Watching a great athlete who rises to the occasion time and time again—a great hitter in baseball who celebrates a victory like it’s the first time he’s ever won anything, or a three-point shooter in basketball who never loses her enthusiasm at making a shot—makes you wonder about their motivation as you admire their athleticism.
How does he keep up that energy level? How can he keep going after championships when he already has so many under his belt?
The answer is simple: he stays hungry.
That’s an invaluable lesson for everyone. Don’t ever lose the hunger for what you’re doing.
That may be an easy thing for many entrepreneurs to do. Since they’re just starting out, with big dreams, staying hungry is one of the last things they have to worry about.
But starting a business or trying to take an existing one to the next level can be exhausting. Physically, putting in fourteen hours a day seven days a week will wear down even the strongest among us. Add to that the emotional and psychological strain—maybe you’re putting your life savings on the line, or someone else in your family is relying on your success—and it can be way too tempting to ease back occasionally, just to catch your breath.
That’s perfectly okay, every now and then. But to truly make your business a success—and to continue building on that success—you must get that hunger back.
LISTEN!
Start by remembering a simple rule that I stress over and over: know what you’re good at and what you’re not. That’s an essential component of building your business. If you know what you’re good at—and make certain to work with people who have skills you don’t have—you have a balance of skills to address problems and leverage opportunities at the same time.
But examine what you do well with an especially personal point of view. You’re good at something. Why in the world would you not want to try to be the best you possibly can be? And why not try to be better at something than anyone else you know?
My definition of business success has to do with making money. However, success in life isn’t measured in dollars or the size of your wallet.
But you can use the issue of money to your advantage. How?
Feel poor. I always thought about things I couldn’t afford.
What I mean by that is this: think of something you’d really like to do or own. But, you don’t have the necessary cash. That’s feeling poor, and it can be a powerful means of staying hungry.
Obviously, feeling poor will mean different things to different people. A young entrepreneur may feel poor because he can’t buy a house. A more successful one may feel poor because she can’t buy that boat she has her heart set on. No matter the dream, feeling poor can make you very, very hungry.
For me, I always had the dream of owning a sports franchise in my hometown. I was able to realize that dream with the purchase of the Houston Rockets, a deal that involved my putting up $100 million in nonrefundable cash toward a $2.2 billion price. I could have owned them years earlier for $85 million, but I couldn’t come up with the money then. Even though I was very wealthy at the time, that made me feel poor, and I thought I would never have another chance, since pro franchises don’t change ownership all that often. But when the Rockets became available again, I was bound to find a way to buy. Which I did.
That attitude will also keep you hungry. For me, I could have called it quits after I was worth $500 million, but my goal was to be on the Forbes billionaire list, so I didn’t stop. Stay hungry because you want to be the best. The business world is sport to me, but you can’t measure your success in it by wins and losses. You can measure your success only by how much money you make.
Another way to stay hungry has to do with perspective. When things are going well, it can be all too easy to kick back and become complacent. Why bust your rear if you don’t need to? Let the good times roll.
If you recall my story about the banking industry in Houston in the early 1980s, you could probably picture a lot of people—bankers, businesspeople, and politicians, among others—who were absolutely convinced that the good times were there to stay. They were absolutely wrong.
Staying hungry is easier if you keep that in mind. Just because your business is growing and doing well today, don’t ever make the assumption that situation is never going to change. That’s because it’s going to—you can be absolutely certain of that. And staying hungry when the times are good will put you in a much better position when things go sour.
You’ll be able to move forward when times are challenging. If you stay hungry no matter what is happening around you, it’s much easier to maintain that hunger—or ramp it up even more—when you have to struggle some. You won’t have to completely shift gears.
“No matter the circumstances, be the bull.”
All of this comes down to a central message: be the bull. By that I mean be strong, opportunistic, and confident, not to mention always prepared, regardless of what may be happening or is going to happen. In my case, being the bull meant following through on the purchase of the Houston Rockets by staking millions in nonrefundable cash—even though another bidder was in the lead. Teach yourself to be the same type of bull in your business.
Remember, there’s a paddle for everyone’s ass. And a bull is always ready to avoid the swat. For instance, in section 2, I emphasized the point of liquidity. When times are challenging and others are struggling, that makes for a bull poised to charge—a hungry bull ready to seize opportunities when others are merely scrambling to survive. Be a bull that’s strong when others are weak.
But being hungry and staying hungry shouldn’t be a solo effort. It’s critical to surround yourself and work with others who are every bit as motivated and hungry as you. One person with passion is an asset—many people with that same level of passion are invaluable. By the same token, a passionate, hungry person working alongside others who are basically mailing it in is a surefire recipe for frustration, bitterness, and failure.
Finally, to stay hungry, never see anything as an obstacle, something impossible to overcome. Instead, take things as challenges, steps that require solutions to get to the finish line.
This addresses a problem that I’ll discuss in more detail later but is worth mentioning again now. Many people throw in the towel way too early, particularly in business. They’re confronted with problems—often, very significant ones—and they assume there’s no way over or around them. So they give up.
I like to say that when it comes to your business, never give up until the moment they come and padlock your front door. Until then, everything and anything is possible. And if you approach things with an eye to solving challenges instead of seeing them as obstacles that can’t be overcome, you’ll never lose the hunger that’s so critical to taking your business to the next level, and the level after that.
TILMAN’S TARGETS
• Surround yourself and work with others who are every bit as motivated as you.
• Always stay hungry. Never become complacent.
• Define success by being better at something than anyone else.
• Staying hungry when times are good will reward you when faced with challenges.
• Treat every issue as a challenge instead of an obstacle.