Exceptional CEOs Do This To Succeed

Exceptional CEOs Do This To Succeed

Sean: You know, I learned a lot already. I’m sure you guys have. So it’s already coming to that time where I can’t have Joseph anymore on the show because he has this next meeting. But before I let you go, I want to ask you one last question. And that is for those entrepreneurs or employees who have a side business or are thinking of jumping ship and starting their own thing. What would be your one big advice?

Josef: One advice is extremely difficult for this question, but let’s give it a shot. But I think if there’s anything to prioritize and purely speaking from experience because I don’t believe that I am anyone to preach to anyone. Right. I’m just like everybody else. Who’s just trying stuff and making mistakes and just doing our best, moving one step at a time.

So, but what I personally went through is what I’m going to recommend, which is a personal amount of attention, which is really looking after yourself and starting right there.

It doesn’t matter how brilliant the idea is or how magnificent the team is. If you are not in the right state of mind and in the right point of your life, to be able to actually really give it what it takes to make something like this work. I’ll give you, I mean, my own personal journey was, you know, you were saying earlier about this guy with no vices and a hundred percent vegan.

Like it didn’t start that way for sure, and there’s a reason behind that. And I think there’s a reason why most people who you meet with those kinds of extreme things because they really probably went through something. And I was one of those guys and I definitely did not have everything in line and I did not like myself whatsoever before those changes, I really didn’t.

And it was of course holding me back in business because I just didn’t feel like I was the right kind of person to drive anything like this, less alone make an impact or inspire people. So I quit drinking completely. I quit smoking completely and yes I took on meditation, became vegan it sounds ludicrous.

Like I am one step shorter of spending time in a monastery, you know, but jokes aside. This acted as the catalyst to actually teach me the most important life lesson, which I think is the thing, which I live by the most, which is discipline. And let’s be careful here to distinguish discipline from burnout or overworking, cause they’re very different things.

A lot of people here discipline and extreme discipline and they think, oh okay that means I’ve got to work 20 hours a day. I’ve got to wake up at 3:00 AM every single day. I’ve got to work until I’m blue in the teeth and I’m collapsing. Definitely not. It actually requires discipline to enforce balance on yourself.

So discipline is literally in my eyes, the most important word when it comes to building a startup, doing well in school, becoming a professor like literally anything that you want to achieve starts with that standard that you hold for yourself and how you apply that. And again, it does not mean overwork. It means the opposite. It means imparting correct discipline and balance on yourself.

So that then really helped me because it showed me that I became better at my job. It allowed me to get a strong position at Penbrothers and learn all of these different skills. It allowed me the time and space and understanding that I could then be ready in my personal life to go and start my own business, which was Humble, which is a dream and a passion at the time.

And now it’s thankfully grown into, you know this, it’s still just a seed, but both what’s before seeding like an atom or something. Maybe that’s what, we’ve grown into an atom, a medium-sized atom, and that’s really helped us. And whether that’s a discipline in health. So making sure that the diet is right, looking after yourself in terms of going to the gym, waking up every morning, having that routine, like simple quick wins like that, that get you feeling good and get you in the right frame of mind mentally and physically.

It’s just astronomically important because it acts as the catalyst for everything else. When you find that you can do those little things every day, with discipline, even starting with making your bed, you know, little things like that and spirit on for health, then starting a business just becomes one of those other routine things that discipline allows you to actually embark on.

Everything else, then we’ll just grow and we’ll just become the catalyst because if your personality already starts getting used to that, then having the discipline to really run it a business is just another thing. It’s just another run that day. Right?

Having that regular run schedule, just that another improved diet, starting a business. Same thing. Yes, of course. It’s complicated and you need to have skills and good friends and good family and good teams and all of that stuff. But if you are in the right mindset and you can actually, you know, have the level of discipline to make it work, then everything else follows because of it.

So rather than obsessing over the idea, or obsessing over whether the timing is right, or whether you have enough money to start a business, that’s the most common one, I think. Forget all of that stuff, and first look at, am I right? Am I ready in my personal life to be able to actually go on something like this? Because if you are, everything else will follow.

Sean: Completely agree with that. The statistics are 90% of startups fail. And a lot of people say, oh, you know, they fail because of the economy, because of luck, because of cashflow. But in reality, the real reason why 90% of startups fail is because of the founder, and it’s the founder’s behavior and they lack discipline. That’s the root of it all.

So, I completely agree with you on that, and by the way, you have to teach me how you do it, vegan, meditation. I have to learn those things. But yeah, you know if I could be on that path, I would, I would have give an arm and a leg for it. But that’s for another podcast recording.

So Joseph, thank you so much. And if people want to know more about you, where can they find you?

Josef: I think I’m mainly on LinkedIn in terms of social media platforms, so for sure. Please feel free to reach out to me directly via LinkedIn Joseph Werker, J O S E F – W E R K E R, linkedIn. I don’t think there are many of me for sure.

Kind of a weird name. Otherwise you can also visit the Humble website and input an inquiry through there, however you want to reach me is absolutely fine, would love to hear from people. And can I just also take this opportunity to thank you as well, for this opportunity really, like I’m always kind of shocked that people are willing to sit through a few minutes of me talking at them.

So thank you sincerely for this. I mean, again, I’m just like everybody else trying my best on one of these journeys and extremely early in my own lifespan of going through this journey. I don’t know very much. I enjoy speaking to other people who do know a lot. So thank you for letting me learn from yours.

And all the people out there, I hope I can hear from you and learn from you one day too. So thank you again for this.

Sean: Hey, it’s my pleasure and my privilege. And you know, we’re not so far apart. I’m 32 founded my own company some 10 years ago. I’m still learning. I’ve learned a lot from you tonight, you know, and you know, this show is a work of love and passion.

We’re not making money from it. In fact, it’s the opposite way. I’m funding it entirely from SEO- Hacker. And you know, we’re just, this is a show where we’re trying to pay it forward much like how you are doing it with Humble. You guys may be for-profit, but I do a hundred percent agree that social enterprises should be for-profit.

I don’t completely agree with nonprofit enterprises because of the sustainability. And this is why a lot of non-profit companies, they have problems with corruption, dishonesty, and yeah, just a boatload of problems happening inside. So I completely agree with what you do. I believe in it, even if it is a medium sized atom right now, I believe it’s, it’s going to be an atomic bomb, right. So it’s something that I believe in and I love, I love this episode. Thank you for agreeing to be on the show.