IAM2176 – If You Run Your Race, You Can’t Lose

Gresham Harkless discusses the importance of understanding and internalizing the concept of running your own race, providing wisdom for entrepreneurs and business owners. He shares insights from an interview with Edson Barton about the importance of self-knowledge and its impact on success in business.

Gresham emphasizes the negative effects of comparing oneself to others in business and advocates for understanding and embracing one's unique race. Gresh discusses the importance of focusing on strengths, unique value propositions, and aligning strategies with the vision of the business. He highlights the significance of staying aligned with core values and mission to achieve long-term success and fulfillment in business. And the importance of patience, persistence, and understanding that success doesn't happen overnight in business.

Gresham focus on the importance of measuring progress against goals, embracing flexibility, and adapting to the ever-changing business landscape. He encourages entrepreneurs to embrace their unique journey, celebrate small victories, and contribute their unique voices and perspectives to the entrepreneurial community.

• Pillars (https://cbnation.co/pillars/): Entrepreneurship
• Traction Book: Outliers: The Story of Success
• Browse the Mini-Library/Enroll in the course!
• Are you a builder or architect? Take the quiz & challenge to find out!

Check out our CEO Hack Buzz Newsletter–our premium newsletter with hacks and nuggets to level up your organization. Sign up HERE. 

I AM CEO Handbook Volume 3 is HERE and it's FREE. Get your copy here: http://cbnation.co/iamceo3. Get the 100+ things that you can learn from 1600 business podcasts we recorded. Hear Gresh's story, learn the 16 business pillars from the podcast, find out about CBNation Architects and why you might be one and so much more. Did we mention it was FREE? Download it today!

Transcription:

The full transcription is only available to CBNation Library Members. Sign up today!

Intro 00:00

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:28

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast, and I'm super excited to get the opportunity to share the airwaves for this special episode. We are excited because we're working on our CBNation library, loads and loads of content and information helps CEOs, entrepreneurs and business owners like yourself to level up.

Specifically, if you're a builder, great opportunity for you to kind of learn about certain pillars that are within business, but also if you are a little bit more refined and more of the architect working more on the business rather than in the business, you can kind of brush up on certain things because each of the different snippets is going to be from those specific pillars.

[restrict paid=”true”]

So one of the favorite quotes I've had from doing so many podcasts is, if you run your own race, you cannot lose. And this is a powerful statement because it provides so much wisdom for entrepreneurs and business owners and leaders to be able to kind of hold on to. So I really want to spend this time doing this episode of really unpacking what that ultimately means and why you can really internalize this for your business journey.

But I also thank the people on your team. And just to give you a little bit more behind the scenes, I had a phenomenal interview. And we're going to share that interview later on, of course, and be able to delve down deeper into what that looks like.

But one of the really big things that I had the opportunity to share with one of the guests that was on the show was about and around this idea of kind of having that knowledge of self and how important that knowledge of self is and how that can really be so impactful with everything that you're doing or you're ultimately trying to do. And so, Edson Barton, who has a phenomenal business called YouScience, we talked a lot around this idea.

And this actually came up during that interview, which is one of the reasons that I wanted to share that as you get to listen to his interview and all the awesome things that they're doing to try to help arm students, but also help our people in general, just with the understanding of who they are so that they can be successful.

It really touched me because I think that so many times if we had the opportunity to know what our race is, who we are, what our abilities, our aptitudes, what really makes us special, it just increases our likelihood of success because we're more likely to enjoy the work rather than to not enjoy the process of the work or the things that we're doing.

So as well, entrepreneurship is so easy to get caught up in comparisons. We see that businesses are growing fast. They're hitting unicorn status in 30 seconds or less or more, whatever that might look like they're growing and achieving these milestones quicker.

And they seem we have everything all figured out. And that's a whole different, another episode around, the reality of entrepreneurship and what that looks like. But when you're looking at that, it can make you feel inadequate, make you feel and have that pressure to try to do the same things that other people are doing.

But the reality is, and the truth is, is that trying to run someone else's race is the only sure way to lose. You have to understand what your race is, you have to understand the race of the people that often we are leading because that's going to increase that likelihood of success.

It doesn't guarantee success because just as with any race, if you decide to not lace up your shoes, you decide to not go out and do the run and decide to call it before you're done. Even if you're moving slow, that's fine as long as you're still moving. The reality is that there's so much around trying to copy what other people are doing.

And really what we want to do is to stand on the shoulders of giants and learn from them, but not necessarily imitate them. You have that awareness around who you are, what your race is. You understand and figure out how you can cultivate that on a bigger level, and then some phenomenal things can kind of go from there.

So when you run your ratio, ultimately focusing on your strength, your goals, and your unique value proposition, or as I like to call it, your secret sauce. So every business has its own journey, challenges, and even a timeline as well too.

So when you embrace that and you start to understand that, it allows you to truly leverage your advantages, your superpowers in the superpowers for your organization and align those strategies with the vision of ultimately where you want to be. So if you really visualize yourself being a marathon runner, and I always say that entrepreneurship is really about running a marathon, you don't try to compete with sprinters.

If you try to compete with sprinters, when you're running a marathon, that's just going to set you up for failure, just as I said earlier. When a marathon runner is getting started, they know that their pace, they know their pace, they know their race, and they know their strategy on how they're going to achieve the success of what they're trying to do.

And by focusing on the strengths and endurance, they maximize their potential for success. And that's very similar to what happens in business. Know your strengths, know your superpower, set your pace and run your own race. It's such a huge thing.

So by running your race, it also means staying true to your values, your mission, and the things that are most important to you and your organization. So when we're trying to pursue success, it can be very, very, very, very tempting to compromise on who you are and what you believe in order to get what we can call quick wins.

You see that somebody has just scaled up because they've done dances on TikTok. And you try to incorporate that same thing into your business when that's not really aligned in the business.

Often, it can really muck up all the things that you're doing in your building. I did not say the other word, but you probably could interchange the other word with that because that's what it feels like when you're not in alignment with what you're doing. You're not saying true and you're just copycatting, but it's happening from other people.

So understand that true long-term success and fulfillment comes from staying aligned with your core values. It really is like building bricks. Anything I believe that's of value is built over time.

I would even argue one of the things that comes out a lot during entrepreneurship when you hear people's stories is you start to delve down deeper even if they've had their business for a year and it's reached unicorn status or whatever level you might consider success, you start to realize that it's not their first business, or that they have tested out so many different ideas, or that they went and done a lot of in-depth studying and analysis about what the problem is so that they can solve.

There's so much that's behind the scenes that you don't always realize. I think there's a lot of people that don't feel like the book Outliers is a full understanding of what it takes in the journey. But my big thing about Outliers is that I feel like Malcolm Gladwell really unveiled the reality of success. That it's not just that microwave success that we see often on socials, that we see often around people's stories.

There's so much that's behind it. I think that once we start to understand that, we understand that's the reality for most people. When you start to run your race, you will start to enjoy that process a lot more. So remember that it's not just about that destination, but it's also how ultimately you get there of integrity, authenticity, a clear sense of purpose will guide you through those challenges and ultimately keep you on track. So one of the other big things that I wanted to kind of touch on is the importance of patience and persistence.

So running your race requires a deep understanding that success doesn't happen overnight. The secret to the overnight success is it takes 10 or 15 years. And once you start to realize that, I think you start to get a little bit more awareness around what that looks like. And then two, I think you start to be more likely to choose something that you're willing to do for 10 or 15 years, even if it doesn't take that long, even if it takes longer, honestly.

When you are working at operating something that you're willing to do for that long, for one, I don't think you put everything on black, so to speak. I don't think you put everything on red. I don't think you put all your poker chips up.

I think you start to realize that, OK, this is something that I am going to do as a part-time hustle or I am going to make sure that I don't second mortgage my household for this vision or this idea. You start to be a lot more strategic with what you're doing. And I think you don't put it all on the line as much as you want to, I think, incorporate some of that risk taking. You also understand business is also around reducing the likelihood of failure, reducing your risk as well too.

So it's understanding both of those aspects and seeing how you can continue to kind of add one chip and add another chip because you won that chip. And even if you do lose a hand or you lose a couple of hands, it's not going to end your entire world, if that makes sense.

It's really around consistent effort, learning from failures, and really redefining failures, which I think is such a big thing, and celebrating small victories along the way. So every step that you take, no matter how small or how seemingly insignificant it might feel? It is progress. It's progression, as I like to say.

So comparing your beginning or your chapter in your book to somebody else's in the middle or further along can be extremely discouraging. So the important thing is to always get 1% better, to challenge yourself to be better than you were yesterday.

How can I be better than Gresh? How can I be Gresh's? But as Mark Cuban would even say too, how can I kick my own and be able to be successful, kick my own, but how can I put myself out of business? What would that look like? And continue to focus on that growth, measure your progress against your goals, and really ultimately trust that process.

So one other key aspect is running your races around embracing flexibility and adaptability. Business landscape is always constantly changing. We saw that especially during COVID and still happening as we still see the, I guess, aftershocks of what that is and what that looks like.

So when you say that you are going to rigidly stick to a plan without any room for adjustment, that could ultimately hurt your business. I often say a lot of times we need to be more attached to the why instead of the how. The how might evolve and change, but if our why is very strong, we realize that it's going to evolve and change ultimately how we are creating our plans, how we're executing on the plans and what that looks like.

So be able to navigate those obstacles, seize new opportunities while staying true to your race, staying true to your why and what that looks like. If you really kind of visualize yourself running on a trail with unexpected turns and terrain changes, you might need to adjust your pace.

You might need to find a new path. You might even have to take a moment to rest and catch your breath. But that flexibility that you incorporate into what you're doing will keep you moving forward, even when the journey is unpredictable. And I can tell you that most journeys in entrepreneurship are very unpredictable. Often we'll say like the journey of success related to entrepreneurship, but frankly life is very much so like a plate of spaghetti than the straight linear path that we think that it is.

So when we incorporate that, have better awareness of that, if we do have to take a break, if we do have to get a side hustle while we're growing our business, or we have to go back to a 9 to 5 where we're trying to grow our business, whatever those things might look like, we start to incorporate that because that's the ultimate part of success.

It's not something that we should be ashamed about. It's actually something we should embrace and know that is part of the journey so that when we do experience something that is an alternative to that, we can definitely celebrate that, but we realize that it's more of the, it's less likely to happen than it is more likely to happen that way.

And so realize one of the things that, really driven people don't do. Like I was definitely that person that it said, if you tell me that it's going to take 10 or 15 years, I'm going to try to do it in 2 years. I'm going to try to do it in 2 years. I want to try to do it in 5. I'm that type A person, that D, high D person. So we often don't celebrate our unique journey.

Every entrepreneur has a story that's filled with triumphs, setbacks, and lessons that they've learned. Embrace that journey and don't shy away from those experiences because those experiences are your experiences. And not only that, when you start to hear, and this is one of the most beautiful things I like about and I love about doing the podcast, is when you hear people's journey, you hear what they've done.

You start to see how there's so many things that are interwoven throughout our journey and other people's journey. So when you start to embrace that, you start to share that, you start to realize that your story, your journey, your race is actually your power.

When you run your race, you contribute your unique voice and perspective to the entrepreneurial community. And that only adds values to what you can bring. And that's something that you should be extremely proud of and don't allow anybody else to make you feel any way other than that. So to sum everything up, if you run your own race, you can't lose.

Focus on your strengths, stay true to your values, be patient and persistent, embrace flexibility, and celebrate your own unique journey. By doing that, you ultimately can increase your likelihood of success, but I think ultimately maybe more than anything else, that fulfillment and the joy from being who you are and for lack of a better term, being able to kind of do it your way, I think Frank Sinatra might say. So I appreciate you for listening to this episode.

If you found this helpful, Please share this with other entrepreneurs and business owners that are going through this journey. Whether you're a builder, you're an architect, you're at some part of the journey. Even if you reach mobile status, you are still going to have that opportunity to run your race and do the things that you do.

So remember the race is yours to run, but you have to ultimately own that race and have it be a part of who you are. And you have everything you need to be successful. We think externally we have to add on this or add on that.

Know that those things can amplify and help you, potentially in those partnerships or people, can help you, but just realize that you have more than you think that you ultimately have. So until next time, it's Gresh. I appreciate you listening to this special episode. Keep running your race, know that you can't lose. If there's anything that I can do to help, definitely please, of course, let us know.

Of course, please check out our premium library, our Netflix for Business, as we're calling it, as we're nicknaming it. It's a great opportunity for you to be able to kind of level up within your journey. You can hear about things like this and so much more. So with this is Gresh signing out. I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Outro 15:40

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by CBNation and Blue16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community.

Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast and everywhere you listen to podcasts. Subscribe and leave us a 5-star rating. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless, Jr. Thank you for listening.

[/restrict]