Taking the Entrepreneurial Leap with Gino Wickman

I am truly excited for today’s episode because I am joined by the amazing Gino Wickman! Gino has been an entrepreneur since the age of 21 and he always had an obsession for learning what makes businesses thrive. After taking over and transforming his family business at the age of 25, Gino then set out to help business leaders achieve their goals. Based on his years of real-world experience, he created the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), a practical method for helping companies achieve greatness. The EOS Tools are being used by more than 70,000 companies. He is also the author of the award-winning, best-selling book Traction: Get a Grip on your Business and his newest endeavor, The Entrepreneurial Leap. The mission of Entrepreneurial Leap is to find all of the entrepreneurs-in-the-making, at any age, wherever they are to help them realize their purpose and live the life they were born to live.

We begin the episode with Gino’s background story and how he found his true passion, which is helping other entrepreneurs. After turning his father’s company around and ultimately selling it, he spent the next five years creating the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS). He then decided to leverage it by writing a book and building a team of EOS implementers. Fast forward to today, they now have 425 implementers all over the world, 100,000 companies running on that system, and over a million copies of the book sold!

Our next topic is Gino’s new book, The Entrepreneurial Leap. According to his new book, there are six traits that every entrepreneur needs in order to be successful: visionary, passionate, problem-solver, driven, risk-taker, and responsible. Gino wrote this book in three parts: confirm, glimpse and path. There is a psychology and a reason behind that linear approach: confirm is about confirming whether or not you have those six essential traits, glimpse is about showing you a glimpse of all the possibilities, and path is about showing you a path to greatly increase your odds of success.

We continue our discussion about Gino’s book, but we move onto the characteristics of entrepreneurs. The characteristics of an entrepreneur are different than the six essential traits and Gino uses more of what he calls the 80% rule, meaning you don't have to have 100% of these characteristics but you should have most of them. Some of these characteristics are: idea generator, dreamer, earner, curious, always thinking about the future, and great strategic thinker. But also some challenging ones, like: trouble staying focused, get bored easily, disorganized, control freak, perfectionist, not necessarily financially savvy, etc. According to Gino, it is extremely important to know your weaknesses as an entrepreneur, because that allows you to go hire someone to handle all those weaknesses for you.

We then discuss the 6th essential skill, which is responsible. One of the ways that Gino explains about being responsible is to blame no one. In Gino’s own words: if you're an entrepreneur who owns a building and that building gets hit by a meteor, that was your fault. In other words, a responsible person will say: I chose that building, I built that building, I moved there, that's my fault and this is my problem to solve. And an irresponsible person will blame everyone else for what happened. This is one of the reasons why Gino believes that people are born with these traits and that they can't be taught, and it’s nature over nurture.

Our next topic is the eight critical mistakes that create a nightmare scenario for entrepreneurs: not having a vision, hiring wrong people, not spending time with your people, not knowing who your customer is, not charging enough, not staying true to your core, not knowing your numbers and not crystalizing roles and responsibilities. In his book, Gino shares countless real-world stories, so that you can see entrepreneurs who were where you are and what they built. We also discuss the importance of mentorship. Having a mentor will get you there faster, but please know that not having a mentor doesn't mean that you're going to fail. A mentor is simply someone who is where you want to be and an opportunity for them to share their wisdom and for you to share your problems, insights, thoughts, questions, challenges, and they can help you because they've experienced all that.

Eventually, we discuss the difference between passion and passionate. Passionate is an essential trait, one of the six you must have to be an entrepreneur. What Gino teaches in his book is the vital necessity of a passion, and how to discover your passion. He believes that the number one reason you're going to succeed as an entrepreneur is by having a passion for something. Because as an entrepreneur, you're going to get knocked down often, and the only thing that gets an entrepreneur to pick themselves up and continue to go against all odds is passion. Passion is the thing that keeps you in the game and gives you the energy to continue going forward.

We then move on to the topic of eight disciplines to increase your odds of success: clarify your vision, decide if you are a partner person, know that the bigger the problem you solve, the more successful you'll be, get feedback from customers and clients early and often, always have a plan B, work hard, take criticism and doubt with a grain of salt, and see it every night. Gino explains that having a plan B is crucial because plan A is going to change. It's either going to change drastically, or there will be some minor tweaks along the way. And so you've got to be on your toes and know what you're going to do if this plan doesn't work.

Lastly, we discuss the importance of capitalizing on coaching, training, and mentoring. Gino shares that in the last 30 years, he has spent an average of 5% of his income on education. He truly believes that knowledge is power and that there are a number of great ways to educate yourself in today’s world. The most important thing is to find the right person for you because one coach for one entrepreneur is not a great coach for another entrepreneur, so you have to find your perfect fit.

Make sure that you don’t miss this episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast, which is filled with incredible and invaluable information from a real hero in the business world, Gino Wickman!

Notable Quotes:

“I have been an entrepreneur in the making since I was probably seven years old when I started selling stuff. So, it's always been in my blood.”

Gino Wickman

“The thing about Traction is that it is very easy to implement. The concepts are relatively simple but effective and I think it's digestible, to the point that it's extremely effective, yet not overwhelming.”

Mike Simmons

“A true entrepreneur has six essential traits, and I believe that those six essential traits cannot be taught. I believe you're born with them, it’s nature over nurture.”

Gino Wickman

“If you don't have these, you're not an entrepreneur. Do yourself a favor, avoid a life of hell and just stop and go work for somebody and be happy because that’s what you want to do and that’s okay.”

Mike Simmons

“This is a passion project, to impact a million entrepreneurs in the making in the next 10 years.”

Gino Wickman

“Four percent of the world are entrepreneurs. Four percent of the world have these six essential traits which mean 96% don't. And this book is the piano I want to put in front of the prodigy that is the entrepreneur.”

Gino Wickman

“There's pre-med, there's pre-law, this is pre-entrepreneurship. It is 100% intended to filter you, and I'm not doing it because I'm some ruthless prick and I want to break your heart, I am doing it to save your life.”

Gino Wickman

“To be frank, I'm going to do everything I can to scare you away from being an entrepreneur.”

Gino Wickman

“I think your book is really well-timed because right now, it's never been so sexy to say you're an entrepreneur.”

Mike Simmons

“With great strengths come great weaknesses.”

Gino Wickman

“Entrepreneurship and being an entrepreneur is not like this ultimate career destination; it's not the pinnacle in life. It's one of many career choices, and it's hard and it's brutal and most entrepreneurs die broke.”

Gino Wickman

“One of the traits that is missing from a lot of people who tell me they're entrepreneurs is they are not driven, they don't have a sense of urgency.”

Mike Simmons

“I don't motivate people. What I teach is motivating to motivated people.”

Gino Wickman

“Having a mentor will get you there faster, but please know that not having a mentor doesn't mean you're gonna fail.”

Gino Wickman

“If you want to build a $10 million furniture company, go find somebody who has a $10 million furniture company. It'll speed up your learning.”

Gino Wickman

“The number one reason you're going to succeed as an entrepreneur is having a passion for something. Because, as an entrepreneur, when you take your entrepreneurial leap, for 10 years you're gonna get knocked on your ass often, and the only thing that gets an entrepreneur to pick themselves up and continue to go against every odd is passion.”