This is a transcript of part three of Larry Weidel's "Becoming a Leader" series (video). The speaker's Principle #3 is that top leaders constantly look down the road for the next step — they plan ahead, simplify processes, evaluate people for future roles, and scale through a multiplication mindset. The chunk illustrates practical tactics (streamline paperwork, use technology, set up systems) and examples across industries (bands/gigs, Angry Birds/game development, dentists/clinics) to show how incremental steps and repeated efforts lead to larger success.
Welcome to part three of the Becoming a Leader series. Let's keep rolling on top 10 things winners do cause them to rise and stay on the top. Next one has also to do with what they've got in their mind. And that is probably an extension of number two, having big goals, big dreams. Number three is they're constantly looking down the road for the next step. It's like they're playing chess, they're playing checkers, they're saying, I'm doing this, but what will it lead to? And when you have that mentality and you have that game plan for yourself that allows you not only to look at opportunities, it not only look at, you know, what opportunities may come down the road from what you're doing, but what your process is. In other words, how you do things. If you're looking out the road and your plan to moving bigger and better things, you're always looking for, how can I get done what I'm doing today? Simpler and quicker. The other thing you look at, you're looking at people differently. You're not looking at the people that you have working with you and evaluating them totally on how well they're performing now, but you're wondering and you're evaluating and you're testing to see if these are people that can move on to bigger and better things. Since you're planning to move to bigger and better things, you're looking down the road and saying, how can I get things done quicker? How can I set up systems in our office and our workflow? What things can I eliminate? Where will technology help? How can we compress things that take four or five sheets of paper and get it done on a half a sheet of paper, eliminating the fluff type thing and then you're evaluating the people. Another example of this, See, the point is like if you do, let's just say you're in a, you have a band and you get a gig in a high school. Well, the deal is, is that going to be your entire career? Say, boy, I was incredible at that. We, you know, it was great. It was unbelievable. People are still talking. It's all of what it leads to. Maybe what you're thinking, the reason that you knock yourself out is not only when the high school needs somebody else to come back in again, they might think about you, but someone attending who's got a party coming up, they might want to get you. But also there might be people who are involved in the industry who can have even bigger things for you. So what you want to do is you start Small. But the idea is you want to get bigger, bigger, bigger. You know, if you want to go all the way to the top, you know, you want to pretty much. You find this is how bands have done. They started playing in their bedroom, had a few kids over, then they moved to their garage. And that was not their entire career they were thinking of. Now let's play outside of the garage. It's hard to be a rock star inside the garage. So you find people in business, well, really in all phases of life who do well. They're constantly looking down the road. It's not that they're miserable human beings that are not satisfied with anything in life, but they're just thinking of possibilities. Why be limited when they make. Let's just say when they make one product, you accompany. Let's just say the company that did Angry Birds, that came out of, what, Norway or some. One of those countries over there, you know, the Angry Birds, the incredible Angry Birds app. They said they had 50 apps that they went through before they came up with that simple little Angry Bird app that exploded, that's been sold, what, hundreds of millions of time, and now they've got all kind of different versions of Angry Birds. So what happened is you had one guy, he had an idea, let's put it out there, maybe had a little success with it, but in the process, he gets another inspiration and he says, okay, let's make another. Let's make another game. You know, the people that bought the first one, they wind up buying it. Then he gets other ideas and he builds, you know, something, they don't all work, but they go bigger and bigger and bigger. You might try, you know, this time you might put out three or four of them and. And it's his last one that takes off, but maybe that one goes through the roof. So now he's continuing to move on his career. These failures don't matter. See, this guy went through a long road. That's why you don't see the instant success. Because this thing, usually success is not instant. It's baby steps. All kind of baby steps. It's not a straight line. It's around. But things Commit you learn, things you get. I'll promise you. Or when he started with the idea of making games, he was thinking about, how can I do this better? How can I make this more fun? How can I make it simpler? Because these games have to be intuitive. People have to figure out how to play them pretty quick, otherwise nobody's going to play them. And then as he gets in, he shows his friends, probably when it came time for him to hire. So it's now him and somebody else. Chances are that was one of his buddies who had been watching and he'd been talking to about this whole thing all along. And the original guy was evaluating. When I get big enough, I'm gonna get this guy working with me. And so step by step, he's improving his processes. He's looking for people, but he's looking like, what can this lead to? So they have this long road, and eventually they come up with Angry Birds and then, boom, Multi zillionaires. And, you know, isn't that how actors work? They get a bit part, they get known in the industry, make some friends, maybe even work as an extra, make contacts step by step. See? And so the people that move up in the world that rise to the top and stay there are people that are always looking for, what's the next step? One thing you could say is they think in terms. They have a multiplication principle in their mind. A multiplication principle. In other words, if I do one thing, like, if I have one outlet, I have one store, one business, one product, and in the next month, in the next six next quarter, the next year, I can open another one. Well, now, with the same 24 hours in the day, I can run two. And then if I take each one of those, it take the best and brightest people, best and brightest ideas, whatever it is, if it's a. Whatever kind of product it is, you open another store, develop another product, whatever. Now, in the same 24 hours in the day, you're managing a business that has four locations. Maybe you're an agent, you got four bands that you're keeping up with. I don't know. But in whatever industry you're in, like, let's just say you're a dentist. You have the vast ocean of dentists that don't think beyond having their own office working. What. What do dentists work three days a week, like four hours? Once they're established, they work as little as possible and they have a nice life. And that's, you know, that's the way they think. It's great being a dentist. Other dentists think in terms of, I've got this location here six months from now, I'd love to have the same location plus another location on the other side of town. And then they continue to expand and they take the best and brightest people, the best dentists, the best staff people, and give them the opportunity to move out and open the new location. And see, these are the guys it's great to work with because there's more opportunity. But, you know, you see this with chiropractors, dentists, doctors, where they started with one office, and all of a sudden now they've got a network of 20 or 30 offices, clinics. They go to the top in their profession by multiplication, looking ahead.
