A while ago, Forbes published an article about business lessons you don’t want to learn the hard way because they can be so costly. I think the lessons I am sharing can also help prevent costly mistakes in your business, as well as your life.
One thing I’ll add before going forward: there’s plenty more to learn, and education is a life-long process. Never stop learning and growing, even from your mistakes.
Do Your Homework, Then Trust Your Gut
I started TLC after researching network marketing and consumer trends. I learned how to do network marketing in a way that was fair to everyone involved, and I learned that customers were very interested in health and wellness products. I figured that bringing the two fields together would have a chance for success.
I started TLC and never looked back.
Sometimes you’ve just got to trust your gut. I’m not suggesting you leap without looking, but once you get a good look, be sure to leap.
If you’re a fan of the game show Jeopardy!, you know there are plenty of people out there offering strategies for winning the game. One thing Alex Trebek reminds people a lot is that, usually, your first instinct for a Final Jeopardy question is the right one. After all that studying, why would you doubt yourself?
Trusting your gut is one of the most valuable business lessons I’ve learned.
Move on From Defeats Quickly
In Believe in More, I tell the story of the guy I’ve nicknamed “Mr. Merchant Mafia.” Around the same time my second son, Andrew was born, I’d paid Mr. Merchant Mafia $15,000 because he’d promised me a sure-fire way to expand my still very new business.
Of course, he was a scam artist, and I’d fallen for his trick.
It was a tough pill to swallow. I’ll never forget the conversation I had to have with Jenny, my wife. We’d zeroed-out our home equity line of credit, and the company was teetering on the edge.
We used the failure to make us smarter, though. We dusted ourselves off and moved forward because we were confident in our overall plan. Yes, it was a terrible financial blow, but we forced ourselves and the company to move on from the defeat.
One of the most important lessons in business is to not allow you or your company to be defined by defeats and mistakes. Learn, move forward, and take better steps the next time.
Find the Good People
If you google “find good people in business,” you’ll find no shortage of very smart people offering their advice (and often looking to charge for their service).
At TLC, we start finding good people by trying to gauge their heart. We’re in the fortunate position that we’re able to do that, but I truly think a business’ success depends upon the heart of its employees. When you build your company on honesty and treating people right, it’s easier to find customers and employees who believe in the same things.
We want people with skills who can apply those skills to our business, but that doesn’t mean our employees arrive as a perfect fit all the time. We judge an applicant’s willingness and ability to learn as an important part of deciding to bring them on as a member of our TLC family. No one’s worked at a company like TLC before because we’re unique. But we look at someone’s potential as much as their history to determine if they’ll be a good fit.
If you’ve made the decision to be an entrepreneur, understand that there are lots of lessons in business that need to be learned along the way. Life is like a class that never ends.
Jack Fallon
