Learn to Duck

Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy, from Star Trek, when faced with an apparent impossible task, would exclaim, “Dammit Jim, Im a doctor not a miracle worker!”

Success often breeds difficulties that young entreprenuers never foresee.

At Current Wisdom, our success was greatly accelerated. With yearly growth in the hundreds of percent, we found that success created logistical realities that we were ill equipped to deal with.

Hire a CPA? Whats that? I have QuickBooks, isnt that enough?

A Lawyer? For what? We wrote our own contracts?

HR? Are you kidding? We can hire and fire how ever we want.

Early success creates heightened expectations.

When you begin, as a company or a person, to really make hay, you begin to create a promise to your boss, your board, your colleagues, that you arent a one hit wonder.

So how do you avoid it?

You cant. Early success is always an indication that you have the ability to create long term success.

Read that again. If you can do it once, you can do it twice.

Its just harder the second time around.

So, here are my three rules for sustained success:

1) Realize that success doesnt fall out of the sky because you have a cool app or you are the best marketer ever. Success exists because multiple people do stuff in concert. You cant brute force or use your force of will to create success. You much create a foundation that success can build on.

2) For success to be replicated, it must be replicable. My first boss out of college gave me two pieces of advice that I continue to believe in: “Decide if you want to work to live, or live to work.” and “You are not promotable if you are irreplaceable.” Its important that YOU arent the sole reason for success, but its the mechanics of your business or your process.

3) Fail. Failure is important to remind you of the importance of success. So fail quickly. Then move just as quickly to erase that failure and replace it with success.

There is a corollary to these rules.

Dont be a miracle worker. Just be a doctor. Just be the best doctor you possibly can be. Its probably more than enough given you have either gotten a business off the ground, or hired to do a job.

Finally, success isnt hard. Its just hard work. Dont buy into the hype or the naysayers — you are probably not as good as some think, and better than others think.

Just keep on keeping on.