A Painful Business Lesson that Cost Me Over $50,000 and 6 Months Time
Dear Friend,
We've sure spent a lot of time together with the Maui community through these weekly eLetters, books we've shared, live events you've attended, and online sites you've been active on.
All that time I've done my best to always share the good and bad, to let you in on the things I've done that worked well and the mistakes I've made and the lessons we can ALL draw from them to speed up our journey to Level Three. You see I think we're a lot alike. You just like me in that you have definite dreams and ambitions to build Level Three wealth in the broadest, juiciest sense of the word. You want to own a Level Three business... and to reach Level Three with your investing...
Things That Get in the Way
But sometimes things just don't move along as fast as you'd like, or you're faced with unexpected challenges that force you to get creative.
Sometimes those roadblocks revolve around the "I don't have enough money" type. Other times it's the "I'm too busy and just don't have the time" type of challenge that holds you back. And still other times it's that you just don't know the best way to get to your goal.
That's right I write to you every week – to share ideas on how you can overcome obstacles like these and accelerate your progress to Level Three. Our goal is to support you in your dream of building a Level Three business or creating a Level Three investment portfolio as quickly and easily as possible.
Transparency Time
But today is special. Today I'm going to share with you one of the biggest business (and wealth) lessons I've learned this past year, and at the same time share with you a frank admission about one of my least favorite parts of myself. And the reason I'm going to share this with you is not because it so much fun to share stuff like this, actually it's embarrassing and a bit painful. But rather, I know that if I've willing to be transparent and share openly then you'll have an easier time reaching your Level Three dreams.
Last May we launched our Maui Mastermind® Online membership community. And the launch was amazing. We filled our 250 trial spaces in the pilot program in less than 45 days of launching and had to run to expand the capacity of the site to meet demand.
Around November of last year we started getting feedback from members. They loved the content and value, but we were overloading them with information. They wanted LESS information and an easier way of navigating through the site so that they could USE more of the information in their daily business and investing lives. (It simply hadn't occurred to us that less could be more...)
So we took that feedback and set about re-designing the site with the intention of re-launching it in late January or February. We spent weeks and weeks on this re-design. We agonized over just how to make the site engaging and immediately useful. We spent tens of thousands of dollars in development time and money.
And in the end we realized that we just didn't have the expertise to pull it off. Our money, our time, all down the drain.
I'll say that again--we didn't know how to do it... You see we're world class at distilling ideas on building businesses and creating wealth down into clear, simple systems, but we didn't have a clue about how to build an interactive online community that sparked people to really step up their game, connect with their peers, and translate the feeling and excitement of a live event (which we are world class at creating) to the online world.
And this brings me to my big business lesson...
When I look at what blinded me from seeing my own limitation in this situation... what goaded me into spending tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of staff hours into re-designing the online community, only to realize that it wasn't going to cut it and that I was back where I started from, was my own ego.
I let my own stubborn self refuse to believe that I couldn't "find a way to make it work." I applied brute force to a situation that really required something different. Here I was working harder and harder only to discover that I was digging the hole deeper and deeper! But I refused to see it. Why? Because I didn't want to see it! I didn't want to admit to myself, let alone to anyone else...like you... that I had failed... that I wasn't skilled or experienced or creative enough to pull it off. Have you ever done that? Refused to see what is plain before your eyes? What all your trusted advisors could instantly see but you just aren't able to?
The Day that Changed Everything...
And then one day in March, I was finally ready to listen. I guess it was the fact that I was exhausted (maybe being sleep deprived with two twin boys who were born in late January catalyzed that ) and finally open to see things more accurately.
At that time I was talking with my friend Thomas on the phone and telling him about my challenge with translating our live event feel to the online world. He listened patiently and then matter of factly said, "Oh, you need to talk with my friend Len. He and his business partner Jeff are the best at creating engaging and thriving online communities. That's all they do and they are world class at it."
And it was here that I had my big "AHA" moment--I don't have to be the expert at everything... I don't have to figure out a way to make it happen with brute force... That the fastest, easiest way to make something happen is to focus on your strengths and honestly admit what you aren't best in class at... and find a way to team up with other people who ARE best in class in the area you need help with. This is exactly what we did. Stephen and I immediately started talking with Len and Jeff about our situation. They asked very probing questions about the site, our clients, our vision, what we really wanted to accomplish, what mattered most to our clients, and the list went on and on. As they did this, from their very questions it became obvious that they knew their stuff.
Did you realize that you can tell someone's expertise more from the questions they ask than from the answers they share? The questions that Len and Jeff asked us made so many of our mistakes, mistakes we have spent tens of thousands of dollars doing, were clearly the wrong path to take.
Well I may be many things but shy about asking is not one of them... Once I realized how good Len and Jeff were in this specialty niche I straight up asked them, "What would it take for you to help us create our online community the way our clients really want it? To do it right this time?" I had finally reached the point where I knew I wanted to have someone else who was world class lead the project. Not only would this help us shorten the learning curve to practically nil, but it would be MUCH less expensive too, considering all the wasted of time and money that my "brute effort" approach cost.
What challenges are you trying to solve in your business or investing life that brute force isn't going to solve? Who can you turn to to tap into their expertise in that area to help you elegantly and effortlessly and oh-so-much-more-cost-effectively solve?
What Happened with Len and Jeff?
We did find a way to partner with them to redesign and run our new online community for us. This will allow Stephen and me to focus on what we do best--create cutting edge business and wealth educational systems to help take our clients to Level Three. We're the "content" side of the venture. And Len and Jeff will launch and run our brand new membership community for us as our partners in the venture--with a vested interest to make sure the community is engaging and thriving and world class. They are the "specialist" side of the venture.
This brings me to the final part of this letter to you today...
Would You Be Willing to Help?
To help us with the final adjustments to our launch, would you be willing to share about yourself with Len and Jeff? This way they'll be able tailor the site and fine tune it to your exact needs as much as possible.
Len and Jeff have already spent hours and hours learning about the Maui community, what makes it special and unique, and your input on the short survey below would really be a gift to Stephen and I.
In advance, as a way of thanking you for taking 3-5 minutes to share your thoughts with us, in a few days I'll have a special gift that I'll be emailing to you--a 20 minute audio program on how to tap into the two greatest forces to help you realize your business and investment dreams. Until then thank you, and I hope my sharing how I let my ego blind me for close to 4 months cost me over $50,000 and about half a year of time. Maybe in some small way my experience will give you permission to admit where you need outside help from a trusted expert to take your business or investing to the next level.
My very best to you,
David Finkel CEO Maui Mastermind
