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Why do successful entrepreneurs solve for X instead of avoiding problems?
Stop reacting to chaos and start plotting your victory. Learn Patrick Bet-David’s 5-step framework to master self-awareness, solve root problems, and scale your team like a chess grandmaster. Ready to stop playing checkers while your competition plays chess? Read the full breakdown below to start mapping out the five moves that will secure your market dominance today.
Move #1: Know thyself
If you take the time to understand what drives you and what you truly want, you will tap into an inexhaustible source of energy that will power you through challenges and allow you to play the game of business long enough to experience success. Get to know yourself on a deeper level by going to a quiet place and thinking of answers to the following questions until you emerge with a new level of self-knowledge.
- What accomplishment am I most proud of and why? Once you’ve identified a few things you’re proud of, look for a common theme: Facing a fear? Taking on more responsibility than you thought you could handle? Bouncing back from a failure? Or achieving success with a team? Use your insights to set new goals that align with your most common theme.
- Who must I become to stop envying others? It’s possible to craft a vision for yourself that’s so compelling, so uniquely suited to who you are and what you want, that you effectively put blinders on and stop comparing yourself to others. As author Patrick Bet-David puts it, “If you feel envy, it’s a sign you’re either lying to yourself about what you truly want, or you lack the discipline to achieve it.” Take a moment to ask yourself: Who do I really want to be, and what do I want my life to look like?
- Do you want to be a top salesperson, a solo entrepreneur, a key player on a high-performing team, or a renowned CEO like Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk? Or something entirely different?
- What skills do you want to master?
- Who do you want to spend most of your time with, both personally and professionally?
- What do you want a typical day to look like?
Move #2: Embrace problems
In business, your job is simple: solve problems. The faster and more effectively you can do this, the greater your advantage. The best problem solvers handle crises quickly and prevent them from recurring. Here’s a four-step approach that the best problem solvers take:
- Reframe the problem: View problems as interesting algebra equations and break them down to “solve for X.” By shifting from feeling inconvenienced to being curious about the challenge in front of you, you bring more energy and creativity to a problem.
- Own the problem: Take responsibility for a problem and let the sting of that ownership set in for a few seconds. Then, use that as motivation to take action and prevent it from ever happening again. This mindset skips the denial and blaming stages, allowing you to fix issues faster.
- Dig deeper: Identify root causes and prevent repeat problems. Great problem solvers ask, What’s the real issue here? After losing a major client, Bet-David started digging to find the real issue. In his book, he writes: “We lost our top customer. Why? A competing product costs less. Why? Because it has fewer features. Why? Because most customers don’t need all the features in our product. Aha! That’s the real issue.”
- Create a protocol: After you solve the root problem, establish a new protocol to prevent that problem from resurfacing. This might be a new personal habit, a team agreement, or a new company-wide system.
Mover #3: Assemble a winning team
Start building a winning team by codifying and trusting. Document everything you do. Write out procedures, record yourself performing tasks, and create detailed checklists. Your goal is to have a set of resources so comprehensive that if you had to step away for six months, someone could step in and run the business using those materials. Always remember the words of Bet-David: “The less your business depends on you, the more valuable it is.” Once you’ve codified your business knowledge, hire people you can trust to execute and improve upon that code. Make integrity your top hiring priority—hire people who are honest and reliable, and who genuinely honor their word. Don’t be swayed by charm or polished resumes. Assign test projects to gauge people’s dependability.
Move #4: Scale your people to scale your business
Wake up each day and ask, “How can I help my people grow?” Encourage your people to set ambitious personal and professional goals and then hold them accountable for those goals. As they scale their abilities, your company will scale. One of the best ways to help your people grow is to encourage them to be entrepreneurs inside your company. For example, let your sales manager create and execute a new sales strategy and run her team as she sees fit.
Move #5: Take the openings that your competitors create
If you look closely, you’ll spot a competitor getting complacent and not serving customers as they should. In 2009, Patrick Bet-David noticed insurance companies in his state were doing a poor job using social media and serving minority groups. So, he hired hard-working Latino women, trained them to sell effectively, and then blitzed his old- school competitors by using cutting-edge social media advertising. Look for openings that your competition creates through complacency, and step into that opening to serve their customers better.