How To Fail At Anything

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.

Now how did this success-failure-success pattern happen?

CrossFit? A protein-only diet? Magic weight-loss beans? Nope.

It happened because the man used, then let go of, then went back to using the oldest, simplest, most proven weight loss system of them all: Weight Watchers®.

Sure, people think Weight Watchers is old-fashioned and boring, but when the man tried it five years ago, he had already tried everything else, so what did he have to lose? Tentatively, he listened to his coach and tip-toed into the system. He lost a little weight, then plateaued for a while, then lost some more. Encouraged by his initial success, he stuck to the system, and slowly tracked his progress until he reached his final goal of 60 pounds!

Then he gained it all back. Failure. Why?

He failed because he stopped working the system.

He let go of the disciplines and practices that had created his success.

We humans have this annoying habit of knowing what we need to do, but because we’ve achieved our end goal, we get comfortable and think we can slack off a little or do things a different way. We loosen our grip on what we know works, and then somehow are surprised when we find ourselves failing again!

Unfortunately, my beloved Alabama football team provides us with a more public example of this.

The Crimson Tide was on the verge of an historic run at a third-straight National Championship when they lost their last two games – in painful fashion – and re-learned a tough lesson they’d had only two years before. After winning the 2009 National Championship, they lost the final game of the 2010 season to the Auburn Tigers. This past year, coming off TWO National Championships in a row, they lost the final game of the season once again to the Auburn Tigers, and then went on to lose the Sugar Bowl to the Oklahoma Sooners.

They evidently quit working the system, because Nick Saban, widely regarded as the best coach in college football, put up this poster last week in the weight room where the players will train in the off-season:

In case you’re reading on a device that won’t display the picture, in the background are images of victorious Tigers and Sooners. At the top are Alabama’s losing scores to Auburn and Oklahoma, followed by these words:

“IF YOU CONTINUE TO DO THE SAME THING THAT YOU HAVE ALWAYS DONE
YOU WILL GET THE SAME RESULT.
GUARANTEED.
0-2.”

Photo by @RedditCFB

So, even champions do it! We stop doing what we know works!

And before you think I’m on some high horse, the weight-loss man I described above is me. At age 50, I lost 60 pounds and went from 256 to 196. I did it on Weight Watchers® and became a lifetime member. But just because I could climb 14,000-foot Rocky Mountains on my bike, I thought I had arrived, and I let go of the system that got me in condition to bike the Rockies in the first place.

Well, you know the rest of the story. Five years later, I tipped the scales at 256 again, and I’m back in Weight Watchers. Three weeks in, I have lost ten pounds. The system works, and I’m getting results. But if I slack off again, I’ll be back up to 256 before I know it. The system has to become my lifestyle.

You have to keep working the system to keep enjoying the results.

So here is my point: The Entrepreneurial Operating System® is a proven system. Over 800 companies nationwide have adopted it., and most of them experienced dramatic benefits in the first year:

• A shared vision where every member of the leadership team is 100% on the same page with where the company is going and how they’re going to get it there
• Real traction from easy-to-use tools and simple disciplines that drive the company forward
• Healthy relationships with clear and open communication that builds a cohesive team that functions like a well-oiled machine

That translates into more profit, better cash flow, freedom and peace of mind for the owner, and an entire workforce that goes home happier at the end of the day.

I’ve spent thirty years in search of this system. It works. I use it myself, and it’s worked in my own life. To date, I’ve helped over a dozen companies install it, and the ones who are working the system are getting the results they desire.

I don’t care if you use EOS or not, because it’s not for everyone. But I DO care enough that I’m going to let you know about it.

Great and proven systems and processes are all around us – Weight Watchers, Nick Saban’s “Process”, EOS. You only have to try one for a short time to become a believer in their power.