Tearing Lucy A New One
This post is going to be a business analysis of a Standup Comedians blog, written by a very sweet girl called Lucy.
Lucy wrote to me a while back and told me how much she appreciated my blog, and asked me to come visit her blog and “tear it up” (or something to that effect).
She actually reminds me of myself when I was a young up’n'coming snowboarder. Ambitious, angry, wanting to “hit it big” by making a difference in the world.
Unfortunately, while you can make it by being Ambitious’n'Angry - I feel you are REALLY TYING YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR OWN BACK BY TRYING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
Business is about one thing: money.
Those who have not succeeded at business yet may vehemently disagree with me on that one. Likewise, those who have hit it huge may also disagree with me on that one.
But they would both be disagreeing for different reasons - and that difference is the reason why my point is so important.
Let me tell you a story about my Mom:
My Mom currently runs a very successful Consulting Business. She’s turned from an Academic Researcher and Lecturer into a great marketer and a very calculated business thinker. But she hasn’t always been as good as she is now.
A few years ago when she was starting her business she told me how much she loved being an entrepreneur - and how it was a “big adventure”. (She’s quite an adventurous person and loves to travel and do new things).
She struggled. She often did things in business that aligned with her sense of adventure. “Try this out, see how it goes, fly by the seat of my pants. ADVENTUROUS.”
She also likes helping people. Being helpful is a very high value thing to her and so she wanted to incorporate that into her business thinking and behavior. She figured: “sure I want to make money at this, but I also want it to be an adventure and really help people”.
So that’s what she did. And she struggled and fought and struggled some more. Eventually, over the years, she listened to what I’d been telling her - so much so that she reminds me of this lesson all the time and keeps me from straying off the path:
When your reason for being in business is anything other then money - you SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE the effectiveness of your business - so much so that it (or you) may NEVER end up succeeding.
This is because you are making micro decisions all the time - about: what you pay attention to, what you learn about, what your unconscious mind is problem solving and so on. These micro decisions SERIOUSLY IMPACT the net overall effect of YOU as an entrepreneur.
In poker, the only people who play in stakes where losing hurts for reasons other then making money are known as “fish”.
Maybe they do it for the “Adventure” of playing high limits - who knows? Who cares? All I know is that the probability of them beating me is almost zero - and that’s because my money motivation is so high that I know all the hand percentages off by heart. I know the chance of a pocket pair hitting trips on the flop is 7-1, and for me to call preflop and expect a long term profit I need to be getting 7-1 on my money, either by having 7 other players in the pot before I go in, or have implied pot odds of at least 7-1.
I know the minute mathematical details BECAUSE I WANT TO WIN MY OPPONENTS MONEY.
If I was motivated by FUN and ADVENTURE - I would never have the motivation to learn all the PAINFULLY BORING - but TOTALLY NECESSARY math you need to win at poker!
If I was motivated by BEING DOMINANT - I would also lose at poker. People who noticed my tendency for my ego to make my decisions would exploit me for it. They would PUNISH me for being motivated by anything other then money.
Focusing on Making $$ FORCES you to… guess what?…
BE A PROFESSIONAL.
The difference between an Amateur and Professional isn’t only that the pro gets PAID to be there - it’s that the pro’s ONLY REASON for being there is the money! Amateurs are in it for their own reasons, pro’s are in it to get paid.
This shift in mindset produces a VASTLY different result in your own life - it FOCUSES you like a LAZER on things you need to focus on to BECOME a pro at whatever you’re doing. Instead of screwing around trying to live a few of your values in business, you are focusing ONLY on things that increase your NET WORTH.
Look, I’m not saying DON’T HAVE VALUES - I’m saying - live those values outside of your business.
Getting back to Lucy I would say: focus solely on the comedy. I know you want to make a difference, and make people think after your shows - but - as a professional comedian your job is to make them laugh. That’s where the money is.
Go for the money.
In his book “Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting” Robert Mckee states that the biggest problem with up’n'coming movie script writers is that they write “anti plot, anti stories”.
What this means is that they try and write the Next Pulp Fiction, instead of writing the Next Forrest Gump.
Sure “s/he wins in the end, defeats a few problems along the way, gets the boy/girl in the end” stories are predictable - and so - screen writing students TRY NOT to write them. But Mckee points out that they’ll never be a professional writer UNTIL THEY MASTER THEM.
Mckee’s whole book is not just about convincing new screen writers that they must learn the craft of Single Protagonist hero stories - but - it’s a blueprint “how to” that reveals writing those hero stories is MUCH HARDER then it appears.
And that’s the next lesson: it’s not until you are solely motivated to make money in your business that you discover being a heartless entrepreneur like me is much harder then it appears 
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October 10th, 2007 at 9:12 pm
“it’s not until you are solely motivated to make money in your business that you discover being a heartless entrepreneur like me is much harder then it appears”
Sure, being constantly aware of what you’re doing and focusing only on things that bring you closer to the final goal, is not an easy task.
IMO, there’s no point in making money when you have no time to enjoy it.
I agree with “motivated to make money in your business” if you mean by that “being motivated to build a successful business that can run without you”.
October 10th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
“But they would both be disagreeing for different reasons - and that difference is the reason why my point is so important.”
I included this statement about new entrepreneurs and seasoned entrepreneurs - and your point here is a reflection of the distinction I was talking about.
You want to build a successful business. Period. Many who are starting out want to build a successful business AND change the world.
They need to become more selfish and leave the “change the world” part until they have enough money to do it in their spare time.
October 18th, 2007 at 12:37 am
Hmmmmm. Seth Godwin’s approach seems the way for me to go. very interesting.