Jim Johnson realized leadership meant asking employees what they actually wanted in life, then aligning their work with those goals. He set a $5 million revenue target for his first year and hit it.
$5 million (the goal was to do 5 million in the first year)
And that was the epiphany is like that absolutely shifted the way my mind thought. And I went, hey, if I make this more about them and what they're going to do, then the result is just a byproduct of that. So I started to actually ask questions of the people that work for me. Hey, what is it that you want to achieve? What are you trying to get out of life? What kind of lifestyle do you want to live? What does it look like for you to be successful? I would ask these questions. As I asked those questions, I would take notes and then that's what I would focus on. I would remind them that the effort and the activity and those things that they were putting in were getting them closer to the new truck, the new house, the kids college fund, the property they wanted to buy, whatever it was that they were truly focused on. And not only am I going to do well in that, I'm going to beat you at it. And so I was focused on that. And because I was focused on that, I went about hiring a group of guys. I didn't go after any of their guys. I hired my own guys, went after my own thing. And the goal was to do 5 million in the first year. And we did no problem.
