Clarity of Purpose (Get Your Goal Right)

[Andy Black]

Maybe a nice adage: I read the Entrepreneur Rollercoaster of D. Hardy and he thought about different WHY switches.
What you do.
Why you do it.
How you do it.
Who you do it for.

What are your thought on this @Andy Black?

I'm always asking people who they help and what they help them with. How is less relevant but handy for your "elevator pitch" (e.g. "We help carpet cleaners get more leads with Google Ads and dynamic landing pages").

Why is often the most important question.

Why do they want those leads?

Why do you want to help carpet cleaners specifically?

Why are you using Google Ads and dynamic landing pages?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[focusedlife]

Are you building stuff, or helping people?

This is just such a helpful prompt.

 

[hjd]

Massively useful thread, thanks Andy.

 

[DavidePaco00]

Clarity of Purpose

When I hurt my back as a youth my parents took me to an Alexander technique practitioner.

I don't even know what the Alexander technique is (or care really), but I walked away with a lesson I've remembered ever since.

(One day (!) I'll record this as a video and post it in here because it was so powerful to see. In the meantime I'll try and describe it so you can hopefully see it in your mind's eye as well.)

She told me I needed to be more aware of my posture and stand straighter - not just when I was running around a track, but for every minute of every day.

She then took a chain necklace from her pocket and threw it on the floor.

"That's your back. And it's not straight when you stoop and your shoulders are slumped."

"You could straighten it by sucking your stomach in, pushing your shoulders back, and keeping your chin up." (She proceeded to push bits of the chain that were sticking out back towards the central line, trying to make it straighter.)

"Except that doesn't work very well (it didn't look very straight that's for sure), and it's a lot to remember for every minute of every day."

"OR ... we could just take one end of the chain, and gently pull it."

The chain miraculously lengthened until it was straight as a die. I almost felt the relief in my own vertebrae and muscles watching it get longer and straighter!

"Don't try to walk around sucking your stomach in, pushing your shoulders back, arching your back, and keeping your chin up. Instead, just imagine a chain attached to the top of your head. The other end is attached to a massive crane that follows you around, and it's gently pulling you up so that you're tall, and straight."

Wow. That works. When I'm running I'm suddenly running tall.

Combine that with a wee trigger to remember the crane whenever I go through a doorway, and my posture is great.

I just had to focus on ONE goal, and everything else fell into place naturally.



So apart from helping your posture and preventing you from getting a bad back (both great intentions), why would I add this to an entrepreneurial forum?

I think it's relevant.



Years ago a mentor told me that the single biggest reason for business failure was "lack of clarity (of purpose)".

I never quite understood what that meant.



We see people in this forum and elsewhere talk about "blogging", "selling eBooks", or "importing from China" (insert latest flavour of the month).

They may or may not succeed.

It often depends on what they're ultimately trying to do.

Is the entrepreneur trying to help parents deal with their autistic child? Is a blog and eBook just a particular vehicle to reach those parents with the helpful advice they need?

Is the entrepreneur trying to help people in the US get a better product that they're looking for, that can currently only be found in China?


If your purpose, your "why", is to help people achieve a result they want for themselves, then focusing on that ONE goal means everything else falls into place naturally.

It's like thinking of the crane pulling the wire attached to the top of your head. Focus on that and the actions your body takes so you walk taller will just happen naturally.


We all know we should "Take Action!"... that knowledge is worthless unless you act upon it.

But we should also know that "the market does not pay for activity" ... unless that activity adds value.

Get your "why" right, and all the right actions to take will become obvious.

Get clarity of purpose, and that insane list of possible actions you can take becomes a lot simpler.

Ask yourself "Does this help my customer?"




Don't just take my word for it though. Listen to MJ in this video:

I cannot do anything but agreeing with You, helping people, offering value, sometimes is the most effective marketing strategy.

No tricky language, no limited time offers... just raw truth.

While It's the simplest it's also the hardest thing to do way because it requires experience, something that only years of practice and experties on a given topic, niche or market can give you. That is why i personally think that the goal of making as much money as possible is the best way to fail; it skips all the process of learning that make the process of finding a need intuitive or , at least, this is what I think.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Andy Black]

I cannot do anything but agreeing with You, helping people, offering value, sometimes is the most effective marketing strategy.

No tricky language, no limited time offers... just raw truth.

While It's the simplest it's also the hardest thing to do way because it requires experience, something that only years of practice and experties on a given topic, niche or market can give you. That is why i personally think that the goal of making as much money as possible is the best way to fail; it skips all the process of learning that make the process of finding a need intuitive or , at least, this is what I think.

I don't think it requires expertise and years of practice.

These might help:

• HOT! - MINDSET - You don't need to be an expert
• NOTABLE! - MEETUPS - [TFLF Call Replay] - For teens & students getting started

 

[DavidePaco00]

I don't think it requires expertise and years of practice.

These might help:

• HOT! - MINDSET - You don't need to be an expert
• NOTABLE! - MEETUPS - [TFLF Call Replay] - For teens & students getting started

Thanks! Im going to study it !

 

[Erintran]

The simplicity is perfect.



Back in my early days of track and field (high school), I realized this truth.

My goal was to become an All-American track & field athlete. And, the only way to do that was to medal at the National track & field meet.

I knew exactly what I wanted and where I was going.

Naturally, becoming an All-State athlete, breaking eight school records, winning championship meets, being undefeated during the regular season, and earning an athletic scholarship was a result from that goal.


The process resulted in an entirely new lifestyle, from waking up early in order to complete two workouts in a day to nailing my nutritional/dietary needs down to near perfection.

The goal wasn't to eat healthy... it was to medal at the National meet. However, becoming a top performing athlete required optimal nutrition, so it became part of the process to accomplish my goal.

After years of training, making the daily sacrifices, and focusing on the ONE goal, I did all of the above and earned my National medal / All-American status.

The greatest part of all is that the process from back then is still a part of me today.


EDIT:

View attachment 10792

After my entire running career was complete I gave that National medal and college uniform to my high school coach. It's now in his weight room.

That's a great follow-up story to the original post. Given you managed this from early on, how does it apply to your life today when it comes to the Fastlane?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Surgewave]

Clarity of Purpose

When I hurt my back as a youth my parents took me to an Alexander technique practitioner.

I don't even know what the Alexander technique is (or care really), but I walked away with a lesson I've remembered ever since.

(One day (!) I'll record this as a video and post it in here because it was so powerful to see. In the meantime I'll try and describe it so you can hopefully see it in your mind's eye as well.)

She told me I needed to be more aware of my posture and stand straighter - not just when I was running around a track, but for every minute of every day.

She then took a chain necklace from her pocket and threw it on the floor.

"That's your back. And it's not straight when you stoop and your shoulders are slumped."

"You could straighten it by sucking your stomach in, pushing your shoulders back, and keeping your chin up." (She proceeded to push bits of the chain that were sticking out back towards the central line, trying to make it straighter.)

"Except that doesn't work very well (it didn't look very straight that's for sure), and it's a lot to remember for every minute of every day."

"OR ... we could just take one end of the chain, and gently pull it."

The chain miraculously lengthened until it was straight as a die. I almost felt the relief in my own vertebrae and muscles watching it get longer and straighter!

"Don't try to walk around sucking your stomach in, pushing your shoulders back, arching your back, and keeping your chin up. Instead, just imagine a chain attached to the top of your head. The other end is attached to a massive crane that follows you around, and it's gently pulling you up so that you're tall, and straight."

Wow. That works. When I'm running I'm suddenly running tall.

Combine that with a wee trigger to remember the crane whenever I go through a doorway, and my posture is great.

I just had to focus on ONE goal, and everything else fell into place naturally.



So apart from helping your posture and preventing you from getting a bad back (both great intentions), why would I add this to an entrepreneurial forum?

I think it's relevant.



Years ago a mentor told me that the single biggest reason for business failure was "lack of clarity (of purpose)".

I never quite understood what that meant.



We see people in this forum and elsewhere talk about "blogging", "selling eBooks", or "importing from China" (insert latest flavour of the month).

They may or may not succeed.

It often depends on what they're ultimately trying to do.

Is the entrepreneur trying to help parents deal with their autistic child? Is a blog and eBook just a particular vehicle to reach those parents with the helpful advice they need?

Is the entrepreneur trying to help people in the US get a better product that they're looking for, that can currently only be found in China?


If your purpose, your "why", is to help people achieve a result they want for themselves, then focusing on that ONE goal means everything else falls into place naturally.

It's like thinking of the crane pulling the wire attached to the top of your head. Focus on that and the actions your body takes so you walk taller will just happen naturally.


We all know we should "Take Action!"... that knowledge is worthless unless you act upon it.

But we should also know that "the market does not pay for activity" ... unless that activity adds value.

Get your "why" right, and all the right actions to take will become obvious.

Get clarity of purpose, and that insane list of possible actions you can take becomes a lot simpler.

Ask yourself "Does this help my customer?"




Don't just take my word for it though. Listen to MJ in this video:

Very nice posts. Two take aways from this post.

1. Focus on bigger Goal ('Whys') which take cares all other sub-goals.

2. Never heard 'Alexander Technique' before. I see some hope in my posture issue.

Thanks you @andybla