"Tell me what you've done and I'll tell you who you are"

[Andy Black]

"Tell me what you've done and I'll tell you who you are"
(Unknown)

This is one of my all-time favorite lines.


Imagine you meet your business hero and he asks you to tell him about yourself.

How will you respond?

Will you tell him all the courses you've taken and the books you've read? Will you tell him all the plans you have? Will you tell him all your hopes and fears?

Or will you tell him about how you made money mowing lawns, but then went bankrupt because you scaled too fast? That you've now helped X number of people do Y thing using Z solution?

Do you think he will be more impressed with a one page spreadsheet showing the past 6 months of growth ... or an achingly beautiful 32 slide powerpoint with logos, route to market, pie-charts of market share, and fancy graphs of predicted growth (complete with stock images of beautiful people using your app on their mobile)?



How to position yourself

I think it was Rob Walling who came up with a nice rule of thumb if you want to position yourself as an "expert" in XYZ:

"Spend 50% of your time doing the work, and 50% of your time talking about it."​

What he means is document what you've done, not talk about what you hope or plan to do.

(Another quick way to become "The XYZ Guy" is to help people with XYZ - a subject for another thread.)



More proof in case you need it

Notice which threads get turned Gold?

It isn't the "bold declaration" threads (aka "I'm gonna make $100k by the end of the month!!!").


Here's a recent example by @Rcaraway1989:

• GOLD - How I lean startup’d my way to $240k+ on the saturated App Store

All of a sudden @Rcaraway1989 is "The App Guy" in my mind. If I ever want advice about apps then he's going to pop into my head.


Here's another recent example by @Vilox:

• GOLD - Getting Rid of Cold Calling Anxiety Using Brute Force

This is a short progress thread (in terms of days). @Vilox even starts by stating he isn't good at cold-calling. Then proceeds to relentlessly make progress, make 1,000 calls in a month, and make sales.

He'll likely be amazed that he's now one of "The Cold-Calling Guys" from this forum in my mind. (@Tweeve11 is another because of his market-place ad and because of the call I had with him.)



The mirror

Don't kid yourself. Look in the mirror and ask yourself that question.



The pearly gates

What you gonna say when the time comes? I hoped to do this? I really wished I'd done that?

Your legacy is what you've done, and the people you helped.

 

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[sonny_1080]

"Tell me what you've done and I'll tell you who you are"
(Unknown)

This is one of my all-time favorite lines.


Imagine you meet your business hero and he asks you to tell him about yourself.

How will you respond?

Will you tell him all the courses you've taken and the books you've read? Will you tell him all the plans you have? Will you tell him all your hopes and fears?

Or will you tell him about how you made money mowing lawns, but then went bankrupt because you scaled too fast? That you've now helped X number of people do Y thing using Z solution?

Do you think he will be more impressed with a one page spreadsheet showing the past 6 months of growth ... or an achingly beautiful 32 slide powerpoint with logos, route to market, pie-charts of market share, and fancy graphs of predicted growth (complete with stock images of beautiful people using your app on their mobile)?



How to position yourself

I think it was Rob Walling who came up with a nice rule of thumb if you want to position yourself as an "expert" in XYZ:

"Spend 50% of your time doing the work, and 50% of your time talking about it."​

What he means is document what you've done, not talk about what you hope or plan to do.

(Another quick way to become "The XYZ Guy" is to help people with XYZ - a subject for another thread.)



More proof in case you need it

Notice which threads get turned Gold?

It isn't the "bold declaration" threads (aka "I'm gonna make $100k by the end of the month!!!").


Here's a recent example by @Rcaraway1989:

• GOLD - How I lean startup’d my way to $240k+ on the saturated App Store

All of a sudden @Rcaraway1989 is "The App Guy" in my mind. If I ever want advice about apps then he's going to pop into my head.


Here's another recent example by @Vilox:

• GOLD - Getting Rid of Cold Calling Anxiety Using Brute Force

This is a short progress thread (in terms of days). @Vilox even starts by stating he isn't good at cold-calling. Then proceeds to relentlessly make progress, make 1,000 calls in a month, and make sales.

He'll likely be amazed that he's now one of "The Cold-Calling Guys" from this forum in my mind. (@Tweeve11 is another because of his market-place ad and because of the call I had with him.)



The mirror

Don't kid yourself. Look in the mirror and ask yourself that question.



The pearly gates

What you gonna say when the time comes? I hoped to do this? I really wished I'd done that?

Your legacy is what you've done, and the people you helped.

When I was 21, I printed 100 business cards advertising "Garage Cleaning" and went door to door setting up appointments. I had a truck and my moms cleaning supplies. My first customer was an old widow I was referred to by a random homeowner I approached.

I made something like $800 one week and went down a drunken haze of a rabbit hole.

7 years later I find myself in regret.

Thank you for your ever-grounding wisdom Andy. It's very easy to lost in the forum going down different rabbit holes.