Jon Taffer, the host of Bar Rescue and serial entrepreneur, has discovered the common denominator for failure. After listening to a recent interview, here are some great takeaways:
- Excuses are the common denominator of all failure. They are the rationalization of failure. If you blame anything else other than yourself, then you have no reason to make positive change. If you can remove the excuses from your life, you can remove their paralyzing effects. The most common excuses are: Fear of failure, lack of knowledge, not the right circumstances, potential consequences, don’t have time. Regarding the last excuse, the same people that say they don’t have time typically spend over an hour a day on social media.
- Select team members that have the attributes that you can’t train. A great personality, a good attitude, and warm smile. If you select people with the right traits, you can teach them anything, and within a few weeks, you have Rockstar.
- Mickey Mantle said, “If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.” Live life with an extreme sense of urgency. Push yourself and others to go farther faster. Move the ball forward every day.
- Life is too short to be political. People want to know the truth. If we keep going down the road of political correctness we will lose connectivity with others, and we will find ourselves staring at a screen all day long.
When Jon moves in to rescue a failing bar, he has 4 days to turn it around. He has to quickly cut through the excuses and help the business help itself. Unless that business is able to look in the mirror, confront the reality of their situation and make the necessary changes, they will fail. The same goes for all of us. Acknowledge and remove the excuses that are holding you back, and free yourself from their paralyzing effects forever.