In our last lesson, we defined the Owner’s Mandate: to choose your “hard” and commit to constant learning. Now, we must talk about the five great filters that stand between you and your goal.
These are not just “pitfalls to avoid.” Think of them as five gates. Every aspiring entrepreneur approaches them, but only those who understand how to pass through them will succeed. If you get stuck at any one of these gates, you will remain in the starting area forever.
The Law: To gain something new, you must sacrifice something old.
The size of your goal determines the size of the required sacrifice. Imagine your life is a container, already full with your current commitments: social life, hobbies, leisure time. Your new, big goal of building a business is sitting outside this container. It doesn’t fit.
You cannot simply add a new goal of this magnitude on top of your existing life. You must consciously subtract something to create the space.
A small goal might require sacrificing an hour of TV at night.
A big goal might require sacrificing weekends for a year.
A massive goal will require a massive sacrifice.
Many people want their life to get better while keeping everything exactly the same. This is a fantasy. The first gate only opens for those willing to pay the price of admission, and that price is sacrifice. What you sacrifice is up to you, but you must sacrifice something.
The Law: Average effort begets average results.
To get a result most people don’t have, you must be willing to do what most people won’t do. You cannot do what everyone else is doing and expect to outperform them.
The story of the two guitarists illustrates this perfectly. I was the average student, doing exactly what was asked. The other student, Nick, was exceptional. The difference wasn’t the teaching; it was the effort. When asked to learn an intro, he would learn the entire song, plus three others. He was putting in 20 times the effort, and he was getting 100 times the result.
This is the principle of disproportionate effort.
Average: The average CEO reads 50 books a year. I wanted an exceptional result, so I read 365 books a year for three years.
Average: A business owner sends 10 cold calls a week and says, “it’s not working.” I was sending 100 a day and booking meetings.
The second gate only opens for those who understand that “enough” is not enough. You must redefine your standard of effort to be significantly higher than the average.
The Law: You cannot judge a strategy’s effectiveness until you’ve maxed out the effort dial.
This is where most entrepreneurs get stuck in a loop. They try a little of everything and conclude that nothing works. The problem isn’t the strategy; it’s the capacity.
Think of your effort as a Volume Dial on a stereo.
An archer with a 30% accurate strategy (a good song) shoots one arrow a week (Volume Dial at 1). They hit nothing and conclude, “This strategy is broken.”
Another archer takes the exact same strategy but shoots 100 arrows a day (Volume Dial at 10). They get hundreds of hits and know the strategy works.
Before you ever ask, “Is this the right strategy?” you must first ask, “Have I turned the Volume Dial to 10?”
If you are only putting in minimal effort, even the world’s best strategy will produce a poor result. Max out the capacity of what you are currently doing first. Only then can you accurately compare its effectiveness to another strategy. The third gate only opens for those who turn up the volume.
The Law: Success comes from digging one 100-foot well, not one hundred 1-foot wells.
This is the “shiny object” syndrome filter. Imagine there is gold 100 feet below the ground.
The unfocused entrepreneur digs a 1-foot hole, finds no gold, and says, “This spot is no good.” They move ten feet over, dig another 1-foot hole, and repeat the process one hundred times. They work hard but never get the prize.
The focused entrepreneur chooses a promising spot and commits. They dig 100 feet deep in that one spot and find the gold.
Almost any strategy can work if you commit to it. Cold calls work. Ads work. SEO works. The question is not “Will this work?” The question is, “Will I commit to making this work?”
Every time you jump from one strategy to another, you are starting a new 1-foot well. The fourth gate only opens for those who commit to digging deep.
The Law: An owner manages risk; an employee avoids it.
If you are looking for a “guarantee” in business, you are operating with an employee mindset. Everything has risk.
Hiring an employee is a risk.
Launching a new product is a risk.
Running ads is a risk.
An employee looks for a salaried job with benefits to minimize personal risk. An owner understands that their job is to be a portfolio manager of calculated risks. They don’t look for risk-free options (they don’t exist). They compare the potential risk against the potential reward and make the most intelligent decision they can, despite the uncertainty.
The strength of an owner is not in finding risk-free paths. It is the courage to take action anyway, accepting the inherent risk in everything they do. The fifth and final gate only opens for those who are willing to manage risk, not run from it.
You now know the five gates. It’s time to see which one might be holding you back. “Interactive Pitfall Audit Tool”
Review the 5 Filters: Sacrifice, Effort, Capacity, Focus, and Risk.
Identify Your Sticking Point: On a scale of 1-5 (where 1 is “This is a major challenge for me” and 5 is “I have this handled”), rate yourself on each filter.
Define Your Focus: Which filter has the lowest score? This is your primary area for conscious improvement. What is one action you can take this week to begin opening that gate?
That’s it for this Expectations module. Moving forward, we’re going to get into more tactical strategies. I look forward to seeing you in the next module.
