how much

i’m so far away from success it’s not even funny. sure all of our businesses are going great, they’re profitable, we have a ton of people who look up to us and come to us for advice (read: influence). but success? that’s a long way off.

i’m not saying this to say oh woe is me, or oh i’m not doing as good as i can be, but what i am saying is that as you grow in life, whether your family, your career, your business, whatever it is, if your definition of success doesn’t grow with you, then you’re going to stop growing.

3 years ago – would i have called where i am at now successful? absolutely. now? not so much. not because there is something i don’t have that i need or want that i think will make me successful. it’s because my definition of success is growing. and let’s be real – if your definition of success ever stops growing, what’s the real motivation to keep going? why not just stop and enjoy it where you’re at? why not just throw everything into the wind and say okay i’m good i’m done?

well unfortunately that’s not the way the world works. i could walk away from everything we’re doing right now, still make some money, but it wouldn’t grow or expand as fast as it is or i want it to. but what would i do? sure i can take vacations, i can go sit on the beach, but i want to come back. i want to come back and get back into the grind – the grind is what makes it fun honestly.

but what i’ve realized even more than this is that people see me as having success – but that’s all they see.

they don’t see the grind. people don’t see how many hours i’ve put into this, how much time i’ve spent away from friends and family. they don’t see how much time i’ve spent away from my wife. they don’t understand the sacrifices, people don’t see the risks that i have taken.

sacrifices come in several different packages – sometimes they come in the way of a few hours of sleep. sometimes they come in telling someone sorry i can’t hang out today because i have to get something done. sometimes they come in the form of even though i want something, i don’t just go out and get it. they even come in the form of sacrificing pride and ego so that something can get done more efficiently (this one is hard.)

but people just see me where i’m at. there’s no talking about “oh how many nights did you get not a ton of sleep or how many hours a day do you spend in front of a computer or on the phone” – the questions are always “how’s the business going right now and oh you have an ad on facebook with 4million views and when ya gonna buy this so and so because we know you have the money”

and this is where it gets tricky.

i have to try really hard via writing on the internet to make it not come off in a bad way.

people will read one of my last blog posts and say oh – yea, taylor isn’t better then me, taylor isn’t smarter then me, whatever he has i can have too. which is great and amazing and i wish everyone thought that way.

but then the thought also goes into their head – okay i can do what taylor did in 6 months working a few hours every once in a while.

if i got a dollar for every person that came up to me and said “what’s the one thing i can do to make a whole bunch of money in the fastest way possible” – and usually what they’re implying by this question is what i can do the cheapest and easiest to be able to have a ton of money. i’d have a few thousand dollars honestly.

there isn’t a shortcut. there isn’t an easy way. can you go after knowledge and get it and have it speed things up a bit? absolutely. but there is absolutely no substitution for time and hard work. efficient hard work at that.

it takes a lot longer to build a business, to reach whatever level of success you see as successful then most people think. it is a lot harder to build a business, to reach whatever level of success you see as successful then most people think.

it isn’t a straight line, it isn’t a step by step. there are always going to be issues, there are always going to be problems, there are always going to be things that will need to be figured out, more or less on the fly.

it takes time. i can provide an outline of the map. but i can’t make you follow the outline of the map.

i’m proud of what i’ve done. but i’m not done yet.

and if you’re reading this somewhere out there, don’t ever be done. don’t ever quit. and don’t ever just settle for something when you know you deserve and can go out and get more.

how much time does it take to build a business and become whatever the hell “successful” means?

as much time as you let it. just add on all the time you watch tv, sit on the couch and browse through facebook, etc.