Through The Toughest Times, True Leaders Prevail

BY BILL WALSH

As a top business coach, venture capitalist, and entrepreneur, it was an honor to receive the Leigh Steinberg Leadership Award at a Super Bowl party this past weekend in Scottsdale, Arizona.

When I look back and think about being able to serve more than a million clients that have attended the events that we hosted or sponsored over the last ten years, I realize that building something great always takes time. It never happens overnight, and you must go through the challenges and struggles required to build something great.

As you launch, grow, and build a business, it’s okay if it doesn’t happen overnight. Even if it takes one year to five years to build a real business, it’s worth it.

As someone who grew up on the south side of Chicago, where we didn’t have a lot of money, I know that the only true path to building something great was through entrepreneurship. At nine years old, I knew this when I started my journey with a paper route. This is very similar to how other successful entrepreneurs also began their own careers.

As I went through grammar school, high school, and then college, I knew that my career path would be focused on entrepreneurship. Sure enough, after trading in currency in New York and Chicago, working for nearly a decade in fixing businesses, and helping them launch, grow and scale or sell or even go public, I confirmed that any real success is always built around surrounding yourself with a great team.

In addition to all that, it’s never easy during tough times. You need to understand that leadership is earned and not granted. It’s the same with success –it’s never granted. And when you do pay the price for success, I believe you always pay full price, and you always pay in advance. If you’re reading this today, you know it comes with a struggle.

As leaders, we go through similar struggles as someone just going through the grind. The only difference is that we begin to move the big rocks first. I always go after the biggest challenges and get the big things done first; then, the easier things seem to be much more fluid and easier to handle.

As an entrepreneur, it is essential to surround yourself with people who believe in your vision, feel your passion, and understand your path and purpose because they genuinely care about your success. You’re going to find during your path to becoming a great leader that it requires you to take the time to be very careful of who you spend your time with. Who do you allow into your inner circle? Who do you allow into your ear? Who do you listen to? Who do you not listen to?

If you allow the wrong people in, they might suck the life out of you. Though you may think they’re in your corner and helping you, in reality, they may not be. It’s always easy to look and pay attention to those that truly support your small victories because those are the same people that will support your big victories. I would challenge everyone to be very thoughtful about who you allow into that inner circle.

When you decide to do something, go all in, give it everything you have, and don’t be afraid to fail. That’s the mark of a great entrepreneur. When we launched our business course Rainmaker Summit to help entrepreneurs nearly 18 years ago, the vision was about changing the world, one entrepreneur at a time. We wanted to elevate the concept and belief that you can be successful as long as you put in the work, have a plan, and have systems and a team to achieve those excellent outcomes. It is the only way to get there.

In addition, make sure that you realize there’s a price that goes along with leadership. It means you’ve got to show up even when you don’t want to.

This reminds me of a funny story of this young man named Johnny. When he woke up, he talked to his mom about not wanting to go to school that day. He said, “Mom, I just can’t go to school. You don’t understand that all the kids always laugh at me. They say things behind my back.”

His mom told him, “But Johnny, you have to go to school”. And he said, “No, you don’t understand. When I go on the playground, sometimes they write things in the playground and make fun of me as I walk past everybody. And many times, they’ll lock the doors or do crazy things that keep me away from where I’m supposed to be. So really, Mom, I don’t want to go to school today.” And the mom came back and said, “But Johnny, you’re the principal. You have to go to school today.”

I would tell you the same thing in your business: you have to go to work every day, even if it’s part-time. If it’s a part-time business, give it full-time effort. And if it’s a full-time business, you have to give it everything you have.

As you know, the crazy test for entrepreneurs is that entrepreneurs are the only ones that work 100 hours a week, so we don’t just work 40. But that is the price you’ll pay to become a great leader.

If you want the real secret and leadership, it’s not about people blindly following you. It’s not about having people that do just what you say because you say it. Instead, it’s the ability to truly inspire others to see their own greatness. It’s about giving them the best possible path to achieve all their biggest goals and dreams, which go along with where you’re taking your brand, company, and story.

So hopefully, you get a bit of an understanding of what it takes to become a great leader. It is always through the toughest times that true leaders prevail.

I was asked these questions as well: how do you define leadership? How do you define success? I believe that success is defined by putting these two things together: persistence and failure equal success.

When you begin to think about it, leadership is about making a difference, serving other people, and knowing that your heart and mind are in the right place. Leadership becomes a natural trait in everything you do, so if you truly want to become a great leader, start by becoming a great servant and then get exceptional at what you do. Before you know it, because you serve so many other people, you are recognized as the true leader you’re born to be.

About the author:

Bill Walsh is a venture capitalist and the CEO/Founder of the Success Education/ Business Coaching firm Powerteam International. He hosts and speaks at events worldwide, and his passion is to empower entrepreneurs and business owners to create massive success.

Aside from being an amazing speaker, radio personality, and movie celebrity, Bill is also the best-selling author of the book “The Obvious”. He has a very successful background in finance and marketing, having spent over two decades working with start-ups to major global brands to help them increase sales, productivity, and overall success.

Bill also has an extensive background in foreign currency trading, real estate development, and building businesses in more than 30 countries. Over the past two decades, his firm has specialized in helping companies launch, grow and create exponential valuation in the market.