What is “Ultrapreneurship”?
By Julian Hall
Friday, February 12,
2016.
If you’re reading this, it means
you’re probably in business or thinking about taking the leap into business.
Now let
me cut to the chase; have you ever sat down and seriously thought about why
there’s such a high failure rate in business and entrepreneurship and how you
can avoid it? There’s a big chance that you, like others before you think that
the success of your business hinges on how great your idea is.
This is
where I need you to stop, rethink and digest this statement: “Ideas are
worthless, execution is everything.”
Google
wasn’t the first search engine, Amazon wasn’t the first to sell books online,
Facebook wasn’t the first social network by any means. So how come they
dominate their respective markets?
Execution.
If
you’re a small business, your ability to execute on an idea is directly related
areas of your life which have nothing to do with your business. I summarise
these areas as being:
1. Your physical and nutritional
health
2. Your psychological and mental
well being
3. The relationships you have both
personally and professionally
4. Whether you love the work you do
(or if you’re only doing it for the money.)
Put
quite simply, if your health suffers then your ability to work on your business
will suffer. If you’re stressed out constantly, are losing sleep or nearing
depression then quite obviously this will hamper execution. If you don’t have a
support structure within your family setting, executing your idea is going to
be a struggle. And lastly, if you don’t really, truly love what you’re doing
then let’s face it, your clients or customers at some point will see though it,
and, you’ll end up hating every minute of it.
Now, in
coaching, advising and consulting for 100’s of entrepreneurs over the last 20
years, it became clear to me that none of the above were considered to be
business success factors. I mean why would they? They have nothing to do with
your business right?
I think
you’re starting to see the picture.
About
10 years ago, I was on fire. Everything I touched turned to gold and it was
great! Then a few years later, I felt like I’d lost my mojo and business became
a struggle. This carried on for a few more years until I wondered what was it
about my life previously that was different? What was going on in my life to
support the work I was doing that made me feel great?
After
reverse engineering my life at that time, I realised that the success factors
I’d listed above were all on a relatively even keel. Later on, when things
weren’t going so well, those success factors were out of wack.
I then
spent some time looking at all of the successful entrepreneurs in my network
from those who had million and billion $ companies all the way down to those
who’d not made it out of 1st gear. I realised that knowingly or
unknowingly, those who’d achieved and sustained success and kept those success
factors in check.
It was
then the idea of Ultrapreneruship was born. From the latin word, Ultra meaning
‘beyond’, I wanted entrepreneurs to go beyond the concept of just making money
and consider each one of the success factors as critical to their success in
business.
The
concept of itself was obvious once said out loud, but the execution of it is
something most struggle with. It suggests balance in the most utopian sense.
However I relate it to walking a tight rope. Firstly you’ll only do something
like that if you really love it! Secondly, keeping balance in any physical
activity requires you to move back and forward, tilting left and right, moving constantly
to give weight to whichever area of your body requires it to stay upright.
The
same dynamic exists when attaining balance in life and business. Some things
require more or less attention depending on what’s going on at the time.
Lastly,
and maybe the most important aspect of Ultrapreneurship is that you do what you
love. We spend the majority of our lives working, so would it not make sense to
spend that time doing what you love? Of course it does, but that’s not what
we’re taught is it. In fact, I’m willing to bet that someone, at some point in
your life either told you or made you feel like the thing you really wanted to
do was unattainable.
Entrepreneurs
have proven, in droves that anything is possible and we’re genuinely fascinated
by it. The common thread in each one of those stories is that they really loved
what they did. That love enabled them to stay the course during the rough
times. Just as important and very commercial in its reasoning, when you really
love something, you’ll naturally want to make it better, improve it; make it
faster, cheaper, stronger, easier. That’s where innovation is born; true unique
selling points away from the sugar fuelled brain storming sessions that produce
mediocre ideas (for the most part).
So what
does Ultrapreneurship offer you? Sustainable success, a life where you do what
you love and make a living from it, maybe even make a million one day. Or maybe
even life a life on your terms where your health, wealth, family and friends
are all good now, then and in the future.
Julian Hall (main picture) is the best selling author of
“Entrepreneur to Ultrapreneur” and the founder of UltraEducation, an
organisation that teaches entrepreneurship skills in primary and secondary schools
across the UK (for more information visit ultra.education)