I love to nerd out on mental models…
But that’s only because I am obsessed with the crazy relationship between time, business growth and decision-making.
See one of the big realisations I had this year is that the only difference between small business owners and big business owners is their perception of the world…
How they think…
And how they act.
Because we all have 24 hours in a day…
And we all have the same capacity for focus and attention.
So as of late, I’ve been super interested in the art of falling forward… or making mistakes faster with less blowback.
It’s a mental model that I’ve been developing since reading Charlie Munger’s work.
He says that the best chance you have at succeeding in business is by avoiding avoidable mistakes. The mistakes that you can KNOW.
And he does this by asking himself questions like this:
What would I do if I was poor?
What would I do if I wanted my business to fail?
What would I do if I wanted to make bad investments?
He’d list those actions down… and then AVOID doing those things.
Because sometimes it’s easier to know what NOT to do, than know what TO do.
This is true when the stakes are high and everything is on the line.
But, is there another side to the coin?
Because I’ve found that the faster I can make mistakes and continue to fall forward, the faster I learn.
And the faster I learn, the more I expand my own mental models for decision making. And the more I expand my own decision-making skills, the faster the business grows because I can differentiate between signal and noise.
I know this is a bit deep for the middle of the week, but it’s a conversation worth having.
One of the mental models that I refer to is the Signal vs Noise model.
In fact, Jordi asks me a question on the podcast episode we recorded yesterday which speaks to this.
You can go and listen to it here… early feedback is it was a super helpful episode.
This is what Signal vs Noise LOOKS like.
A signal is well defined. It is clear and concise. It has well-defined boundaries that we can use for decision-making.
Noise is the opposite. It is poorly defined, and quite frankly useless for decision making.
This is important to know… and here is why.
Most of the time, the information you receive from others when you need help are failed signals.
While they might have good intentions when they give you advice, they are giving you faulty feedback and it’s why you’re not clear on what you need to do.
Because unless you have low amounts of noise and a clear signal, you fail to have CLARITY.
The solution to this problem is obvious.
You need to go to the source and find the original signal.
That’s why when I speak to new business owners who are applying for my mentorship, I immediately look for where they’re stuck listening or getting distracted by noise…
In my experience, it shows up like this:
Marketing & Sales
- Paying for Instagram followers who never intend to work with you because it appears to drive up credibility (not realising it drives out organic interaction)
- Never developing a system for authentic sales conversations because you’re mental model for sales is that it’s ‘icky’… without recognising that you’re sabotaging your business and your prospects opportunity to get results with you…
- Trying to speak to too many people and be something for everyone without being able to see it is stopping you from getting noticed and standing out from the crowd…
Business Operations
- Not knowing the most important metrics in your business… LTV, MAAC, Gross Margin etc
- Trying to do everything yourself without realising the value of focus and attention… and the power of outsourcing the menial, repeatable tasks…
- Not realising the power of systemisation to reduce decision-making fatigue
- Not understanding that the goal of business is to become permanently profitable (unless of course, you’re a charity)
Self-Optimisation
- Not realising that investing in yourself in the weakest areas (typically your business skillset) are your best opportunities to get an incredible return…
- Thinking you’ll never be a natural leader without identifying that leaders come in all shapes, sizes, skillsets and character traits
All of that is NOISE.
If business owners could just get to the signal, then you’d blow those types of limiting mental models out of the water and unlock massive growth (take it from me… those who have been following us for the last 6 years know where we started)
I know that sounds like a bold claim… but the reality is, getting clear signals rather than hearing noise is the difference between pushing shit uphill and cutting through room temperature butter with a hot knife.
The Alley-Oop offers you the opportunity to get signals for your business and then turn the volume up on them.
And it allows you to identify the noise and put it on mute.
And it does so for $3.19 a day.
A tiny investment for an insane return when your business is exploding with growth and opportunity.
Here is the link:
– Karl Goodman
