Starting companies is easy compared to losing weight in my opinion. As a young self made entrepreneur I spent many a late hours in the office, skipping the gym, or traveling to see clients all day eating all three meals from fast food joints. So when the suit didn’t fit, it was time to start a boot camp type running drill. Doing simple runs back and forth with high intensity, sounds simple right. But it is too tiring and distracting to time myself with a stopwatch while exercising. So honestly, I was never really sure if I had a new record or dogged it. I mean I had a hard day, didn’t get enough sleep, was stressed, its Tuesday – insert your favorite lame excuse here.
Months 1 though 3, I saw little success in weight loss. But here is where it gets interesting month 4 and 6 I saw huge results. What changed you ask? Nothing really, same drills, same distance, same work out gear too.. One thing did changed, I moved from one side of my small state to the other to the “Jersey Shore”. So of course I did my running on the beach.
Let’s visualize this, you run in one direction and a few turns later are running the same path. Simplifying this, the sand shows you step for step what you did last time and holds you accountable in stride length for the next round. I couldn’t lie to myself if I wanted to, this sand did something I never did on the “west” side of the state. Did I become a better runner? Did I learn the hot new exercise? Nope, I became accountable – and it worked!
As a self made young businessman, was I ready to hire sales people and manage them? Probably not. Was I a master at selling or coaching them? Nope. Did I know physiology or motivation like Zig? Nope. I’m even willing to say I’m not a genius by any means, but why did I have the most motivated team that never missed number? Accountability. I held my team accountable, and make it known – I let them hold me accountable. You can’t control sales, who will say yes, how much they will spend but behaviors can be trained. Team up good behaviors with accountability and you will see results. I don’t care if that’s selling or trying to lose weight on a sandy beach.
This small story’s motivational theme can help your prospecting form cold calls, posting articles to obtaining higher training. Please remember, many goals fall short when the dreams they derived from lack accountability.
Daniel Di Massa is an award winning young entrepreneur from Trenton, NJ. After selling his first company in College, he teamed up with older alumni Joesph Hudicka, from his alma mater Rider University. They are currently working on starting OneLead – Sales Manager Tool One tool for prospecting, sales managers and keeping your team accountable. Daniel spends his off time volunteering for Minding Our Business, a non-profit that teaches inner city youth how to start their own companies.