it to a huge board and calculated the minutes as we found them. It led to hundreds of ideas from rearranging workspaces to save time walking back and forth, to installing a coffee ordering app for staff so they didn't have to wait for their coffee order from the cafe.

It was a remarkable process to go through.

My point is, that we had a giant lever. We were losing cash.

To solve that, we took massive action on the ONE thing that would help us fix it.

Continue executing on growth but keep wage costs the same by being more efficient.

Levers have been the most powerful driver of massive success in my life.

I hope it helps you.

Jarrod