The 3 Languages of Business
The Amplified Impact Podcast
January 21st, 2023
Today, we’re talking about the hidden languages of business.
Imagine it like navigating a foreign land.
The first crucial language is accounting. Learn to read those financial statements and protect yourself.
Next up, psychology. Understand what drives people…your employees and customers. Dive into books like “Influence” and “Thinking, Fast and Slow” for insights.
Lastly, systems and processes. They’re your growth backbone. Check out “The Goal” and “High Output Management” for the scoop.
I won’t spill all the secrets here, so tune in for the full rundown.
TWEETABLE QUOTE:
“How successful you are in business depends on your ability to speak the three fundamental languages: accounting, psychology, and systems.”
– Anthony Vicino
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Episode Transcript:
Alright, what’s up guys? Welcome back to the podcast. I was thinking today about what are the languages of business like? If you can, if you thought about businesses like visiting a foreign country, a different culture, a different world that has its own nuanced language and lingo, and in a lot of ways it does, then what would those languages be? What are the, like, the fundamental languages you need to be fluent in so that you can talk to the natives and, and thrive. And I think it’s very tempting when you start your first business or as you’re scaling that, we always hear you need to delegate and it’s who, not how, right? And I think this can lead to the misperception that you need to just delegate and hire out every single role. And in the beginning I think that’s actually a really bad idea. I think you have to wait to delegate and outsource things until you can speak enough of the language to realize you’re not being taken advantage of. And so you can’t just go and rely on a translator. If you want to be wildly successful in your business, you need to learn the language at least at a passable level so that you can tell when you’re being bamboozled. And so there’s three languages I’ve determined that you need to learn how to speak if you want to be successful in business.
They are. Well, I’m not going to tell you them all. That’s going to keep you hooked for a little bit longer. Let’s take it from the top. Number one. The number one skill that you have to learn the number one language, rather, is accounting. You have to learn the numbers. You cannot trust your accountants, your bookkeepers, they will lie to you even if they’re great, beautiful people.
Okay, they might not do that, but you have to understand the numbers. If you can’t speak the numbers, you are going to be in for a world of hurt. And I get it. If you’re not like analytically minded, don’t love spreadsheets, don’t love numbers, then this is like pulling teeth. But you have to speak this because this is maybe the most important language of business. Everything depends on the numbers. Now, to learn the accounting, you don’t need to go get your master’s degree or anything like that, but you do need to brush up on it. And there’s a couple of books.
Accounting made simple is one of those. I think finance made simple is another one of my favorites. On just the return metrics that you’re going to encounter very frequently within your business is I think it’s called 21 metrics. Every real estate investor needs to know. Those are great. There’s a great YouTube channel. I can’t remember what it’s called. Off the top of my head, I think it’s called accounting stuff.
But you need to go and take a course, at minimum, on how to speak the language. You need to understand the PNL, the balance sheet. You have to be able to read a cash flow statement. If you can’t do that stuff, then you are so vulnerable, I can’t even express it. And I say this from personal experience. I’m telling you, do as I say, not as I do, because I did not speak the language as well as I needed to in my first couple of businesses, and it cost me more than it should have. Okay? I had to pay the tuition as the school of hard knocks, and that was more expensive than just paying for the course, paying for the content. There is a great course that Keith Cunningham puts on, I think.
I can’t remember what it’s called. Maybe the keys to the vault or the weekend MBA, something like that. And that is a great $4,000 investment that will teach you everything that you need to know. I recommend going and starting with that. For those that don’t know, Keith Cunningham was the guy that Robert Kiyosaki based his book rich dad, poor dad off of. So not a bad guy to go learn from. All right. The second language of business that you have to learn is the language of psychology.
Businesses exist to transact with other humans. There’s no other human, there’s no business. Right. So, fundamentally, everything that you do in your business is in the service of another human being, every single one. The better that you understand what motivates and drives humans and human behavior, the more you’re going to be able to understand your employees, understand your customers, be able to service and deliver an amazing experience for both of those. Right? Everything in life. God, man, everything worth having in life really boils down to the relationships we have with other people. And so learning psychology, learning our cognitive biases, learning mental frameworks, learning some of the big drivers of neurochemistry, what drives human physiology, I think those are really helpful things that will serve you very, very well in your attempt to sell more of your product or at least make a positive impact on the world.
Psychology has been the thing that has served me the best, bar none of all the things that I’ve ever learned. So I highly recommend you spend the time diving deep into that in particular. Now, in terms of books, there’s all sorts of books on psychology, to be completely frank with you. But I think the one that I would recommend starting with is influence by Robert Chialdini. This book is about persuasion and influence, but in it he talks about the six weapons of influence, of persuasion and understanding. Those six concepts is actually very universal and applicable to the human conundrum. And so I would start with that book. Another really good book is thinking fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman.
Some of the concepts in that book are a little outdated and have know hard to verify with peer reviewed studies. But the general direction of it is very, very helpful, especially when he’s talking about cognitive biases. So go check that book out. The third language of business is the language of systems and processes. You will never outgrow your systems. You just won’t. Your systems will break and then you will be stuck at whatever level that those systems are at. You need to learn the theory of constraints and how to build systems that multiple people can operate so that you are not the genius with 1000 arms, but instead you have 1000 geniuses who are able to run the machine.
That’s what you’re aiming for. If you don’t work on the business of the systems, then you are always going to be the constraint. So my favorite book for learning about theory of constraint and how to build systems, well, there’s two actually. The number one is the goal by Eliyahu Goldrat. Highly recommended. It’s kind of an underground cult classic within the world of manufacturing, so not a lot of people know about it. I feel like outside of that world, but it’s incredibly valuable. The other book is, oh God, it was just on the top of my head and I didn’t write it down.
And now my ADHD is hitting me hard. Oh, here it is. Sometimes got to talk it through. Ben Horowitz, the hard thing about hard things is that the book that I’m thinking? No, I’m thinking of high output management. I’m sorry, completely different book. Both books are really good. High output management. I can’t remember the guy that wrote it, but Andy Grove, man, my ADHD is kicking hard right now.
All right, let’s take this from the top. Now, the second book about systems that’s going to serve you really well is by Andy Grove, former CEO of IBM. And it’s called high output. Know, sometimes we struggle bus, but we get through. That’s a very good book on systems as well. So those are the three languages of business. I feel that you have to learn how to speak if you want to be successful in this game. So go out there, learn your accounting, learn your psychology, learn your systems.
You’re going to be doing okay if you can do that. So that’s going to do it for me, guys and gals. We’ll catch you in the next episode. Until then, stay hyper focused, my friends.
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