This is the Problem With Most Business Advice
The Amplified Impact Podcast
January 23rd, 2023
So, I was mall-walking with a fellow entrepreneur, and we dived into the world of business books.
Funny thing, I don’t read many these days. Why? Well, I realized most books cover the same core concepts, just in different packaging.
And then it hit me…I’ve become more of a content creator, sharing what I’ve learned.
Looking back at my business journey, I’ve noticed a pattern.
When I talk about past successes or frameworks, it sounds all neat and intentional. Truth is, in the moment, it was messy, unclear, and far from perfect.
So, a heads-up: if you’re knee-deep in business challenges, it’s okay not to have it all figured out. Nobody does.
Entrepreneurship is a journey filled with trial and error, and sometimes, the path isn’t clear until you’re looking back.
TWEETABLE QUOTE:
“Entrepreneurship is like groping around in the dark by the pale moonlight.”
– Anthony Vicino
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Episode Transcript:
So I was walking around the mall of America with a buddy the other day because, why the mall of America? Because it’s really, really cold outside, and I don’t want to be shivering while going for a two hour walk. A walk and talk. So we go to the mall of America, we just run laps around that bad boy. And this guy is another successful entrepreneur, runs a real estate operation here in the Twin Cities. Very, very awesome dude. And we got on the conversation of business books, and he was asking me, he’s like, so what business books have you been reading recently? And I’m like, you know what? Honestly, I don’t read a lot of business books anymore. I read a lot of biographies, especially biographies of other business people, because I like to learn about their lives and what they’re going through and the struggles that they had. And he’s like, oh, that’s interesting.
I read a lot of business books. And the truth is, I used to read a lot of business books. But as I was reflecting on it in that moment, when he asked me, he’s like, why don’t you read business books anymore? Two things, two ideas came to mind that I wanted to share with you, two revelations. The first is that a lot of business books, there’s really ten to 15 core, unique concepts within the world of business. And once you’ve learned those or read about them in one book, you’ll notice that a lot of books are just kind of rehashing the same thing. That’s not to say they’re not good books and that you shouldn’t read them, because I think sometimes you need to consume the information in multiple ways and hear it in multiple tones and voices before it gets through and it really lands. And sometimes it’s just about hearing the right message at the right moment. So that’s all good.
I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing that we have a lot of books out there saying more or less the same thing. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. But where I’m at on my journey, I don’t need that anymore. That’s not the thing that’s holding me back. But the other thing that I was reflecting on as I’ve been more of a content creator in the last year and focusing on sharing the lessons that I’ve learned. And it’s so cool because a lot of times, to be honest, I don’t know what I think on a topic or how I did a thing until I try to teach it. And it’s through the teaching that I start to piece together the puzzle pieces and saying, like, oh, this is what I was thinking. This is why I did that, even though I hadn’t necessarily consciously articulated it to myself.
And I think that’s how we move through life. And what I’ve realized is that I am guilty of this, of looking backwards through the rear view mirror at what I’ve done in business and what’s worked and what hasn’t worked, and then kind of distilling it down to a simple mnemonic or a simple framework that you could take and start applying. And I think that’s helpful because it’s a mental model that we’re trying to create, pattern recognition that we can overlay onto new opportunities. That’s really the goal of collecting these different frameworks and models from different people like myself. But I think you got to be careful because it probably wasn’t that clear and cut and dry at the time. When I talk about like, oh, we use this system, this process, at the time when I was living through it, in the moment, trying to solve the problem, I assure you it didn’t look nearly so neat and so pretty and so intentional. It really didn’t. A lot of it was just kind of floundering mindlessly in the dark.
And now, with the gift of hindsight, I can look back and see some of the connecting tissue and say, this is what was happening, or at least this is my best guess of what was happening. And so I’m connecting the dots in hindsight. And yet, in the moment, it was not so clear. And I share that for a couple of reasons. Number one is that when you’re in the heat of the moment, it feels very horrible when you’re trying to figure out hard, tough problems in your business, and you’re like, I don’t know what to do. And so when you hear other people just kind of distilling their successes down to simple talking points, it can make you feel like, God damn, what am I doing wrong? And trust me, it was never so easy and so clean for them either. They’re just, through the gift of hindsight, able to distill it now. And the other side of it, too, is that they’re just making their best guess at this point about what worked and what didn’t.
Now they might be taking those same frameworks and building multiple businesses. I think that’s why listening to serial entrepreneurs, people who have done the thing in multiple domains, that’s very helpful, because they’re not getting lucky multiple times. Probably there might be a method to the madness. But even within that, the frameworks, it’s probably, what would you call it? Maybe the idealized version of history or kind of like revisionist history, re remembering the events of what happened and how you did a thing to kind of paint a prettier picture than maybe what was actually happening. So I share that all because I found this to be true with a lot of books. This has been very, made very abundantly clear to me from the book good to great by Jim Collins, which is considered one of the best business books out there. And I used to love it, too. And there’s two concepts actually in there that I still refer back to quite frequently.
The idea of bullets, not cannonballs, and the hedgehog principle. But the problem with even a book like good to grape is that the companies that Jim Collins was citing in that book, which were companies that went from good to perennial greats and classics that will stand the test of time, that’s the theory of the book, of the businesses that he’s studying inside that book, a lot of them have failed, so you couldn’t have seen that coming. And so when he’s sitting there and outlining, oh, the brands that are the most successful did this, this and this and this, it’s almost like you’re painting a narrative and then making it fit. That’s a really weird analogy. Right? But we’re making the situation fit to the narrative that we already have. And I think that can be both good in some ways, but it can also be dangerous because it can lead you down paths where you think this is the right way, but you don’t even realize you’re on the wrong path. And because you’re so committed to the framework, the map that you’ve been given, you think it’s right, you won’t sway from it. You won’t deter and maybe think, oh, maybe I should pivot and rethink my approach here.
And I just share that, because if anything, entrepreneurship is like groping around in the dark by the pale moonlight. And so I don’t want you to feel like you’re doing it wrong, per se, because you’re probably not. Nobody’s really doing it right. Which is the subject of the next podcast I’m going to do, is that there is no right way. So when you’re ready, take a listen. That one. But that’s going to do it for me. Guys and gals, I appreciate you being here, as always.
Thank you so much. I’ll catch you around these parts tomorrow, but until then, stay hyper focused. My friend. Bye.
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