Greg Todd [00:00:00]:
You know, I'm watching, like, I love the gymnastics, I love the swimming, I love the track. I think I love them all. I love them all because, you know, even though fencing might not be my thing or synchronized swimming might not be my thing, I love the fact that people are willing to dedicate their life for not just four years. Let's not get it twisted for basically nearly their entire existence, for them to develop mastery at a craft. Like, I love it. I think it's just the most fascinating thing because when you attempt to achieve mastery, that's when so many things potentially can open up for you. This is secrets for success. Welcome to the Secrets for success podcast.
Greg Todd [00:00:56]:
I'm your host, Greg Todd. Thank you, as always, for joining me. If you're like me, I am fascinated. Every four years when the Olympics comes around, and this is no different, I am loving it. I'm loving what the Olympics stands for. I'm loving the passion, the commitment and risk. And that's what I want to talk about on today's podcast. Because I'm assuming if you're listening to this, you're watching a podcast, you are maybe trying to decide if you should be an entrepreneur.
Greg Todd [00:01:28]:
Maybe you're considering if you should continue to be an entrepreneur. And, you know, I would just say this, you know, do you have an olympian mindset? Because that's really what it takes. You know, I'm watching, like, I love the gymnastics. I love the swimming, I love the track. I think I love them all. I love them all because, you know, even though fencing might not be my thing or synchronized swimming might not be my thing, I love the fact that people are willing to dedicate their life for not just four years. Let's not get it twisted for basically nearly their entire existence, for them to develop mastery at a craft. Like, I love it.
Greg Todd [00:02:13]:
I think it's just the most fascinating thing because when you attempt to achieve mastery, that's when so many things potentially can open up for you. Okay? And that's what you see at the Olympics. You don't see people that are kind of good. You see people that are the best. You see the fastest man, the fastest woman, the person who can jump the highest, the best boxer. We won't get started on that today. Okay? But you see the people that are at the highest of the craft, and it's multiple people that are like, hey, listen, here's what I'm willing to do. I'm willing to sacrifice and commit my whole life to becoming masterful at this one thing so that I can compete against people that are also committing their entire existence, become masterful at this one thing, and we're going to compete, and only one of us is going to be crowned the best, okay? Only one will get the gold.
Greg Todd [00:03:16]:
I absolutely love that. I think it's fantastic, because here's the reality. As I don't know how many participants there are in the Olympics, I don't know how many Olympians there are from all the countries, but let's just say it's a couple thousand. All right, here's the reality. The reality is that probably, what, 90% of them are not going to go home with a gold medal, maybe even more. I mean, I don't know what the percentage is, but I'm just thinking it's like nine out of ten can commit their entire life to this one thing, this one main thing. They're eating, they're training, they're sleeping. Like, everything to be at the best, and nine out of ten of them will not win.
Greg Todd [00:03:56]:
Isn't that entrepreneurship? I mean. I mean, isn't that it? Like, you can't win at this if you haven't committed to being the best. And just because you commit to being the best for a year, two years, three years, four years, there is no guarantee that you're going to win. It is the ultimate risk. It is absolutely amazing. And that's why I love the Olympics, because literally, in a matter of 10 seconds, everything you've worked for could be over. I watched the hundred meter final with the men, and, you know, I'm obviously living in America. I was born in Jamaica, and so I had two guys that I wanted to see win.
Greg Todd [00:04:44]:
And I gotta be honest, I kind of more wanted the jamaican guy to win, right. Than the american guy. Kishane Thompson was a jamaican guy, and the american guy was Noah Lyles. Right. And so can you imagine that the race was won by 0.5 seconds? So five thousandths, I think, or something like that. Or five hundredths of a second. It was so close. They had to go to technology to see who actually won.
Greg Todd [00:05:18]:
So just imagine the jamaican guy, Kishane, who did not win. The guy no allows one. And just imagine he trained just as hard, trained for all those years and lost by zero. Zero. Five of a second. Isn't that crazy? That's entrepreneurship. That's what it is to be the best. It's by millimeters.
Greg Todd [00:05:45]:
That's what it is to be the best. And you know what? I want to focus more, not on the people that win gold. I want to focus on the ones that win silver. Or, you know what? Better yet, let's focus on the ones that win bronze only. You know what? Even better yet, let's focus on the ones that don't win anything and still spent the majority of their existence attempting to be the best at this one thing. Guys, if you aren't willing to do that, then I don't think entrepreneurship is for you. Like, I don't think it's for you, because I think what is happening is this. You know, I look at.
Greg Todd [00:06:27]:
I've been an entrepreneur now for 19 years, okay, going on 20 years this year, and I believe that at least my journey is. I didn't want to be an entrepreneur. Like, I really just wanted to work for somebody. I wanted to work in healthcare. I wanted a really good job. I wanted to be able to go home at 05:00, 06:00 I'm every day. But I wanted to grow right. And so I feel, like many of you, I didn't want to do entrepreneurship, but I also didn't want to be stagnant.
Greg Todd [00:06:57]:
And I started to hate my profession. And I realized that, at least in my case, that the only way I was going to be able to offset that, get the time, get the potential money, get the ability to be able to grow and not feel stagnant, is if I became an entrepreneur. But I really didn't want to do this, okay? And I think that's many of you. But what I have come to understand is that in order for me to be great at entrepreneurship, I'm going to have to adopt an olympian mindset. And that is not how I was trained and conditioned and indoctrinated when I was in school. I want it to be a guarantee. I wanted guaranteed money. I wanted guaranteed pay.
Greg Todd [00:07:47]:
I wanted guarantee hours, I wanted guaranteed benefits, I wanted guaranteed bonuses. I wanted everything guaranteed. And in entrepreneurship, it's not. You can bus your azz, still lose. You can bust your azz and not even get to the starting line. There was this jamaican track athlete. Her name is Shellyanne Fraser Price. She's actually won two goals in prior olympics.
Greg Todd [00:08:18]:
Would you believe that on the day of the semifinals, the gate that she was supposed to go into was now closed off, and they changed it. So she had to. She's 37 years old, right, so she's older. But she was a. It was highly probable that she was gonna at least medal at the Olympics. Well, she had to walk 1 hour to get to the warm up area. 1 hour just because they wouldn't let her in the regular gate. And because of that, she wasn't able to get there on time, and she ended up having to withdraw.
Greg Todd [00:08:51]:
Can you imagine four years of your life for the age of 33 to 37 to sacrifice? She has a kid, she has a husband. All that at this point in her life just to not make the semifinal race and have a DNS that did not show you guys, that's what it is. And we want guarantee, and there's no guarantees in this. But what I can tell you is this, if you do get the gold, if it does work out, if you find the audience that you want to serve and they want what you have, like, your life has changed forever. Simone Bao's life has changed forever. Usain Bolt's life has changed forever. Katie Ledecky's life has changed forever. Like, for forever.
Greg Todd [00:09:38]:
Like, they're cemented with endorsements, with their legacy forever. But they're willing to take that risk that zero, zero, 1% of people aren't willing to take and .001% of people will never be able to achieve. But are you willing to do it? I've just decided that I am. And this episode probably scared a lot of you off, and that's fine. But for those of you that are like, you know what? I am an Olympian. I have the olympian mindset, I want to tell you. I just want to remind you, keep on training, keep on pushing, keep on going for it. Keep going for the.
Greg Todd [00:10:21]:
No. Keep on optimizing your offer. Keep on making yourself better. Keep on serving. Keep on serving, keep on serving. And eventually, you'll have a high probability that at some point, it'll go your way. So, anyways, I hope this episode helps you. I hope it serves you, and I hope you win gold in whatever area that is in your life.
Greg Todd [00:10:44]:
Until next time. That was easy.
