From the archive: This episode was originally recorded and published in 2019. Our interviews on Entrepreneurs On Fire are meant to be evergreen, and we do our best to confirm that all offers and URL’s in these archive episodes are still relevant.
Frankie Lane went from sleeping in his car three years ago, to owning an 20 million dollar business. Now he shares his story to inspire others to become entrepreneurs.
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3 Value Bombs
1) Most have people in their lives or in their business because they have a need for them. But when you start to realize who they are and what they’re about, that’s when they’ll start to put in the extra effort – they’ll fight for you.
2) Time doesn’t ask permission. It doesn’t ask to see if it’s ok to stop or to start. It just does what it always does: it keeps on ticking.
3) It’s not just you – we all commit these sins. It’s about cutting them out – getting rid of them as quickly as possible.
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Show Notes
**Click the time stamp to jump directly to that point in the episode.
Today’s Audio MASTERCLASS: The 10 Sins of Success
[00:51] – Frankie shares something interesting about himself that most people don’t know.
- Three years ago he was sleeping in his car on the interstate bypass, which lasted for almost 7 months. This experience transformed his mindset.
[03:05] – Frankie talks about selfishness and greed
- A sin is something that any person pursuing success commits and makes.
- At the end of the day, it takes a lot more than your talent and self-serving mindset to see the long-term success and to have the longevity you really want.
- Start looking at the bigger picture, which requires a lot more than just yourself.
- If you only feed yourself, people are not going to do business with you, nor partner with you. You’re going to find yourself coming up short in finding success.
- You can live in a mindset of abundance where you’re sharing the love.
[05:24] – You believe laziness is a sin of success – can you talk a bit about that?
- Laziness equates to the force of average.
- Some people have a lazy mindset. Some people show up to work and give a subpar effort and then wonder why they’re not getting the promotion, or wonder why the business is not taking off.
- If you can’t get ahold of the laziness that’s in you – that you might tap into more than you like – then success is going to be hard to find. You need to deal with and overcome the lazy part of who you are. If you do, you will find success.
[08:48] – What does Frankie have to say about disrespecting time as a sin of success?
- You don’t know how much time you have, so you really have to respect time.
- Time doesn’t ask permission. It doesn’t ask to see if it’s ok to stop or to start. It just does what it always does: it keeps on ticking.
- If you disrespect time, you just might run out of it.
- If you want your day to count, you’ve got to plan it out.
[13:27] – How is a lack of vision a sin of success?
- Vision is about having something that’s so clear you can write it down and others can run with it.
- Where there’s no clarity, you cannot dominate.
- Those that are focused are going to win.
[15:48] – What’s your perspective on devaluing people as a sin of success?
- Most have people in their lives or in their business just because they have a need for them. But when you start to realize who they are, that’s when they dig deep and fight for you.
- You’ve got to value people no matter what you’re doing.
[18:28] – A timeout to thank our sponsors, HubSpot and Ferret!
[19:27] – Self-doubt as a sin of success – talk about that…
- The greatest battle you’re going to fight is between your two ears.
- Quitters are always reminding you of self-doubt.
- The quitter in you is always going to be there, but at least make it pay rent. Make it pay rent by doing the opposite of what it’s telling you to do.
[21:42] – How is a lack of resourcefulness a sin of success?
- Instead of looking at what you don’t have, think about the things that you do have.
- Most people, when they don’t have the resources they need to launch, or to start, or to get things going, they end up quitting.
[24:46] – A lot of people are struggling with not being strategic. How is that a sin of success?
- Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Don’t just do things just because you can. Do things strategically. Make sure they’re in line with your mission and vision.
- When you say yes to something, you’re saying no to everything else you could be doing during that time.
[27:36] – Why is unwillingness to adapt a sin of success?
- You should be flexible. You should be able to adapt. If the approach is not working, that’s a sign you need to change something.
- Many people try things that have always worked, and then when it stops working, they just start complaining instead of changing.
[29:53] – Not being coachable as a sin of success – is this true?
- If you’re not growing, then you are dying.
- Big earners are big learners.
[33:41] – Frankie’s parting piece of guidance
- Frankie’s LinkedIn – Check out what Frankie’s LinkedIn
- All these sins go hand-in-hand. If you have a true desire to take your life or your business to the next level, you’re going to have to be open to these ideas.
- It’s not just you – we all commit these sins. When you’re attempting to be successful, you’re going to commit these sins. It’s about cutting them out – getting rid of them as quickly as possible.
Transcript
JLD: What’s shaking, Fire Nation? JLD here, with an audio master class that I truly believe will help you on your journey towards success, and in success, because this is the 10 sins of success, and I have brought Frankie Lane to talk about this, because Frankie went from sleeping in his car three years ago to owning a 20 million dollar business. And now he shares his story to inspire others to become entrepreneurs. And we’re gonna dive into the 10 sins of success with Frankie when we get back from thanking our sponsor. So Frankie, say what’s up to Fire Nation, and share something interesting about yourself that most people don’t know.
Frankie: Well, I wanna say thank you and I appreciate, John, having me on. And Fire Nation, man, appreciate – you know, listen to a lot of you guys as podcasts, and always excited to be a part of something that is growing, and people are always tuning in to. So, what’s going on, man? That’s – it’s been great. So, just wanna to give you guys a little bit of back story. Not even three years ago, I was sleeping in my car on the interstate bypass, and I was in that situation for an extended period of time. Almost seven months, and had, what I would call, a transformation of mindset, and started going to work, and now I sit and I get to say I’m blessed with a multi-million dollar company in the solar industry.
I’m just starting to open up my own restaurant, and have a couple different businesses that we’ve now launched. And super excited about the things that I’ve been blessed to be able to do and achieve with some great people along the way. So, not long ago, I was definitely in some of the darkest, hardest times of my life, and just decided to make a change, and some of the things that I learned along the way, I’d love to share with you guys.
JLD: Well, we are gonna dive into that, because Fire Nation, as I shared in the intro, today’s audio master class is about the 10 sins of success. And I’m gonna go ahead and just share with you what those 10 sins are, Fire Nation, then we’ll go through, myself and Frankie, and expound upon each one. So, selfishness and greed is one of those 10 sins. Laziness, disrespecting time, lack of vision, devaluing people, self-doubt, lack of resourcefulness, not being strategic, unwillingness to adapt, and not being coachable pulls in at number 10 there. So, Frankie, I love these 10 sins of success.
Let’s now go through each one and share a little more in depth with Fire Nation why each one of these is a sin. So, selfishness and greed, take it away.
Frankie: Yeah, I consider a sin something that every person who’s perusing success commits and makes, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the end of the world, or that success is not in your future. It just means that you need to really correct it before it festers and grows. So, the first one out of the gate is selfishness and greed. I can tell you, I’ve had some success in my life, and a lot of people have experienced some success because of their talent level, their skill level, their experience, some of the things that they are able to be blessed with.
But when you’re selfish and greedy, and you look at yourself, you’re really sinning, and you’re not gonna be successful because at the end of the day, it takes a lot more than just your own talent and self-serving mind set to see success to the extent, long term, and have the longevity that you really want when it comes to success. So, If you don’t correct that and you don’t start looking for the bigger picture, which requires a lot more than just yourself and what you can do when it comes to just being prideful. You gotta share the love. I say that all the time. You gotta share the love, share the wealth.
Everybody’s gotta eat, and so if you only feed yourself, people are not gonna really wanna do business with you. They’re not gonna wanna partner with you, and therefore you’re gonna find yourself really coming short of finding success.
JLD: Fire Nation, share the love. Something that I love talking about quite often is the opportunity of two worlds for you to live in. You have the opportunity to live in a world of scarcity, where you think you need to hoard everything, where if somebody gets a bigger piece of the pie that means a smaller piece of the pie for you. That’s a sad world to live in, but a lot of people live in that world. Alternatively, you could live in a mind set of abundance, a world of abundance, where you’re sharing the love. Where you realize that hey, when somebody takes a bigger piece of the pie, that means the pie’s gonna expand and grow, it’s gonna be a bigger piece for every single person.
So, that is the mind set that we, as entrepreneurs, we as small business owners, large business owners, just as human beings need to adopt. Share that love, as Frankie would say, go for abundance, as I would say. Because why would you wanna choose the alternative? Now, let’s, Frankie, delve into laziness. What are your thoughts on laziness as being a sin of success?
Frankie: I get told all the time, try to work smarter and not harder. I kinda disagree with that, because at the end of the day you definitely wanna work smarter, but you also wanna work harder. And I think laziness really equates to the force of average. Sub-par effort, trying to find shortcuts, and you haven’t earned the short cuts. You think you know enough not to go at it the real successful way. And so, then you end up being lazy. Some people have a lazy mind set. Some people might show up to work, but yet they give a sub-par effort, and then wonder why they’re not getting the promotion, or wonder why the business is not taking off, or even in relationships.
If you have a mentality of laziness, people are gonna find you out. It’s gonna come up to the surface. And really, the laziness that I’m talking about is that quitter that everyone has inside of them that they have to really battle and overcome. So, the quitter that people need to deal with is a part of that laziness. And so, if you don’t get a hold of that laziness that’s in you that you might tap into more than you like, that success is gonna be hard to find. And so, you really, definitely need to overcome and do away with the lazy part of who you are. And if you do, you will find success.
JLD: Fire Nation, we always have this desire to go down the path of least resistance, because it’s just the least resistance. Our brains, our bodies, we wanna avoid pain, we wanna avoid stress, fear, anxiety. We wanna avoid all these things, so a lot of times we’re puled towards that path of lease resistance. Just picture water. Water’s always drawn toward the path of least resistance. What’s downhill, is there an obstacle in the way? Well, water is just gonna hit that obstacle and try to go around it. That’s the path of least resistance. That’s another form of laziness. Because the path of least resistance, for me, would’ve been to wake up this morning, not ever roll out of bed.
Just grab my laptop, pop on Netflix, and just watch reality TV show after reality TV show, and just waste my day away. That’s the path of least resistance. And guess what? In a way, my mind and my body, and I desire to do that, but I’m never going to accomplish the things I wanna accomplish in this world if I embrace that path. So, look at that as a challenge to be overcome. Laziness is the easy path, we choose to avoid that easy path. We’re going to go down for what is, for many people, the road less traveled. And we’re going to fight laziness and focus on doing the things, every single day, that’s gonna take us one step closer to our goal.
Which, by the way Fire Nation, you should pat yourself on the back, because you’re doing that right now, because you pressed play on this podcast to listen to this information by somebody who was struggling and is now succeeding, Frankie Lane. And now you’re listening to that, and you’re studying that, and you’re learning from that. That is what you’re doing as you’re going toward your goals. Now, let’s talk about disrespecting time. My brother-in-law, Justin, he loves to say, which I completely agree with, John, all we have is time. And that is true. We have time, and once it’s gone, it’s gone. So, what do you have to say about disrespecting time as a sin of success, Frankie?
Frankie: Yeah, for a long time, I was wasting a lot of time. I spent a lot of my days and my weeks not doing productive things. And like your brother-in-law says, you have less. Less time. You’re gonna go through life, and you’re not gonna get more time, you’re gonna have less time. And one of the things that was really a wake up call for me, was at 55 years old, my dad passed away suddenly. We had plans to have a business together. We didn’t spend a lot of time growing up. I waited in the windows on the weekends trying to see if my dad was gonna show up and get me. And so, as I became an adult, we tried to build a relationship, and a part of my plan, and his plan, was to have a better relationship as we grew older.
Well, time didn’t take a vote, and didn’t ask for permission to take my dad, and that’s what happened. And so, I learned a really hard, hard lesson that you don’t know how much time you have, and so you need to really respect time. And I was, for the most part up until that, was disrespecting time. I wasn’t utilizing it, I wasn’t productive, I didn’t care about a calendar, I didn’t care about my days. And so, I was really disrespecting time. And it was a part of my sin of success, because then I wondered why I wasn’t successful. Because I wasn’t maximizing my days, my weeks, my months, and really achieving some things. And you gotta look at other people that are successful.
They’re the ones who are getting up early, and staying late. They’re in the office first, and they’re putting in the work. They respect time, and for those that are not really successful or finding themselves short of that, they’re the ones that are really not respecting time for what it is. Time doesn’t take a vote. Time doesn’t ask permission. It doesn’t ask to see if it’s okay to stop or to start. It just does what it always does, and it just keeps on ticking. And so, respecting time is what you gotta do, and if you’re disrespecting time, you’re definitely sinning, and success is gonna be not a part of what’s going on with you.
JLD: Fire Nation, if you disrespect time, you just might run out of it. That’s just a sobering fact we all need to wake up and smell. Now, Frankie, what are some strategies that you employ so that you’re making sure you’re respecting time every single day?
Frankie: Well, every Sunday, I make it a tradition, me and my wife go to a nice restaurant and spend a couple hours eating dinner, and we also take at least an hour of that time, and plan out our whole week ahead. We have a list of things to do, like anyone else. When you’re running businesses that have a couple hundred employees, and you got a lot of tasks to do. We’re adding on to our house, we’re opening up a restaurant. And people ask, how do you get all that done? Well, you really have to be disciplined in your time. And so, what I say is if you want your day to be great, you gotta plan it out. If you want your day to count, you gotta plan it out.
And so, we take the time on Sundays and really look at our week, and plan out the whole week the best we can. And every week we’ve done that, we have really achieved high success. And there’s been some weeks we’ve missed. And we found that we weren’t as productive during those weeks. So, we try to do that, and of course we have our digital calendars. I have a staff that try to keep me really set to that time. But if you’re not able to do that, really you just gotta look at your time and set aside time to plan out your time. And if you do that, and you do it before your day starts, before your week starts, I promise you, you will be able to achieve a lot more than you think in that window of time.
JLD: Win tomorrow today, Fire Nation. That’s a phrase that I know, and that I live by. I don’t wake up in the morning and try to win today in that morning. It’s too late. The day’s already going, it’s already consumed me. I win tomorrow today, Fire Nation. I win this week on Sunday where, like Frankie, I’m planning out my week at the beginning of the week, not as the week unfolds. Make that happen, Fire Nation. Frankie, talk to us about lack of vision and how that’s a sin of success.
Frankie: There’s a lot of people out there who are trying to achieve something, but they don’t really – they really haven’t painted a picture for themselves or, much less anyone else, of where they wanna go and how they wanna go. It’s like having a GPS, but with no address. The GPS is not that useful if you don’t have an address. And so, I think vision is about having something that is so clear, that you can write it down, and others can run with it. So, there’s some focus that you gotta have on that. I think vision also is about focus. And then, I always like to use this quote, where there’s no clarity, you cannot dominate. So, if you got clarity, you can dominate. When people know and see it and it’s clear, then you can run towards it. You can attack it. And so, there’s a lot of distractions in the world nowadays. You can’t go on social media – you go on social media for one thing, you end up doing 87 different things before you actually get to the one thing you wanna do. If you turn on the television, if you turn on the radio, if you go – you know.
You talked about Netflix, you scroll through Netflix for a movie and it takes you two hours to even scroll through Netflix to find the one movie you might want, you might watch. And so, distraction is everywhere. And those that are focused are going to – and I’m talking about mad focus, are going to win. And in my life, I didn’t have focus. And so, I was sinning, and not being successful, because I didn’t have vision. I had a lack of vision. No vision for my family life, no vision for my business life, no vision for myself. And so, therefore, I had no clarity, therefore I couldn’t dominate, and that’s a sin of success.
JLD: Fire Nation, where there is no clarity, you cannot dominate. It’s literally that simple. And, as Frankie says, distractions are everywhere, and being a military guy, I love the phrase weapons of mass distraction. They are everywhere, Fire Nation, don’t let them take you down. And Frankie, you mentioned the word focus, it’s literally my favorite word, because it’s an acronym. FOCUS, Follow One Course Until Success. Fire Nation, if you follow that focus, you will succeed in that one area you’re focusing on. Make it happen. Now Frankie, devaluing people is a sin of success. Share with us why that’s the case.
Frankie: Nowadays, people – they might work for you because you pay them, and you might even pay them well, but they follow you to the end because they know and believe you care. And when you don’t value people, you can’t care for them. John Maxwell says, “You can love without leading, but you cannot lead without loving.” And so, when you talk about people, it doesn’t matter who you are, you gotta have a good group of people around you. And most people might have people in their life, or in their business, just because they have a need for them. But when you start realizing who they are, and what they’re about beneath the surface of their position or title, beneath the role that you might have them in, and really care for them, that’s when they dig deep. That’s when they put in the extra effort. That’s when they go to fight for you. And so, I like to say this, when you have a group of people that are willing to bleed together, there’s not a lot of things they can’t accomplish together. And you can’t do that and fake it. You can’t fake liking and loving and caring for people, because people will find you out real quick. As soon as they start acting up, and doing something that doesn’t align with some things, because people are messy. And so, when you get in a group of people, and you’re trying to help them, and you’re not the real deal, you’re gonna find out real quick.
Because like I said, people is something you gotta have. No matter what you’re doing, businesses are built brick and mortar, online, great products, great services, but people is really what a business is made of. And I say it’s your greatest asset as an organization. And so, you gotta have relationships, and those relationships can’t just be based on what they do for you. They have to be a two-way street, where you’re actually valuing them. And then you can help them chip away at their dream, too, They’re there to serve you, but you can help them in serving themselves as well. And so, if you will lift up your people, they will lift you up, and they’ll help you go to places you couldn’t go all by yourself.
So, you definitely have to value people. When you don’t value people, then you are sinning when it comes to success.
JLD: Fire Nation, we were put on this Earth to coexist with others, to coexist with others, and then to leave this planet a better place than we found it. So, are you up for this challenge? One of the starting points, valuing, respecting, and giving awesomeness to other people. Make that happen. And those first five sins of success, Fire Nation, value bonds each and every one. We have five more coming up when we get back from thanking our sponsor. Frankie we’re back, and self-doubt is a sin of success. Why is that the case?
Frankie: A lot of people in life are fighters. I got some friends that, if I get into a physical fight, I know I’m gonna be all right because they know how to fight. People go through battles all the time. But I always say the greatest battle you’re ever gonna fight is in between your ears. And so, my point is, is that self-doubt is what lives – it’s there all the time. I’ve referenced earlier, that quitter, that people deal with all the time. That quitter’s always reminding you of self-doubt. And so, my point is, is that if you don’t know No. 1, that’s the greatest battle, you’re gonna be sinning all the time, because you’re gonna let doubt win. And I like to say this, if the quitter’s gonna be there – and by the way, even when I was sleeping in my car, the quitter in me was big, loud, and boastful all the time. Every morning I woke up, it was there. And it was something I had to fight every day. Guess what? Even at the success level I’m at, my bills are payed, I’m blessed, right? I got things that people wish they had in a whole lifetime. Guess what? Quitter’s still there. Self-doubt is still there. The bottom line is, is how I fight it now. I fight it, and this is what I tell my people, I tell everybody, the quitter’s gonna be there no matter what, at least make it pay rent.
Make it pay rent. If it’s gonna be there, it ain’t living rent free. And you know how you make the quitter inside of each and every one of yourselves pay rent? You make it pay rent by doing the opposite in which it’s telling you to do. When it tells you not to get up out of the bed, when it tells you to be lazy, when it tells you not to care, because people might hurt you, when it tells you that you’re not good enough, when it tells you, reminds you what other people have said about you and how they’ve dogged you and put you in a box. When it tells you those things, you do the opposite. And when you do, you’re making it pay rent. I’d say this all the time. Me and quitter go up on the mountain all the time.
And I remind the quitter inside of me, only one of us is coming down. And it is not gonna be you. And guess what? It keeps showing up. And so, self-doubt is the greatest battle you’ll ever fight. And when you lose that battle, you’re actually not succeeding, and therefore you’re sinning, and you gotta get a hold of that. First of all, it’s never gonna go away. Second of all, you gotta learn how to approach it, and fight it in a way. And it’s a daily fight. And that’s why you gotta get a hold of that, and if you don’t, you’re sinning, and you’re not gonna be successful.
JLD: Fire Nation, the greatest battle you’ll ever fight is the fight between your ears. Just remember that. And my question to you is, what are you doing daily to win that fight? And I can tell you, what you’re doing today, Fire nation, you’re listening to Entrepreneurs on Fire, so you’re winning that fight today because you’re putting the right knowledge, the right value, the right content in your ears. But you need to win this fight every single day. So Frankie, let’s talk about the lack of resourcefulness, and how that’s a sin of success.
Frankie: Well, a lot of people when they wanna start a business, or they wanna create an idea, or if they wanna do something, the first thing they check is normally their bank account. They look and see what resources they have, and then what they do is they realize they don’t have a lot of resources. And just like me when I was in my car, obviously my life was speaking, and yelling, hey, you need to make a change. Well, unfortunately, I had depleted my resources. So, I didn’t have a lot of options. I didn’t have a lot of resources. And so by default, I had to become resourceful. And that’s what people gotta do. Instead of looking at what you don’t have, think about the things you do have. Look at the skills that you could tap into. Build a relationship. Talk to people. Be resourceful.
I used to go to the Barnes and Noble bookstore, and although I didn’t have money to spend on books, I would sit in the lobby, and I would read a few books and try to learn what I could. And I had to put the books back on the shelf. I was being resourceful. I was trying to leverage the situation that they allowed me to do. I even asked for permission. Hey, is this okay if I just read a book and I don’t buy it? Yeah, of course. So, guess what? I took full advantage of that opportunity, and I used a Wi-Fi hot bin and use Wi-Fi just to be able to talk to people, and set up appointments, and hustle.
And so, I find that most people, they look at their resources, and when they don’t have the resources they need to launch, to start, to get things going, they end up quitting. And at the end of the day, you gotta be more resourceful instead of looking at what resources you do have and you don’t have. And when you’re doing that, then you’ll be able to see that look, you can still create things. You just might have to work a little harder. You might have to be more creative, and when you’re really focusing on the lack of resourcefulness, you’re sinning.
You’re not successful, and you’re not gonna be successful because you’re checking things that may not be plentiful right now, but if you would just dig deep and be creative, you’ll find a way to be successful.
JLD: Fire Nation, what are you doing to be resourceful? One of my buddies Michael O’Neill, he lives in San Diego, it’s a great location, and guess what? He could sit at home every single day and work from his laptop, and do what he needs to do, but every now and then, he knows he needs to get out and meet cool people. So, what does he do? He picks one of the really cool, upscale restaurants or hotels, he goes to that hotel bar, and then he sits down, he orders a glass of wine during happy hour, opens up his laptop, and continues to work, just like he’s be working when he was at home. But now, he’s surrounded by people who are travelling, who are in town for events, for conferences, for whatever it might be, and conversations are starting. They’re like oh, what are you working on? What are you working on? Oh, and he’s meeting cool people. He’s being resourceful. That five dollar glass of wine is opening his network up to potentially meeting some incredible people that are going to lead to who knows what? You just never know, but at least you’re boing resourceful and you’re opening yourselves up to opportunities.
Now one thing that I see a lot of people struggle with, Frankie, is not being strategic. How is that a sin of success?
Frankie: There’s a lot of options in the world. There’s a lot of things that come about, opportunities out there. And just because you can, don’t mean you should. That’s a rule I live by. And so, don’t just do things just because you can do them. Do them strategically. Make sure they align with your vision. Make sure they align with the mission. If you’re not gonna be able to see that return on investment really help you down the line, make sure your future self can thank you and say hey, that was a good idea. Be strategic. It’s like chess versus checkers. It’s easy to play checkers, pretty much anybody can pick it up.
In chess, the game itself is not that hard either, but the strategies behind it is the part of mastery that you gotta gain in order to be successful with it. And that’s the same thing with success. If you don’t understand to be more strategic, you’re sinning. And therefore, you’re not gonna find yourself successful, at least long term. Because you gotta do things strategically. You gotta think ahead. You gotta understand how it fits for the bigger picture, and when you do, it’ll help you put together the real vision, the deeper, the longer vision that you want. And just because you have the money, don’t mean you should buy it, or go there and do those things.
Sometimes you have to really figure out if that makes sense long term and be strategic with it. People ask me all the time, how are you doing all these different businesses? And they say to me, well, you’re aggressive. And I’m like, well, I’m aggressive, but really I’m strategically aggressive. I’m not just saying yes to say yes. There’s businesses that I’ve said no to. There’s things that don’t work out for my vision. And although I could probably still get involved because if my situation, I don’t because it doesn’t fit my strategic plan. And so, if you’re not being strategic, then you’re sinning, and you’re not gonna be successful. Bottom line is, you have to be more strategic to be successful.
JLD: Just because you can, Fire Nation, doesn’t mean you should. You need to ask yourself, is this strategic to my vision, to my plan, to my goals and what I want to achieve? Because this is a really important phrase, Fire Nation, definitely listen in, lean in here. When you say yes to something, you’re saying no to everything else you could otherwise be doing during that time you’re taking up while you said yes to that one thing. So, think about that. When you just say, I’m just gonna say yes to this because I wanna help somebody out. I wanna do this, or I just don’t like disappointing people.
When you say yes to something, Fire Nation, you are literally saying no to everything else you could be doing with that time you’re giving up. Unwillingness to adapt. A lot of people have a very hard time changing, adapting. And this is very true for entrepreneurs as well, Frankie. Why is this a sin of success?
Frankie: The constant is change. Especially when you’re in business. Marketing tactics need a change. Algorithms change. People change. Buying patterns change. A lot of people get this confused with not being true to yourself. The honest truth is, no one is saying you shouldn’t be true to yourself. What we are saying is you should be flexible. You should be able to adapt. If the approach is not working, that ‘s a big sign that you need to change something. And it doesn’t mean you need to be a different person, or not authentic. But what it does mean is you need to be flexible and adapt. When you’re in an airplane, I’m sure John, you’ve experienced this before, and you hit some turbulence, right?
The Captain has two choices. The choice of changing altitude, or basically just getting through it. Either way, there’s gonna be some change that you gotta do. And there’s gonna be turbulence in your life. There’s gonna be things that pop up, and if you’re not willing to change, then you’re sinning. And you’re not gonna be successful. And I see so many people who try the things that have always worked, and then when it stops working, they just start complaining instead of changing. And start stopping their growth, and they don’t want to adapt and go with the times. Technology has changes. You’re talking about social media, it has changes.
There’s a lot of things that work and used to work, but it doesn’t mean it always works. And if you’re willing to adapt and adjust and be flexible, it doesn’t matter if you’re in the stock market, or if you’re at home, things change constantly, and you gotta change the way you go about it and be flexible to that and open minded to that. And if you are, you will be successful. But those who are not willing to adapt are gonna be the ones who find themselves short of success.
JLD: Fire Nation, you need to accept the reality that we live in a world that ‘s always changing. The sun is rising, the sun is setting, the seasons are changing. That’s the world that we live in, adapt. Adapt to it. The people who adapt, win. Now Frankie, let’s finish this. Let’s close down with not being coachable. This is a sin of success. Why is that the case?
Frankie: You know, when you think you know it all – a lot of these sins go hand in hand. But some people think they’ve arrived, and yeah, maybe they’re talented, maybe they have some great skills. And that was one of the things that I struggle with. God has blessed me with a lot of talents, a lot of gifts, a lot of abilities, and I wasn’t really that open to learning new things, especially if they didn’t come from myself. And so, when you start researching success, when you start looking at people that have achieved high levels of success, whether it’s a Hall of Fame athlete, all-star, whether it’s a awesome business owner, entrepreneur, all these people can be connected back to a great coach.
And they’re coachable, and they’re open to new ideas, fresh things. If you’re not growing, you’re dying. And that’s what I like to always say is, you gotta be willing to continue to learn. I also say, big earners are big learners. And so, they are all ways willing to add on to what they know. And one of the things is that, a lot of these guys out there that are successful, high levels of success, including myself, have coaches. Have mentors. Have people that are pouring into them. You gotta have someone in your life that, if not a group of people in your life, that see the blind spots. See the things you can’t see, tell you the things that you need to actually hear.
Don’t just tell you things that you wanna hear, but tell you things that you need to hear. Tell you when you’re wrong. Tell you when you should be encouraged when things are tough. You gotta have coaches in your life. You gotta have mentors. I’ve decided that the coaches that I have in my life, man, they’ve taken me to another level. So, I’ve decided to become a coach myself, and because I wanna do the same thing. I want to expand my abilities to impact people. And so, I wanna take some of the things that I’ve learned, like the 10 sins of success, help people, and help them understand. You gotta be coachable. So, when I talk to my coaching clients, the first things I do is I give them a 30 day trial. And if they don’t achieve the very small tings in those 30 days, then they’re telling me right away, they’re not coachable, and they’re not gonna be successful. And therefore, they’re not a good fit. So, if you’re gonna be truly successful, you’ve gotta have an open mind to expanding your mind. And accepting the things that you need to learn so you can continue to grow, and keep going.
And so, it’s easy to think that you’ve arrived when you’ve made certain amounts of money, and you’ve been successful. But if you have a deeper dream, a bigger dream, if you wanna impact a lot of people, there’s gonna be some people in your life that help you. I always say that you’re gonna arrive at your destiny through the people you meet, and the books you read. And so, you gotta be coachable, whether it’s through a book or an author, or someone who’s hands-on, more like a mentor or a coach. And if you are coachable, you will be successful. But if you’re not gonna be coachable, you’re gonna be sinning, and success is gonna be far from you.
JLD: Big earners are big learners, Fire Nation. Do you wanna become a big earner? Well, let’s become a big learner as well. I think it’s key to add to this as well, you need to find the right mentor, Fire Nation. Not just any mentor, but the right mentor, in my opinion, is somebody who is currently where you want to be. So, where do you wanna be in life, go find people who are currently there, those are your pool of possible mentors. Now Frankie, we’ve just gone through the 10 sins of success.
Give us a big take away that you wanna make sure from everything we’ve chatted about today, that Fire Nation definitely walks away with, and share with us how we can find out more about you, any call to action you wanna make, and then we’ll say goodbye.
Frankie: And again, John, thank you for having me on, and thank you for the opportunity to share some of the things I’ve learned. Some of these things I learned the hard way, but I’m just grateful that I learned them. And I’m also grateful that I get a chance to share them with all of Fire Nation, and anyone who’s listening. At the end of the day, all these sins, like I said, go hand in hand. It’s about expanding, it’s about growing, and if you have a real, true desire to take your life, your business, to the next level, then you’re going to have to be open to these things and these ideas. You’re gonna have to have people in your life. You’re gonna have to value people. You’re gonna have to have a good team. You’re gonna have to have, like John says, the right mentor. I tried to offer that, and even when I’m not the right coach, I try to point people in the right direction, to the right coach, or the right mentor. We’ve developed a business in many ways where, even though we might be in a certain industry, and have a certain product, we always know it’s about people. And people can help you be better, or they can help you be worse.
And so, the take away I would say is look, there’s a lot of great tools out there, there’s a lot of great tips out there, but sometimes we don’t really talk about the things to avoid as much as we should. And so, I wanted to really approach this in a way where people can look at things from a different perspective. Try to avoid making these sins. And again, if you’re gonna commit these sins, don’t hark on them, don’t sit there and let it fester and grow. because that’s the problem, is not that you commit these sins, because we all do. When we’re attempting to be successful, we’re gonna commit these sins.
But it’s about cutting them out, getting rid of them as quickly as possible, making adjustments so that you can be successful. If you wanna find more about me, and what I do, and if I can help anyone out there, go to my website, Frankielane.org. Frankie is spelled F-R-A-N-K-I-E, lane, L-A-N-E dot org. All my information, contact information is there. Shoot me an email. If there’s something I can help you with, I’d love to do that. I have a great team. Even if I’m not quite available, they’ll help you as well. They all have inherited our philosophy, and that is to help people be more successful, and to tap into their potential.
JLD: Fire Nation, the average of the five people you spend the most time with, and you’ve been hanging out with FL, and JLD today. So keep up the heat, and head over to EOFire.com. If you type Frankie in the search bar, the show on this page will pop up with everything that we’ve been talking about today. And of course, head directly over to Frankielane.org. Frankie, thank you brother, for sharing your truth with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you, and we will catch you on the flip side.
Frankie: Thanks John.
Business Transcription provided by GMR Transcription Services
Killer Resources!
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