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 1^st 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)