GarthBox

If you want to make an idea work, there are two critical connections you need to be making.

The first is connecting with as many people who have executed the idea or something close to your idea.

If you want to open a restaurant, talk to the top 100 restaurants in your country. If you want to open an Airbnb, talk to 100 owners of one. If you want to make and sell your jewelry, open a landscaping business, become a barber, write a book… you know what to do. You’ll be amazed at how many want to help you succeed.

The second is connecting with as many people who you think will pay, sign up, pre-order your idea.

If you want people to come to your restaurant, start talking to them now about it. If you want people to stay at your Airbnb, start talking to travelers and interacting with couch surfers. If you want to make and sell your jewelry, go to markets and fairs and connect. You get the idea.

Two types of connections. Time-consuming, yes, but simple.

Stay Positive & Nice To Meet You

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There is no meaningful progress without discomfort.

There’s no connecting more strongly with a target or offering up something that people will actually tell others about without you feeling uncomfortable in connecting or offering.

This isn’t simply an observation, it’s the law. Same as gravity.

The difference, however, is that discomfort is temporary, at least the discomfort you’re feeling now. It’s a bittersweet law – the moment we feel comfortable in one area, we’re uncomfortable in another.

But the fact is progress is being made, change is being made, impact is being made. And that’s worth all the discomfort in the world, isn’t it?

Stay Positive & It Never Get’s Easier, But It’s Always Worth It

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Most deserve to have some slack cut for them. They’re doing their best, trying their hardest and overwhelmed with life just the same as anyone else.

So, a little slack along with trust can go a long way to helping them feel happy, establish a connection and focus without guilt or shame.

But slack, without direction, without tension or leadership is dangerous.

It’s like letting go of the rope of a rock climber entirely – it makes the work more scary, the risk greater and actually proves that people will do less than what they were doing before because of it.

Loosen the reins, but understand they are still reins.

They need your freedom and trust as much as they need your leadership.

Stay Positive & Send The Signal That You’re A Leader

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Our story is not what we say to others or what our “about us” description reads.

It’s not even what others say about us, either.

It’s not the store hours or the neon lights.

It’s not the reviews or what’s written in the ads we run.

Our story is all the things we do. The names we remember, the cleanliness, the events we hold, the promises we make and stand by.

It’s the way we greet someone and the way we turn others down.

It’s what we do that’s worth a review and who we make ads for.

Our story is all the things we do.

And what makes the story stronger is when we do them consistently.

No short cuts. No days skipped. No broken promises.

Stay Positive & That’s Story

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Your chances are slim of doing it right the first time.

It’s a perfectionist mind-set and one of hiding.

The truth is that even if you feel like it was right, it could still have been better, more right.

What matters is that we do the first time and then a second and a third.

Each time we make it more right.

It might never be perfect, but at least we didn’t let that stop us from 1. starting and 2. adapting.

Stay Positive & Focus On Better

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Where there’s an absence of vulnerability, there is no courage.

If there’s no risk, there is no courage.

If there’s no emotional investment (read: emotional labor), there is no courage.

Yet, we all believe that we need to have courage in this life. We want to be courageous. We admire it and value it. We urge others to have it and they urge us.

And so we must make the trade-off that comes with being courageous, don’t we?

Stay Positive & A Little Discomfort, But A Big Reward

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If you feel fear, then you’re on to something.

If you feel like …

you’re asking too many questions

you’re caring too much

you’re getting too many involved

you’re leading without permission

you’ve taken too much responsibility

you’ve bitten off more than you can chew

then you’re on to something.

Stay Positive & Keep Going

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