Business Coach : Create Your Success
-Tim, when it comes to visualizing and really thinking about your success, Donald Trump, the billionaire real estate tycoon, entrepreneur, author, and TV personality, says, “As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.” Tim, story time here. Throughout your career, how have you experienced first-hand the magic that can happen when you start to think big or have seen clients start to think big?
-The idea of thinking big is really activating your faith. When you think big, it’s something you see on the inside. You don’t see it on the outside. One guys says to try your faith when there’s a difference there between what you see on the inside and what you see on the outside. A business coach can help you with these concepts.
I remember 1986. I had already gone through the public accounting. I started with a software company. There was two of us in this really hot, overheated condo. I was taking these 5 and 1/4-inch floppy disks– you can read that in the History Channel about what those were– but we were reproducing these. I was taking the calls and doing everything.
I remember taking time to visualize, to think about, the future of this company. I thought big. I saw ourselves in the Wall Street Journal. I saw ourselves generating over $100 million in profits. I saw getting hundreds of people coming on board. And I wrote down these things. There were about 20 individual, very specific things that my visualization saw. And when I saw that, it was like I set my faith to say now that that’s clear, I’m going to work to see those things come to pass.
-So you actually did this. This is a real story. You actually did this.
-Yeah. This is over 15 years. And that’s where we lose it sometimes– I tried it for two days, and it didn’t work! OK, well, it took you more than two days to get where you were, so work out of it. Over 15 years, remarkably, I each of those 20 items came to pass.
-I want to throw this out here, because a lot of entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs are watching this, and they really are struggling with thinking big. And yet the bestselling self-help author of all time, Napoleon Hill, he says, “Everything man creates or acquires begins in the form of desire. That desire is taken, on the first lap of its journey, from the abstract to the concrete, into the workshop of the imagination, where plans for its transition are created and organized.” That is an unbelievably deep statement. What Napoleon Hill is talking about is taking these abstract ideas and turning them into concrete plans. What advice would you have for me if I’m watching this? Advice from a business coach.
I’ll give you an example. I met a lady years ago and she said I want to just be successful. I want to have a successful business coach. I want to provide for my family. These are the kinds of statements she was making– abstract, broad ideas. What would you say to someone like that, who’s struggling to turn their big ideas into something specific?
-Let me write this down here, first of all. Here we have this big idea. Big idea. Now, what happens is we actually will begin to shrink this down if we think too much about the how. Don’t get into all the details– well, I’ve got to know how! Then we end up getting wadded up in some step 262, and it kills the vision.
So what we want to focus on is what. What. What is it you want to see? I saw hundreds of people working for me. I didn’t want to climb the corporate ladder, I wanted to build one. And I got promoted every time I hired somebody.
-You’re saying we need to focus on what and not worry the how at first.
TIM REDMOND: Don’t worry about how. The how’s going to show up. The how’s going to show up with expertise– people that come in. And a lot of times what we’re doing is we say– I don’t know how I’m going to reach $5 million!
Have you made $100,00?
Well, no.
Let’s focus on seeing yourself generating the $100,000 and go backwards on that. As a matter of fact, one of the techniques I use in my coaching– gosh, I charge a lot of money for this, but we’re going to give this to the Thrivers– is take your idea, your $100,000 or maybe $5 million, and I want you to imagine– how far in the future is that? Three years? OK, we got three years. All right.
Now, interview yourself. Pretend you’re three years from now. Interview yourself, and say– how did I achieve this? And hear yourself talk. Just start talking– I did this, I did this.
What obstacles did you overcome? Well, I had this obstacle.
How did you overcome it?
Interview yourself, where you begin to answer your own questions. It gets this what coming alive, and then the how shows up over time.