2 jan 2019 – the reality of firing ⏏️ myself – the work begins 💪🏻…

Tuesday January 2nd 2019. Exactly one week since I knew I would have to fire myself… And so the Big Secret Mission begins.

It was clear right away I would have to work on the businesses like never before instead of in the business if this really was going to happen. In order for the business to reach the next level and continue its growth, a number of things would need to take place. All of which were no revolution or rocket science. But they would take time, effort, patience and consistency. And so the work begins 💪🏻👊🏼🧘🏼‍♂️🚀.

I made a plan as I so often do. It turned out more to be a list. From the start I knew this list would only grow longer as time passed by. So I gave myself a deadline. January 2021. I gave myself exactly 24 months to prepare the company for further growth and scaling. Enough time to not rush things and have some room for unexpected events (eg. a global pandemic etc…😎) but short enough to know I could not waste any time either.

Here are some of the things that were on the list…

• Mission and Vision: build a tribal community around our Vision and Mission of #makewowthestandard. Both internal and external.
• People: double down on autonomy, teamwork, high energy, commitment, trust
• Processes: all processes defined and constantly reviewed by the teams in charge (called “formulas of success” because we avoid strict rules and processes)
• Resources: invest in talent, relationships, knowledge, stock, VIPLounges (as we call our experience centres), PartnerZone (as we call the digital workspace with our partners)
• Business Model: document each piece of our proven business model and share it with everyone on the team so there is a collective understanding.
• Culture: grow and strengthen our culture of relentlessly simplifying the complex, growing high performance teams and continuous improvement. (more on this here)
• Investments: invest in strategic initiatives that would place the company in a unique and strong position for when I fired myself.

During the following 24 months all my tasks, opportunities, problems to be solved would go through my simple filter…

1. Is this something related to working on or in the business?
2. Who is/are the people on the team that can think this through with me and make decisions?
3. Is this a BIG/medium/_small opportunity or challenge?
4. What are the steps needed to get this done before jan 2021?

And as time progressed, so did all of us in the businesses. Chipping away every day, every week, month. Making progress. Some days more than others. But always moving forward.

And yes shit happened. Good shit and bad shit. But the good shit prevailed every single time. Some say we are lucky…🍀. Certainly felt that way.

Opportunities seemed to multiply and increase in size the more I worked on the business, most people grew a lot while some fell behind (and left), problems became “interesting challenges” and disasters did not seem to exist, a pandemic hit and everyone switched modes and gears as it were a giant speed bump, we invested more than ever in things that will bring long-term customer happiness, success and growth …

24 months of crafting our business machine. 2 years of training and growing the team. What a ride. 🤙🏼

I had built several businesses before. Some of them failed, some of them did OK. Some simple, some more complex. But never did I have such a high level of internal motivation and drive while learning so much.

As we approached the end of 2020 – that “special year” as some call it – I found myself by the Christmas tree 🎄 again. Scoring my performance. This time satisfied with “personal development” and “leaving the comfort zone“.

“Now this is how I want to spend my time and energy” I told myself. “I´ll never work or live on autopilot ever again…“

Soon it would be time to fire ⏏️ myself…

Note: This is part II of a series of V stories this week on my entrepreneurial journey of the last 2 years.

Episode I (previous) – here.
Episode III (next) – here.