Happy Monday!
If you’re anything like me, sometimes you loathe social media and other days it’s fun, full of inspiration and such a blessing to be able to connect with amazing people all over the world.
The other day, as I was scrolling, I found this incredible post by Jesse Itzler — for those who don’t know, he’s the husband of Sara Blakely (the youngest self-made female billionaire and founder of Spanx) and a serial entrepreneur with a net worth of $200 million. I love following him and Sara on their journey with their four kids and multiple companies.
Here’s the photo Jesse posted:
The caption caught my attention because it said:
“YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE THE MOST TALENTED…JUST FIND YOUR POINT OF DIFFERENTIATION.”
Jesse went onto describe a period of time when he was part of a “40 and over” basketball tryout. There we 70 people trying out for six spots. In order to help them prep, the coach sent all of them a suggested workout program to help them get in shape and ensure they’d be tryout ready.
Jesse read the instructions and figured that if he did the exact program he’d been sent, then he’d be in the exact same shape of everyone else.
So what did he do?
He DOUBLED it. For 45 days he did “almost puke” workouts on the dirt road behind his house.
On the day of the tryouts, he took it one step further and decided to pair with the man who had been the best on the team the year prior.
Six minutes into the game, that player had his hands on his knees gasping for air.
Jesse wrote that in that moment, he thought to himself, “He wasn’t on that dirt road with me.”
How powerful is that?
Jesse ended the caption saying “ SAME RULE APPLIES IN BUSINESS!”.
I couldn’t agree more.
In working with entrepreneurs lovely, I see a lot of patterns…
Stopping when things get difficult
Not going the extra mile
Expecting success to be handing to you on a silver platter
Backing off when fear shows up
Taking two steps forward and one step back
Dabbling
Following the crowd
Jesse hit the nail on the head with this post in that going above and beyond is key to success. You have to stand out. And when you go the extra mile, your clients will notice…
I see this in my own business all the time. Recently, one of my previous clients sent me a message saying:
“Your dedication is really inspiring…I was thinking about it the other day..how you just stick to what you’re doing no matter what it takes, anyone thinks, or where the “market” goes…And that is amazing.”
It’s so important to be you and do what you love because that will stand out from the crowd and truly set you apart.
So today, lovely, think about what would happen if you doubled your effort? What if you did things your way? What if you got up an hour earlier? What if you did one more Facebook LIVE? What if you 2x the amount of people you told about your program?
Here’s to you going to extra mile — remember, it’s never crowded.
