I first came across the concept of momentum in the business sense after reading Good to Great by Jim Collins.
He called it the flywheel concept.
It describes a basic but powerful phenomenon — with enough effort, the investment compounds and it starts rewarding you with asymmetric returns. These returns exist as an unstoppable momentum for your business that just keeps ‘spinning’.
This morning, I opened up my laptop to one of those ‘feel-good’ emails from one of my mentees.
She had captured the essence of momentum.
Full credit to this husband and wife duo – they are kicking some serious arse as of late.
They are putting in a tonne of effort AND it’s all in the right direction.
One of their big areas of improvement has been their focus.
It’s like blinkers for horses.
When you’re running a business, unless you know what to focus on, everything is a distraction.
And for this duo, what needed their undivided attention was basic (but not easy to execute) business arithmetic.
Let me explain.
There are a few critical numbers that you need to know.
One of them is the Lifetime Value of the Customer (I’ll make sure I write an email about that one day).
The other is leads, presentations and conversions over a given time interval.
And the final one is the gross margin.
Ignore these numbers and you may as well be gambling your money at the casino.
The three of us set up their systems to track these numbers like a hawk… and it only took three weeks for things to start clicking.
Check this email out.
Reading this, my heart is full, too. I know how hard these guys have been working so this momentum is well deserved.
But it also reminds me of an important lesson I want to share with you.
The funny thing about momentum is that it is always preceded by action.
Momentum doesn’t appear because you want it to.
It builds because you act.
A ball that gains momentum rolling down a hill must first break its own inertia.
And sometimes, that inertia is YOU.
And when I say you, I mean your worldview, your (limiting) beliefs, your habits, your tendencies, your systems (or lack thereof)… and anything else that gets in your own way or distracts you from what matters.
Sometimes in business, the thing preventing you from gaining momentum is also the only thing capable of generating it.
You only need to learn where to push.
Because a moderate amount of force in the wrong direction is not nearly as valuable as a tiny amount of force in the RIGHT direction.
On the topic of force, the Alley-Oop Newsletter is less than 7 days away from launching to the presale list.
There are about 170 people who have already said DIBS… which includes a crazy (bordering on ridiculous) bonus for the first 100 to subscribe… and hint: it involves me mentoring you in some unique capacity to help you implement the lessons contained within the edition.
If you want to join the presale list and get a 2-day head start on everyone else so you can get your hands on this juicy bonus, then shoot me back a reply with the word “dibs” (only if you haven’t already).
While the Alley-Oop is only the price of a coffee a day, my personal mentorship could be the difference between pushing shit uphill, or building crazy momentum downhill… and the beauty is…
The choice will be yours.
Karl Goodman
