“It’s not an experiment if you know it’s going to work.” – Jeff Bezos
Almost nobody knows this…
But in 2017, my seven year old business, EGTBasketball, almost died.
We’d held the top spot in the industry for over half a decade, and generated 7-figures a year since my early 20’s…
…And now, suddenly, we were bleeding out.
It was my fault.
I brought in a business partner I didn’t need, gave him way too much control, way too soon, and then took my eye off the ball while he sunk half a million into a project that generated no additional revenue, but added five-figures to our monthly expenses.
Fxck.
In my defense, I was busy with a full-time job of traveling, partying, and chasing girls.
And there was only so much time in the day for things like, you know, “working.”
But by the time I sobered up and splashed some cold water on my face, it was too late.
The business was fully underwater, and sinking fast.
And I didn’t know how to save it.
I tried everything I could think of:
We launched new products, but our list was burnt out and sales barely even covered our costs.
We increased ad spend, but cash was running dry and the leads didn’t convert fast enough.
So we posted more content.
Ran more sales.
Tested new funnels.
Renegotiated contracts.
And ruthlessly cut every non-essential expense on our P&L.
It felt like fighting quicksand; the harder we struggled, the faster we sunk.
By early December, I wasn’t sure if we were going to make it — or, what would remain of the business, if we did.
Then, one morning, I woke up with an idea.
It was a random idea, and probably wouldn’t work…
But what the hell what do I even have to lose at this point?
(besides my business, my livelihood, my dignity, that sort of stuff)
So I rolled over, grabbed my phone, opened Slack, and sent a message to Joe, our media buyer:
“Hey, let’s run the video on our homepage as a YouTube ad. Prolly won’t work but test a few grand and see what happens.”
“On it.”
Then I forgot all about it.
Three days later, I got a Slack notification:
“Dude, you gotta see this…”
The video — a random video that wasn’t even meant to be an ad — was taking off like a rocket.
Joe had already scaled it past $3000 a day in ad spend, profitably, and it was bringing in 1000 new YouTube subscribers per day as a bonus.
The business turned around overnight.
We hit the gas and ripped a past 7-figures again, on route to our biggest year ever in 2018.
All because of a random idea I almost didn’t try because I didn’t think it would work.
Business is fxcking weird, man.
It obeys different laws of physics, and defies every rule we’ve been taught to follow.
Like, for example, effort in = results out.
We expect progress to be linear:
Work → reward → work → reward → work → reward.
When in reality, progress looks more like:
Work → work → work → work → work…
(bang your head against a wall → almost give up → wonder if you’re delusional → consider packing it in and applying for a job at Chipotle)
…work → work → wake up one morning and realize, holy sh*t, something’s actually happening.
If you look, you’ll see this pattern everywhere:
The YouTube channel that struggles for months until a random video goes viral.
The brand that tests a new funnel structure and doubles conversion overnight.
The software that adds an experimental feature that becomes their entire product.
(IG started as a location check-in app, until they added a “minor” photo-sharing feature)
Even Hormozi was about to go bankrupt before a random client begged him for coaching, and accidentally created GymLaunch.
I could go on and on.
The point is:
If you expect your business to grow in a nice straight line, all neat and tidy, where every ounce of progress creates an ounce of result…
You’re going to jump off the roof.
And, if you sit around waiting until the “perfect” idea comes to you…
You’ll be sitting there ‘till you realize it’s too late, your window of opportunity has closed, and Chipotle isn’t even hiring anymore.
But if you enter the arena expecting to throw a hundred, or a thousand, or as many punches as it takes to finally land that big haymaker…
…Then dammit you’re gonna land that thing, and it’s gonna be glorious.
Remember:
Business is not linear.
We don’t get paid by the hour.
We get paid when we’ve worked so many hours without getting paid that we finally reach the magical, life-changing hour it all starts paying off, and then some.
And then we keep working.
- T
P.S. A long-time coaching client of mine, the late Ben Bader, made a video about this phenomena that I absolutely love.
Check it out here if you’re interested.
(Ben was one of a kind)
“Realize that sleeping on a futon when you’re 30 is not the worst thing. You know what’s worse, sleeping in a king bed next to a wife you’re not really in love with but for some reason you married, and you got a couple kids, and you got a job you hate. You’ll be laying there fantasizing about sleeping on a futon. There’s no risk when you go after a dream. There’s a tremendous amount to risk to playing it safe.” – Bill Burr
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