Don’t put all your eggs in one basket!
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket!
I say do! Put all your eggs in one basket. The saying “don’t put all your eggs in one basket is a motivational myth.
I have a list of what I call motivational myths. A motivational myth to me is when we take a saying that is not true but we think it is true. And because we think it is true and we act on it, then it squashes our motivation. My favorite one of these motivational myths is “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt us.†A motivational myth is partially true. It takes a truth but it takes it out of bounds, it takes it too far. It is like catching a pass in football, but you catch it out of bounds. Its true sticks and stones do hurt us, but words have hurt us more than sticks and stones ever could! Other people’s words won’t hurt us unless we allow them to but our words can hurt us or help us depending on our words.
I say “put all your eggs in one basket” because I want us to be totally committed to the thing at hand. If you are a business owner do one thing. Do the one thing that you are good at and absolutely love and are passionate about doing and the thing you make the most money at.
If you are married or in a relationship put all your eggs in one basket, be committed. Don’t hedge your bets! If you are an employee for a firm, put all your eggs in one basket. I would never bad mouth an organization that I am a part of or especially if I draw a paycheck from. I would never sell a service or product that I did not believe in.
One benefit to putting all your eggs in one basket is that you do not spread yourself to thin. This is where a lot of business owners go wrong; they try and do too much. Let me say it again, do what you are good at, do what you love to do and do what you get paid the most for.
It is pride to think we can do and be good at everything. Surround yourself with experts and refer and delegate the things to them that they are good at. Businesses try and make money and provide a service that they are not experts in.
I have learned the hard way not to do this. I have failed hundreds of times when I tried to do things I was not an expert in. I used to get frustrated when I tried to do something, that I hardly ever did and did not produce excellent results. A contractor once told me “there is good enough and there is every day good.â€
Wow, if you do not do something every day, you are probably not an expert in it. I heard it said that it takes about 10,000 hours to be good at something. This will take about five to ten years to perfect, then we still have to do it every day after that to maintain our excellence.
Refer or delegate everything else except your one special thing that you are an expert in. That is why I love BNI, I surround myself with experts. The word referral means; someone that introduces someone to an expert in their field.
There are three individuals or three companies involved here. If I know someone needs a product or service that I am not an expert in, I refer them to an expert in that field. So as the definition of referral goes; someone (that’s me) introduces someone (that’s the person I know that need’s something I am not and expert in) to someone that is an expert in their field (that is my referral partner.)
This creates a three way win! My contact or customer wins because they have their needs met in a way I couldn’t except through a referral. My referral partner wins because they have a new client that they would not have had except through my referral. I win because I have two people that absolutely love me and want to send me referrals. BNI calls this “Givers Gain!â€