The 4 Words at the Heart of Your Business
There are 4 words at the heart of everything you do. If you don’t define them, they will define you.
But you can’t just make them up. And you can’t just copy them from someone else. You see, they already describe you, your business and your clients.
Today, I’m going to show you 3 things:
- How NOT to find your 4 words
- My 4 words
- Three Questions to find your 4 words
1. How NOT to do it!
I once worked in an organization where one day we came to work to find workers fixing a beautiful acrylic sign to a wall in the reception area. It was large, 6 feet square, and on it was written – in a beautiful handwritten font – our new mission statement.
No one had ever asked for our input on this new mission. No one ever informed us that our mission was changing. Simply one day, we got a beautiful sign in the lobby. And that was it.
It must have cost thousands.
But it was worth nothing.
2. My 4 Words
There are 4 words at the heart of everything we do as a company: impossible, impact, community and coaching.
(1) Impossible
Our clients are people who achieve the impossible, on a regular basis. This is why the symbol for our company is the Penrose triangle – an impossible object.
We believe that doing the unrealistic is easier than doing the realistic. It’s easier to make the impossible happen than to go after what looks possible.
And we believe that your fears are a clue to what you really, really want. So, your job is to lean in and head gently in the direction of what scares you.
(2) Impact
Our clients make a huge impact. So do we. We’re mobilizing $100 million to educate 1 million children.
We believe that – no matter how successful you are – you’re only scratching the surface of the impact you could have.
Our clients lead organizations that have brought clean water to hundreds of thousands of children in Africa and that educate inner-city kids in the United States. They lead organizations that rehabilitate ex-offenders and that support military veterans to get back on mission. They are building schools for children who think differently, building a movement to help people die with dignity and raising $100 million to change the future of work.
We have clients who lead companies that have had a billion dollar valuation and who have sold businesses for 7 and 8 figures. We have clients who are former C-suite executives in multi-million dollar corporations, former special forces operatives, world-class martial artists. We have clients with PhD’s and clients who barely graduated high school (more than one of whom built 7-figure businesses)
And we are very proud to be a company who has raised the money to help build 5 schools in Africa over the past few years.
(3) Community
We believe that it’s lonely at the top and you can actually feel lonely in a crowded room. And we believe that when you’re the most interesting person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.
Our extraordinary community includes CEOs, military veterans, senior executives, entrepreneurs, business owners, MMA fighters, business consultants, rabbis and pastors. They include completely new coaches and consultants with a 30-year track record.
In 2014, I was privileged to travel to Liberia in West Africa with members of our community. We trained local teachers and brought clean water filtration systems to villages that had never had access to clean water.
(4) Coaching
We believe that coaching is one of the most powerful leadership skills on the planet.
We believe that most great leaders are natural coaches. In fact, for most of human history, it wasn’t called coaching. It was called leadership.
We believe that having someone who regularly says, “I believe in you…” – and means it – is one of the last, great competitive advantages.
We believe that the more successful you become, the more you need someone who will challenge your thinking.
And we believe that if you’re the kind of person who most people would think doesn’t need a coach, that is when coaching makes the biggest impact.
3. Three Questions to find your 4 words
A client who is a wealth fund manager once asked me, “What do I do to stand out in a crowded market place?”
I replied,
Stop worrying about how to stand out…
Instead, be more you than you have ever been.
If you want to find who you are in 4 words, these questions will help you go really deep:
- Ask your clients these questions:
- In your opinion, in one sentence, what is my mission/the mission of my business?
- What 4 words do you think of when you think of me?
- What’s missing when I leave the room?
- How do I help you?
- What part of my personality should I show to the world that most people don’t really get to see?
- What is my favorite expression?
- What do you and your clients have in common?
- Make a list of their gifts. Then make a list of your gifts.
- Make a list of the dark side of these gifts (eg. a dark side of being highly creative is that you can get burned out by never switching off).
- Make a list of their dreams, their fears, their success and their struggles. Then list your own.
- Now look for patterns and commonalities.
- What do you believe?
- Make a list of “I believe…” statements.
- Look for counterintuitive truths. Write them as, “Most people think _______. The truth is _______.”
Love. Rich
