5 Essentials for Success in 2021
Last year around this time, I wrote an article titled 20 Ways to Dominate 2020 in Business & Life.
Then 2020 took a very strange turn. COVID-19 showed up. Jobs were lost. Fears were spread. Lives were changed.
If I’d written that article knowing what I know now, it would have been different. There wouldn’t have been 20 ways to dominate. The list would have been stripped down to five essentials.
1) Prepare for Winter
When the good times are here, life is good. The sun is shining. Your stocks are climbing. But winter is ALWAYS around the corner.
Success can lull you into complacency. Make you feel you can’t be touched. This can set you up for massive failure. Because while you may have the upper hand against a competitor, there are other threats out there. Threats you can’t even imagine.
What happens if a global pandemic strikes? Can your business weather the storm if the government forces you to close down your storefront?
What if your spouse gets cancer? Have you built your relationship in a way that truly is ’til death do you part?
What if everything you know is taken away? Can you maintain a positive outlook when all you see is NEGATIVE? When the news sells fear like hotcakes, will you buy or will you cling to hope?
2) Stop Sitting Around
Fitness is always important, and now the world knows just how important good health is. The next bad flu season could be coming. Get your fat, unhealthy ass in shape so you can recover faster.
I don’t care what effort it takes. Care about your body. Act like you want to live another 50 years. Work out like you’ve never worked out before. Treat your body like a temple and do the work to make your temple hard as a rock.
You’ve only got one body. Do you really want to fill it up with shit? Don’t listen to your inner bitch that tells you healthy eating sucks. That working out is no fun. Do the hard things to get your body into fighting shape.
If you don’t get your body in fighting shape, don’t expect it to fight for you. Don’t expect it to fend off viruses, bacteria, and infection. Expect it to roll over. Expect to come down with a bad case of the flu. Expect to miss days of work and play. Expect to live with regret.
3) Pivot and Reinvent
The best and brightest business owners never kick back and relax. They’re never satisfied. This year, you have to follow their lead if you want to survive and thrive like them.
That means you need to prepare to pivot and reinvent your business and get ready to find new opportunities.
If you don’t see opportunities for growth, open your eyes. They’re EVERYWHERE. All you need to do is find a problem. Then create a solution that’s so powerful, people will pay you for it.
In the midst of COVID-19, countless entrepreneurs found opportunities to pivot and reinvent their businesses. I did both. When my gyms got shut down, I pivoted and pulled my personal trainers online. I also realized people were hungry for stronger immune systems. So I developed an immune system supplement.
Pivoting or reinventing your business can be scary. It forces you to leave a tried-and-true formula. The alternative, however, is even scarier. Because failure, layoffs, and closing your doors benefits no one.
Look for ways to improve your offerings, to continue serving your customers. Don’t let anything be so precious that you don’t consider changing or cutting it altogether. The goal is to serve your customers and keep your doors open. Figure out how to do those two things and make it happen.
4) Realize You Are Essential
We love categories, and we shove people into them every day. I’m here to tell you that every person reading this falls into the same category. You are ESSENTIAL!
That thing you do is ESSENTIAL. The way you do it is ESSENTIAL. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. I don’t care if it’s your aunt or a government official — YOU ARE ESSENTIAL.
That goes for businesses as well. From where I’m standing, EVERY BUSINESS IS ESSENTIAL. Your business may not actively diagnose or treat disease. It may not sell groceries or guns. But for the family it feeds, the people it employs, and those it serves, your business is essential.
A government may spew something else and claim you’re not part of the elite crowd of essential businesses. But I’m here to call that what it is. Insanity.
Since you’re essential, you’ve got to be ready to serve your customers no matter what. That’s why pivoting and reinventing is so vital. If the government labels you as non-essential, don’t listen to them. It’s not true. Find a way to keep your essential business viable.
5) Be Kind
There’s a lot of hate out there. You don’t have to add to it. Choose kindness instead.
Don’t let them drive a wedge between us. Don’t give in to the narrative that there are good guys and bad guys. That some people, based solely on their skin color or political preference should be written off. Ignored. Despised.
Look, we’re all in this together. We’re learning as we go. We’re doing the best we can. So give your fellow man the benefit of the doubt. Treat him like you want to be treated. Respect his choices. Don’t let surface issues cause division.
When you hear a different opinion from yours, ask questions. Get clarification. You want people to listen to you. Return the favor.
There’s a reason behind every opinion. Learn what it is. You may not change your mind, but you’ll strengthen it. You’ll learn how to think. You’ll learn to have empathy. You’ll learn that the other isn’t so different from you after all.
All this just because you chose kindness.
Make 2021 Count
After the shock of 2020, you’re probably nervous about making big goals for 2021. But don’t let the year pass without doing big things. Build your business empire, strengthen your body, and treat others well.
No matter what else goes on, plan to thrive in 2021. Because the world needs you. After all, you are essential.
