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It happens to all successful entrepreneurs: your business gets to be more than you can handle. When you first start a company, you have no alternative but to be involved in every aspect – planning, sales, operations, finance, personnel – because you’re working either alone or with a very small team of collaborators. You work hard, and the business grows to the point where being involved in everything is a job and a half. You are overworked, overwhelmed, and the freedom you dreamed of having when you started out is nowhere to be found.

Once upon a time, a middle-aged man lost 60 pounds over a ten-month period. Five years later, he’d gained back every pound. He recently re-adopted the same system he lost the weight with the first time and dropped 10 pounds in the first three weeks. This man is confidently back on the way to shedding another 60 pounds; this time with new determination to keep them off for life.

Two things happened recently that showcase the power of Nick Saban’s famous “Process” for winning college football. This feature aired on CBS’s 60 Minutes, and this photo (Photo originally tweeted by C.J. Schexnayder @kelph ) of Darth Vader reading Saban’s book became an internet sensation, highlighting the only half-joking belief (and the nerve) of some that Saban has aligned himself with dark powers or sold his soul to the Devil to get where he is.

If you’ve been reading Alabama Entrepreneur for a while, you know that I have always been obsessed with identifying and adopting the habits of what I call the “five percenters” – the top five percent of the most successful entrepreneurs. I’ve spent 30 years studying reasons why some companies achieve outrageous levels of success that far exceeds that of their peers.

I found a new way to help teams reach significant breakthroughs in a recent session, and it relates to my essay on “Fear Junction”. This was a story I told in one of my newsletters about the electrician who told the fable – not of a real electrical switch box – but of a real and personal daily decision point – where we must choose to be open, candid and honest – or miss the chance to do so.