9 Pieces of Advice for Future Leaders

The very first thing is to find something that you believe in and go after it. Not everyone is meant to be an entrepreneur, right? It's not easy. When you challenge yourself and you push yourself into things that you don't even know you're capable of, you'll be surprised at what comes out the other side. Your greatest investment is always going to be on you. You're always going to be your greatest return. Go all in on you and never stop. We practice what we preach and we differentiate ourselves by having that knowledge and that constant reinvestment in our. Good day and welcome to the Wealthy Entrepreneur Podcast. My name is Bob Gover. I will be your host for today and I have a special episode that I want to share with you today. But before I jump into that, let me just share with you a little reminder of the intention of the Wealthy Entrepreneur Podcast. This is a place where we dissect the elements that contribute to entrepreneurial success, from mindset and leadership to profits and revenue. And this episode is going to be titled nine Pieces of Advice for Future Leaders. So I've had a really great opportunity to spend a good chunk of time over the last six to eight months over at the local university, Trent University. And that's actually where I went to undergraduate business school and probably where I found my real passion for entrepreneurship and business. And I'll remember, and hopefully he would listen to this too. Ray Dart was a true inspiration for me. I know when I went to university and I first got there, my anticipation that I was going to be a teacher, that I realized that I liked teaching, I liked sharing, I liked coaching to a certain extent and felt like teaching was a really good fit for, for my personality at the time. And, and at the time I didn't get into teachers college. And now Trent University has a really fantastic. It was a concurrent education program with another university called Queen's and, and my marks were just slightly below where they were expected in order to get in. And you know, this ended up being a blessing in disguise because the first year I got into Trent University, I listened to Ray Dart who came in. I'm not even sure that he was wearing shoes. He was wearing shirts and probably a beaten up T shirt. And he came in and he started talking about perspectives and how to frame and reframe perspectives and in order to see things in a different way. And man, did he start to shape my mind of what was potentially possible in the world. And I'm a pretty motivated person. I'm pretty competitive in wanting to continue to do better And I felt like I had found my. My purpose, which was to create something bigger than me. And I didn't feel like I could achieve that being a teacher. In fact, I still go back and I teach now, so I. I'm really accomplishing both. But kudos to Trent University and Radart specifically, who started to bend my mind into what was really possible out there in the entrepreneurial space. And so grateful that I had that opportunity. So this year, I've been taking on the role of the CEO in residence at Trent University, spending a lot of time with the next generation. And I know I've talked a little bit about how the future employers need to modify their approach to employment to make sure that we're capturing the interest and attention of the next generation. Because if we accommodate, as we should, you know, a better environment for employees, they're really just pushing us towards this, that these guys are high performers, and I've got so many of them that I'm grateful to have on my team. And again, feedback with me. Working with a lot of these students in mentorship over the last six to nine months has been incredible. And what I did today is I created a little bit of a summary of top nine things that I feel are imperative for the future leader, and so I'm going to start sharing those now. So the very first thing is to find something that you believe in and go after it. Not everyone is meant to be an entrepreneur, right? It's not easy, I can tell you. I've got battle scars, I've got wrinkles to show you, you know, just how difficult it can be. But really, it all comes down to either finding your vision, creating something that's unique, or finding someone else's vision that you align with. And you can find your own vision or find someone else's that you believe in, but the important thing is, is that you find it. It will make every day full of passion and never feel like work again. I had a podcast earlier on with Dan Martell, extremely successful entrepreneur, and one of the things that he said as a piece of advice that he would give to the next generation is find something you love, and no day feels like work. And I think that's important because all of us are going to be working. You know, I'm going to probably be working until I'm 80, but I need to be doing something that I love so that it doesn't feel like work. Because if you can imagine going from when I was 25 to 80, that's a significant amount of time, you know, 50 plus years in doing the same thing potentially or going to the same job. You need to find something that really inspires you. And it might not be the mechanics of the work, but it might be the reason or the purpose of what that work does and accomplishes. Where that is exactly why we do what we do. We're here to empower entrepreneurs with good financial information so you can use that information to make informed decisions, financially beneficial decisions. Reinvest in yourself. Because entrepreneurs are ultimately the greatest community in the world who can make the greatest influence. And that's what we're trying to do, is help entrepreneurs make global change. So find your purpose or find someone else's that you align with. You don't have to be an entrepreneur. It's really tough, doesn't mean you can't be one, but just be prepared for it. But, but find that passion and it will fuel your future. Number two on my list is resiliency is a must. Life, not just entrepreneurship, but life is not easy. Be prepared to be beat up along the way and find a way to make your way through the struggle makes you stronger. And I truly believe in this. You know, a lot of people introverts, you know, introverts in the accounting space post Covid, a lot of people are feeling more introverted because we spent a lot of time in sort of isolation and social connection is more challenging than ever. But what we need to understand is that when we put ourselves into a position that's challenging, that's difficult, that's where we have our greatest growth. And when you challenge yourself and you push yourself into things that you don't even know you're capable of, you'll be surprised at what comes out the other side. One, it may be a failure, and that's okay. Failure is part of the journey. But what you learn and experience along that journey is what is really the end game. But just be prepared that when you do push yourself in here, that's where you have your greatest growth. But it doesn't always come easy. So resiliency is key number three. And this kind of piggybacks on resiliency. But failure will happen. It's how you deal with it that will determine your future. You must embrace the learning to drive your future path. The more risk you take, the more failure you will face. And honestly, this is a conversation I have with my kids often when they deal with some sort of failure or challenge in their life because it happens, right? Whether we're teenagers and it's relationships, whether it's friends, whether It's a spouse. Whether it's a potential spouse, whether it's grades that don't come up, whether it's a sporting event or a sporting team where you have challenges. We all have challenges at some point in our lives. And it's how you respond to it that really builds character. And I usually tell my kids, you have really two ways to respond. One is to essentially feel like the world owes you something and feel sorry for yourself. Or two is to respond in a way where you go out and you prove them wrong. And this is proving the world wrong. It's proving yourself wrong, going out, getting back up, dusting yourself off and pursuing the next opportunity. And failure will happen. Just it's how you deal with it that will determine your future. Number four. And this has been a big one where when people have been asking me, students have been asking me over the last year, you know, what is your greatest piece of advice? And it's this. Find rooms where people that have accomplished what you want to accomplish are and learn from them. Be prepared, though, to feel imposter syndrome. And it's okay. So one quick story. I remember my friend Giovanni, who's also been on the podcast. He created an event, it was called the Archangel's Masters event. And in that event, it was in San Diego. I remember going to that event and there was a million dollar revenue sort of benchmark. And this would have been back in maybe 2012, 2013, maybe 2014. I was just over $1 million in revenue. And I thought, wow, wouldn't this be cool? I'm going to go and find all of these people who've had more success than me because I'm scraping the boundary here of who should be allowed. And so I go to the event and it was nothing short of incredible. You know, a lot of the people who have had on my podcast, I've met through networks like that, like a Dan Martel, for example, a Giovanni, for example Simon Bowen. Lots of incredible, I would say, world experts and super accomplished entrepreneurs. And I remember going there and sitting in the room going, look at the incredible room of people and what they've all accomplished. I've accomplished nothing. And I've never felt in my life up until that point more resistance for me. I essentially, as an extrovert, I would call myself an extrovert with introverted tendencies. And those introverted tendencies are getting stronger as I'm getting older, but I'm still an extrovert. And being in that room was a great challenge because my voice, I felt like my Voice meant nothing. And that was on me, not based on how anyone perceived me. And for the first couple days of the event, I was very quiet, I was very self conscious because I felt like I was an imposter in a room full of successful people. And in the final day, you know, and I tend to do this when I'm at events, I say, let's embrace the experience and, and get the most out of it. And this was pushing myself not only to be in this room, but then to push myself to be a contributor in this room. And it was amazing. Even though I was a fairly small business, just hitting the barrier of entry, when I started to share some of my wisdom and my experience and some of my challenges, all of a sudden everyone started listening and, you know, tell me more. My insights were helping them and it's something that you need to be mindful of. Find these rooms where these people exist and know that your voice has meaning. And even if you feel like it doesn't, like you feel like you don't belong here, this is exactly where you're supposed to be. Because these people are those that have accomplished what you want to accomplish. Learn from them, embrace it. Build connections, build relationships. These are the people who you're going to surround yourself with as you head to the next part of your journey. And it's so important because those people have done it and they can help you do it faster. So it's super important. That's probably my greatest piece of advice for anyone. Number six again, ties into this. But get uncomfortable and push yourself into uncomfortable situations. This is where you grow the most. I said this before. Failure will happen. Find rooms. You might feel like you've got imposter syndrome, or you feel like you don't belong or. But push yourself in these. I know it gets a little uncomfortable, but find areas where you can get uncomfortable so that you can get in here and take the form of your greatest learning. It's incredible to be part of and. And I wouldn't change any of that. I still continue to do that. Just happens to be that the networks and the rooms that I continue to get myself into are getting larger, more sophisticated, with more impressive people, which is incredible. But I always, every time I go to an event, I still feel like, oh man, who am I trying to fool that I'm here, but I'm here and I have a voice and I have things to share with people and they value them even if they don't. It's so valuable to be able to share these insights with people because you will find one person that will value it and you could end up changing their life based on what you know. So definitely get yourself uncomfortable, find those rooms and, and find a way to continue to grow. Number six, the greatest investment you can ever make will be in you. I said this even today in my final lecture at Trent University that your greatest investment and your greatest return will always be on yourself. It's not going to be on investing in a stock, it's not going to be investing in real estate. Your greatest investment is going to be in you. And maybe that is your knowledge and understanding and training on how to choose investment opportunities like real estate or buying a Tesla stock. But your greatest investment is always going to be on you. You're always going to be your greatest return. Go all in on you and never stop. Life of success includes constant reinvention and a commitment to being constantly growing. So that is you again. Your greatest investment that you can ever make will be in you and in your knowledge. My business went away tomorrow. I could recreate it very quickly and probably better because of the knowledge and the experience that I have and, and that I've invested in, in myself. And so continue to invest in that and you will have nothing but a plethora of wealth inside who you are and what you know. Number seven, find a way to differentiate yourself from others. The gold is in doing something different. It doesn't have to be world changing, just finding your opportunities to do things differently. Also making sure that you, you're giving yourself into this, making sure that you are finding and continuing to reinvent yourself to constantly change. Differentiation is where you get attention and attraction. Even thinking of myself for, you know, accounting and tax purposes. Our differentiation is we focus on working with business owners and entrepreneurs, right? Our differentiation is that we are a business owner and an entrepreneur. We aren't just an accountant who sits in a room and uses an adding machine. We really understand DNA of what goes into constant entrepreneurship, reinvention, reinvestment, growing a team. We understand what this looks like. That is different than most CPA firms who, where I'm in an industry that has a 0% growth rate and we've got a 40 plus percent growth rate in our company because we do what we preach, we practice what we preach and we differentiate ourselves by having that knowledge and that constant reinvestment in ourselves. So find a way to differentiate yourself. That is where the gold is. Number eight. And this builds on finding the rooms, but build your network. Life is a people business and business is a people business. Surround yourself with people who want to achieve great things and build relationships on care, support and encouragement. So not only are you building relationships with employees based on care and based on trust, but you're also going to need to go find your network of people who are doing what you're doing. Now what I mean by this is that as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, you know what I mean when I say that people don't just understand what it takes to be one of us. And when I think of entrepreneurs and I think of, you know, business owners who take a Friday off to go watch a kid's sporting event or maybe take your family on a vacation for four days and you don't have limited vacation. And you know, the first comment that you hear from someone who's not a business owner is, well, must be nice to be you, right? It's different. People don't understand what goes into creating the opportunity to take those four days off. They don't realize you worked 100 hour weeks. They don't realize the financial stress, the employees leaving, the upset customers that we're dealing with. You know, constant reinvention of ourselves, investing in marketing, trying things out, defective products and materials that come into our business, errors and omissions that happen from our team that cause challenges. All of that is what weighs on us as business owners and entrepreneurs. And people don't understand that. And at the same token, when they don't understand the challenges, they really find it hard to cheer us on when we have an element of success. You know, it's really hard for you as a business owner to say, you know what, I, I generated a sale for a million dollars. The person who works down the street in a union environment isn't necessarily going to respect or appreciate that. In fact, they'll probably judge it and think that it's awful how you could be so focused on money when that's not what it is. You know, the money is necessary in order to be successful and to continue to make a difference in the world. But people don't understand that, but we do. So build your network. Life is a people business. Surround yourself with like minded individuals who can cheer each other on and support each other along this journey. Because I can tell you the journey gets very, very lonely as part of it. So you need to have people who understand you, who are going through similar challenges that you guys can support each other. And I'm going to share with you something we created in a moment that maybe can help support that. And number nine, number nine is give first this is something that I learned from Tony Robbins and I watched it happen, and it was incredibly powerful and emotional just to be part of it. But the secret weapon to success is to give without expecting in return. Give more than anyone else. Go above and beyond for other people. When you help them achieve their goals, the world will help you achieve yours. And it is so true if you are coming from a giving environment. You know, I've. I've built what I feel is a very strong reputation of integrity and care and diligence over my entire life. And it's something that served me very well in forming this business. It also is part of the core values of how we do things around here. And the importance of this is that we're always giving first. Yes. You know, you can't never charge anybody, but the idea would be that before you're even charging anybody, that you're able to give to them and demonstrate the value of what you can deliver. And then from there they will hire you. It doesn't always happen that way. You know, there's people who will take advantage. But again, finding and sourcing the right people that you want to work with, who align with the mission that you're trying to create, who align with your values, that's going to be the very important thing. So that is the nine things. Find something you believe and go after it. Align with a vision of your own or someone else's. Resiliency is a must. Life and business is not easy. Prepared to get beat up along the way. 3. Failure will happen. It's how you deal with it. You can choose one of two outcomes. Like I tell my kids. You can choose to feel sorry for yourself and that the world did this to you. Or you can go and prove the world wrong and you can get back up, dust yourself off, and go back at it. And I think there's a very clear winner in there as well. Number four. Find rooms where people are that have accomplished what you want to accomplish and surround yourself with them. Get in there, even if it's uncomfortable. Number five. Get uncomfortable. Push yourself. Because when you get into an area of discomfort, that's when the greatest growth happens. Number six. The greatest investment you can ever make is. Is to go all in on you. You will always be your greatest investment. Number seven. Find a way to differentiate. Differentiate yourself. The goal is in doing something different than other people have. Number eight. Build your network. Find your people who will support you along your journey. It's imperative. It can be lonely. You want to find people who can support you. And will cheer for you and you can cheer for them and help each other accomplish things quicker. And number nine, the secret weapon, which is to give first, always give without expecting in return and you will never be disappointed. What will happen is all of a sudden people will start referring you, hiring you, paying you, and all of a sudden you've got a professional career that will evolve beyond just giving first. But give first without an expectation in return and you always will live a life of success. And now with these top nine factors, just a reminder for anyone who doesn't know what we've done. We're an accounting firm and a professional services firm. But what we did was we created a mastermind group of just this, which was the build your network part. So we built a mastermind group called Million Dollar year. And in Million Dollar Year we talk about all of these things and in fact we support each other, we cheer each other on, we recognize when we have failures, we share them so we can all learn from them and and support each other to accomplish them again. An area where we can celebrate success and do so safely. Beyond that, we're also doing trainings weekly. We're also helping business owners understand how to get the confidence to make informed decisions and understand how to maximize and capitalize on strategic opportunities. MillionDollaryear CA is where that membership is. We'll put the link in below. Would love for you to check it out. First 30 days are free. Come in and check it out. Be part of it. Embrace yourself with it. Because building your network of peers and people who will continue to push you beyond where you are even comfortable so you can get your greatest learning and we can celebrate that success together. It's a pretty powerful, incredible thing. Make sure you check that out, guys. It's been the wealthy entrepreneur, the top nine piece of advice for future leaders for sure. Every single one of these things I live every single day. I continue to double down on all of them because they're imperative for me to get to the next level. And I hope this has been insightful for you to get to the next level as well. If this has been helpful, share this out. Share this with your community. Someone who needs to hear these nine pieces of advice for future leaders. Leave a comment below. Would love to hear from you. If there's something you would like me to talk about in here about my journey, I would be happy to drop a note in here. Make sure you give us a follow up. You know our next episode will be coming out next week. It does. Every single week. We're consistent with this. We're almost through our first 40 episodes coming up here, and we're excited to deliver this every single day. But we need you to continue to follow us because we'll notify you when the next episode comes out. And maybe this one piece of advice that we'll share will transform your life. This has been the Wealthy Entrepreneur. I'm Bob Govreau. Thanks for hanging out. I look forward to seeing you next week.