In this episode, I talk about how to stay focused as an entrepreneur and why it's so hard to be focused. I also talk about why you should put all your eggs in one basket and not worry about other things.
00:00:00.00030 seconds. One time for the underdog. Ignition sequence start. Let me see you put them up. Reach the sky, touch the stars up above. Cause it's one time for the underdog. One time for the underdog.
00:00:17.340I'm Patrick Bedeb, your host of IOTA, and today we're going to talk about how you can stay focused as an entrepreneur.
00:00:22.560I was asked the other day by an entrepreneur on how to stay focused and why is it so hard to be focused. And, you know, I started talking to him to see what he meant by how hard it is to stay focused as an entrepreneur. And I told him, I said, you know, I completely see it in a different way. He says, what is that? I said, I think it's extremely hard to be distracted. I think it's very easy to be focused. I think life is very difficult and stressful when you're distracted.
00:00:50.020It's very easy and happy and stress-free a lot less when you're focused. I said, what do you mean by that? I said, so he's a younger guy. So when you're talking to somebody who's younger, he's still in the party life, all this other stuff. I said, let me ask you a question.
00:01:03.660You ever dated multiple girls at the same time? And he says, what do you mean? I said, have you ever had three girlfriends? And he's got the smirk on his face. You know, he's a good looking guy. So he said, I have.
00:01:14.540I said, have you accidentally text the wrong name to the wrong number? He starts laughing. I said, of course I have. I said, what was the reaction? What'd you have to say? Was my cousin? What did you have to do? And he goes into his whole story. I said, I said, how hard is it to try to balance three different relationships at the same time? He says, Pat, it's so stressful, man.
00:01:35.180The other day I went to the mall and I have to be careful because my other girlfriend's friend saw me and with this other girl, she wanted to hold hands and I didn't. I didn't know how to separate mine. All this stuff he's telling me. I said, okay. I said, so that to me is being distracted. It's a lot easier having one girlfriend. Having one girlfriend, you don't have to worry about any of that stuff. You're dealing with one.
00:01:54.860Now, some people will watch this and they'll say, well, you know, I prefer being a player and all this other stuff. But then don't expect to, you know, if you take that mindset into business, don't expect to do big things in business. Don't expect to do big things in business. You hear a lot of people that say, you know, I'm a fan of multiple streams of income. Yeah, that was written by an author who made money convincing you that the right thing to do is multiple streams of income.
00:02:18.720But I was with Mark Cuban last week and these guys are not, they didn't make their money going and having multiple streams of income. Well, he's in Shark Tank. He invests a lot of different business. He's worth $3 billion now. But he didn't get there doing five, six, seven different things. He went there with micro solutions. Boom. One big hit. Next. Broadcast. Boom. Next. And then comes other opportunities. And even if you look at Mark Cuban, generally, Mark Cuban is an active owner with Dallas Mavericks. He doesn't just go to one game and it never shows up again. He's an active owner.
00:02:48.720He's actively involved with his team, with his business, with the people that he's doing. That's what players want to play for him, right? And so less is more. One spouse, one girlfriend, one husband, one girlfriend, one partner, one way of making money. Andrew Carnegie said, I don't believe in, you know, not putting all your eggs in one basket. I believe in putting all your eggs in one basket, just making sure nobody throws them down.
00:03:19.020I believe all in with one industry. And a lot of people say, well, I don't like to do it like that because it's risky. What if this, this, this, this, that? What if what? Then don't plan on building it very big if you want to put your energy in different places.
00:03:30.500So I run a financial firm and I get normally get asked and people would tell me, well, why don't we also offer this product? Why don't we also offer this product? Why don't we also offer this product? Why don't we also offer this product? Why don't we also offer this product? And many times as a person running a business, you still get tempted because you're thinking we should offer that product.
00:03:46.000But, uh, I would come back and say, I would rather take Bruce Lee's philosophy. Bruce Lee said, I'm more concerned about fighting one person who has practiced one kick 10,000 times versus finding a person that's practiced 100 different kicks.
00:04:02.260100 times. If you come and practice, you know, a person that's practiced one move 10,000 times, he can knock you out with that one move. The other person is going to look at what all the different things he's doing.
00:04:12.820But this guy knows it's one kick. He hits you. You're gone. Ronda Rousey style. You're gone. If you get caught with this kick. Um, so minimize everything. Try to minimize the distractions. If you have 20 friends, man, bring it down to two, three, four friends. If you're, if you're reading seven different subjects, bring it down to one, two different subjects. You don't need to read romance novel and read this and read that and read this and read that and read this. Read business. If you're in real estate, just read real estate.
00:04:42.820You know, in sales. If you're in financial services, financial services and sales people. If you're, but limit your stuff on what you're studying. Okay. If it's extremely close cousins, only hang out with two or three cousins. You can't do it with 50, 75 different cousins. Minimize it. There's a lot of people that like to answer everybody's calls with their problems. And everyone has the friend that calls on. Oh, you won't believe what's going on with me and Mary. And you won't believe what's going on with me and Jackie. And you won't believe what's going on with me and Bob. And you won't believe what's going on.
00:05:11.360Now, there are people that enjoy everyone calling them with their problems. But I tell you what, don't expect to win in life. Don't expect to win in life. If you want everybody to call you all the time with all their problems and you're on the phone with them for one hour.
00:05:24.040If you try to save the world, you're probably not going to be doing too big in business because all you're concerned about is trying to solve everybody's problems. Minimize social media. We've got a million and one apps nowadays. Let me do this. Let me keep up with that. Let me keep up with this. Let me keep up with that. Let me keep up with that. Minimize to one or two apps.
00:05:43.140I did a video on this. You know, how to stand out on social media. And I was very specific on how to minimize and be very detailed on how you do certain things to have the time for yourself.
00:05:53.300But in any aspect of your life, first, you got to understand that being focused is a lot more easier and happier life if you're focused over being distracted.
00:06:04.900Then write out your plan in your life, your business. What do you sell? Do you focus on selling 50 products? I focus on selling three products in financial services.
00:06:16.100We have more, but my focus is three. Do you focus on three? You know, Gary Keller, the CEO of Keller Williams, which I'm very impressed with him on what he's done. I really respect him as a CEO.
00:06:26.540Everywhere I go when I see Keller Williams convention, I always tell him, I said, you know, your CEO is a very special CEO. And they said, well, you know, you don't know Gary Keller. When Gary Keller is on meetings, sometimes he's very hard on us. I said, it doesn't mean a very special CEO is not going to be hard on you.
00:06:41.280They said, well, you know, it's not that. It's just very tough on us sometimes. And I said, look, Gary Keller wrote a book called The One Thing, okay, where he says after 20 years of being in the business, I finally realized instead of trying to do 50 different things, I had to do the one thing.
00:06:53.380And everything in his life became about what's the one thing to do. And it simplified his life and it took his business from what it was to billions of dollars because he focused on one thing.
00:07:01.060I see so many times amateur entrepreneurs see somebody doing very well in real estate. They want to do real estate. Somebody doing very well in a whole different business. I'm going to go into technology. I'm going to go into this. I'm going to go into that.
00:07:13.580I got involved in one of the most, people will say, one of the most boring industries in the world, insurance. Do you know insurance? People tell me that's a boring industry.
00:07:23.380I fell in love with it. Call me crazy if you want. And my friends try to get me to all these other businesses.
00:07:29.480I've been in the same business since the day before 9-11. Insurance and financial industry.
00:07:35.320And I went from trying to sell every product because I have a series 7, 66, 31. I can sell futures, commodities, all this stuff I've had the license for throughout my career.
00:07:42.920It just kept getting like this. Tighter into fewer products.
00:07:46.400While I saw a lot of my friends going like this.
00:07:49.080You go like this, too many things to become an expert in.
00:07:52.300You go like this, it's a lot easier to become an expert in.
00:07:54.460So, when you watch this video, I'd love to hear your questions.
00:07:58.180When you watch this video, my challenge to you, instead of trying to do everything,
00:08:03.480instead of trying to be everything to everybody,
00:08:05.900minimize your focus in every aspect of your life to fewer things,
00:08:10.460and you will be amazed how much better you're going to be with those three friends.
00:08:16.980Your relationship will be so much more fruitful than those 42 friends.
00:08:21.740Your business career, selling fewer products, will be so much more better than you trying to sell everything to everybody.
00:08:27.560You'll do so much better than that, than trying to do everything to everybody.
00:08:30.580Anyways, that's my message to you here.
00:08:32.280When people ask, how do I stay focused?