Hey, guys and gals. Happy Hump Day Hustle. Hope everybody’s doing well out there today. Appreciate you tuning in. If you’re on the live, please let me know where you’re coming in from, and if you catch us on the replay, please do the same as well, and give me your opinions about today’s discussion. Anyway, topic of discussion, the question at hand is should the success that we seek come easily. Again, this is Danny Engram with Danny and Leta. Good to see y’all today. Should the success we seek come easily? Before I forget, I’ve got to do the regular thing. Let me set the timer so I know not to keep you guys too long.
I thought of this this week. A couple of things happened during the week that really have a lot to do with that. One of the first examples was – which a lot of you I’m sure can relate to – I was out throwing ball with one of the neighbor kids recently, and we just happened to be chit chatting and his, of course, parents were out and all that stuff, too, and we just happened to get into the importance of practice. He plays ball, baseball, and – little league – and so we just happened to touch on the fact that if you’ve got goals of playing high school or college ball or, of course, even pro ball, you’re not going to get there by doing any less than actually 110%.
It wasn’t a preach session or nothing, but it just got me thinking because ballers, you’ve got to be elite. You’ve got to rise above even the 100 percenters that are killing it because the problem lies in the fact that those guys that are putting 100% out, even that 100% might not be enough because there’s a lot of kids that could kill and die for a position, but it’s always the 110 percenters that just shine a little bit more and end up getting that position.
I want to touch on – it all has to do with the risk reward ratio, but I want to add to risk effort. That analogy had to do with effort. Same goes with our business. If we’re starting a small business and we’re trying to get to whatever goal it is that we’ve set to make that first, second, third, fifth, tenth year or whatever, are we going to get there coasting? Are we going to get there by doing the minimum, not being disciplined, not really setting realistic goals? Are we going to get there by not spending any money on necessary tools and coaching that it takes to get there? If we don’t go out on that limb, how are we going to get that fruit, right? The low-hanging fruit has already been gotten. That’s gone. We’ve got to climb up in the dang tree, and we got to go out on that limb. We got to risk whatever it is we’ve got to risk to climb out on that limb and get that fruit.
Let me tell you another example that really tickled me as well. We’ve got dogs. We’ll introduce y’all soon, but we’ve got Buddy, Lola, and Sophie, and so what I did, I did a little experiment with them. We’ll crack the back door so they can go in and out from the kitchen area so we’re not constantly dealing with – we’ve got little bells hanging, so we know who needs to go outside whatever when they’re ready, but – so I did this experiment. Leta’s got this big ball thing that she sits on and helps exercise and whatever. Instead of a chair at her desk, she’s got this big old rubber ball. I set it up on a little sponge action type deal so that the door sponges closed, but I cracked it open enough to where they can go in and out, and it opens just enough for them to go in and out.
The funny thing is they got outside, but then when it was time to come back inside, I’m in my office here, and all I’m hearing is that dang bell rattling. I get up, and I go spy on them for a minute, and sure enough, they’ll nudge with their snout – they’re nudging the door enough to put their head in, but when the sponge action was bringing it back, they would back it up. They’re fighting with this thing for ten minutes. Finally, I go sneak up on them, and I spy on them for a minute. There’s a five minutes. I’m going to start wrapping up. I go spy on them for a minute – dadgummit. There we go. Sorry.
I watch, and so Sophie ends up coming in. She’s like man, the heck with this. I’m just going to come on in and see what dad wants and get a head scrub, right, but Lola and Buddy stayed behind. I’m thinking okay, what do I need to do to get them to come in? What I’ll do is I’ll go into the utility room, and I’ll rattle the little latch on the food bucket, and they know what that means. I go do that, and as soon as I do that, what happens? All the sudden they forget that the door isn’t opening wide open for them to come back inside. They bail on in, and they’re ready for a snack, right? The moral of that story is they had incentive. I provided some incentive, an extra boost of benefit, for them to risk whatever in their mind was – getting squished by the door or whatever the heck it was, and they overcame what was holding them back.
Anyway, so that’s all I’ve got for today. I hope that insight wasn’t too silly for you guys to understand, but I think it’s crucial – it’s so crucial for us to understand as small business owners, no matter what stage we’re in, okay, man, if we want what we know is waiting for us, we’ve got to kick butt, take names, risk a little bit, and go over and above what we may feel like is our normal abilities, and we have to push through. Otherwise, if we just stay complacent and lazy or whatever, we’re going to just constantly complain that whatever these outside factors are that we tried a hundred times, it’s their fault, okay?
Those of you that have a hundred courses on your bookshelf or in your office at the house, I guarantee you with the right mindset, you go grab any one of those and you actually apply yourself to the majority of them, and you’re going to get some results, but it’s pushing through. I say this from experience, guys. That was me because of the way I’m wired. I touch on it all the time. A lot of you understand that with our ADD tendencies. We’re not wired like other people that – where success comes easier, and I’m not complaining or jealous.
I’m just saying if we see a hiccup, we’ve got to get past it. If there’s a wall, plow through that sucker. Go over it, go around it, go through it, whatever it takes. Enough preaching. Y’all, thanks so much for tuning in today, and I love every single one of y’all. Please leave some comments below. Crush the rest of your week. I can’t wait to get back in front of you guys again soon. Get out there and kill it, please. Reach out and love somebody. Take care. Bye now.