50 - Power Reveals Character | The Hidden Cost of Growth

Create opportunities where others have failed and push you to build empires where once there was empty space.

“Let's embark on this journey together and make a difference in this world.”

Hey everyone, thanks so much for joining the Impact podcast with Eddie Wilson.

Today on the episode we're going to talk about the mirror that you never wanted.

What is the mirror that you didn't ask for? In business and in life, the higher you kind of go up the food chain, the less honest feedback we get. As leaders, it's oftentimes our experience that the more authority, the more growth you get, the less people will just tell you the truth. The less they'll tell you that you lack in certain areas. It's kind of the the emperors new clothes kind of concept where this emperors naked and no one will tell him he's naked and it's just this crazy thing.

And it's like as we we grow, we have to look for the mirrors that are going to be honest with us back.

And let me just give you a couple of them today and I'm going to talk to you about the most important one.

So the first mirror we we know is is money. My my business partner Andrew Kortal. He has the money is podcast and he asked people what is money to you. And when I was on his podcast, I said that money is a revealer. Like you can say money is freedom. You can say money is a tool money is a game money is energy.

“All these different things I said money is the great revealer because I believe that money when it enters into our into our space.”

Doesn't create evil it actually just reveals the evil within or it reveals the character with him. I think money is the great revealer of all character. I think that whatever character you possess money becomes the mirror that shows you exactly the character that's already within. I think that the mirror I want to talk to you about today though is not just money. I'll give you another quick mirror is your children oftentimes you see in your children all the things that you struggle with in your own life.

You know your your children especially me with three boys. I see all the inadequacies all the insecurities all the things that I am most frustrated with in my own life.

“Revealed in my own children and it's it's very interesting to see these mirrors around us.”

But the great mirror that I want to talk to you about today is the mirror of your business. Your business is a mirror and under pressure mirrors don't lie. Just like wealth exposes character scale or growth in your business exposes leadership. Growth doesn't fix you and many times people think that like my my business growth is what's fixing me or making me better it reveals you. If you don't like what your business is showing you don't smash the mirror, fix the man, fix the woman.

So as we jump into this let me talk to you about what your business reveals about you.

The first thing that your business is going to reveal about you is your emotional maturity pressure always reveals emotional maturity.

How do you respond when numbers go down when they dip how do you respond when things aren't going your way when sales aren't coming in. Do you get reactive controlling avoid it how do you react when things are not going well in your business. Because everybody can lead when things are going right when you have money when you have profit when you have growth it's easy to lead then. But when there's pressure emotional maturity is always revealed calm under pressure isn't personality it's always preparation.

One of the things that I want to always exemplify in my own life and in my own leadership is no matter how hard or difficult the situation gets. I want to be that bedrock of just emotional maturity or that calmness that our company needs so that when we're going through the turbulent times you don't look to me. To get charged up or to get emotionally charged they look to me for that calmness that allows them to settle in to whatever pressure whatever action whatever is needed for success. Calm into pressure isn't personality it's preparation so number one pressure reveals your emotional maturity number two scale always reveals your integrity scale always reveals your integrity when you're scaling or you're growing and you're growing you know five ten times what you were it always reveals inconsistent values.

Your values will will be either revealed or there'll always be revealed in growth values are they consistent when no one is watching that's what integrity is integrity is doing the right thing when no one's watching when there's no accountability.

To take things that aren't necessarily yours integrity is in tested when things are easy it's tested when survival is on the line and when you are scaling integrity is always the thing that takes the greatest hit.

And number three growth always reveals our ego growth always reveals our ego.

So the three things that always reveals business your business is revealing about you is pressure reveals your emotional maturity scale reveals your integrity and growth always reveals your ego. When you are growing do you always have to be the hero or are there other people in your organization that are allowed to be propped up and shown as the success that they are. The the large of the organization the harder it is to be centralized on one figure as the person who is driving all success.

“Do you need to be the hero do you resist delegation do you need all the credit right like when you steal credit from someone else that's strictly an ego.”

A centric play ego doesn't disappear with success it gets louder unless it's disciplined our ego is necessary for us to typically get our businesses off the ground we need to believe in ourselves we need to sometimes have an unnatural belief in ourselves to actually step out and move away and create.

But oftentimes it's that ego that then gets in the way of everything we want and ego doesn't disappear with success it always just gets louder it gets more obnoxious unless it's disciplined.

So those are the three things that your business is revealing about you today and in the business is always the great mirror. Let me give you a historical example so if you've ever read my book on the Titan Doctor and you know one of the titans that I talk about is Napoleon Bonaparte and I use him as one of the titans that show how to to systemize or how to grow and scale through systems.

“The Napoleonic Code is something that even our current government uses and Napoleon was a master at building systems and processes it's how he scaled the the French Empire.”

However as a brilliant general he was strategic he was disciplined he was a visionary and his early success in France. But reformed institutions it reformed the way that Europe thought and it governed. But as this power increased so did his unchecked ego.

You hear oftentimes people are historians talk about a stature and how he was small and he had what they refer to as little man's disease right like he always had to prove himself.

“And his unchecked ego was really the center piece of this it was the cornerstone.”

As he grew his empire as he was younger he began to have massive success and that early power increased and expanded his ego to a place where the early Napoleon was so specific to systems and processes and data in discipline it then began to go completely unchecked. But changed over time he stopped listening to advisors he overextended himself he trusted his instincts over reality instead of following those systems and processes and the data that he had he began to listen to his gut he began to to buy into himself being the hero of the story.

And when he did that the result was the downfall of the entire empire. He had this massive disastrous invasion of Russia if you have a read history and it was that invasion of Russia even though he was going against the advisors that were in his cabinet he was going against the data that he possessed. He violated the very systems and processes that allowed him to scale the empire and he takes on Russia at an inopportune time with inadequate numbers and within adequate data and against all the people that told him not to do it.

In that one moment in that one decision and I know that a lot of things led up to but that was the one crowning moment that essentially collapsed his army and the empire fell so it's it's this it's this thing that happens in all of us as we we grow we began to feed into that ego and that. The year of your business should always be showing you exactly who you are and as you begin to grow that mirror should show you if the ego is is growing if the ego is being fed or if the ego is being diminished and and it's being disciplined.

It doesn't ruin Napoleon and this is important to note power didn't ruin Napoleon it wasn't that he had all this authority in that ruined him it revealed who he was and he refused to correct it so Napoleon was starting to get that feedback from all the people around him but he wasn't he wasn't intuitive enough to watch it in himself.

He was an in that he refused to correct it your business will expand your strengths but it will also accelerate your blind spots your business will expand your strengths but also will accelerate your blind spots that's what happened in the case in Napoleon is his strengths were the systems and processes his strengths were his ability to lead the armies his strengths were all those things that allowed him to grow but it also it also showed his greatest weakness.

“Here are three questions I want you to ask yourself is this business mirror that you're staring at is telling you all the things that you need to know and grow and change in your life.”

Let me ask I want to give you these four questions that I want you to ask number one where am I the bottleneck at only you can be honest with yourself about this is your need for control slowing growth.

Stop telling yourself that you're the catalyst for all growth and look around and see where that bottleneck is being created that's slowing down your growth.

Our decisions today waiting on you are there things that are in your world that are dependent on you that if you don't take a few moments today and answer those questions it'll slow everything down it'll stop all progress. If everything flows through you nothing will ever scale beyond you everything flows through you nothing will ever scale beyond you so where are you the bottleneck number one number two what am I avoiding in confront like there are things you need to confront in your business and what are you avoiding what am I avoiding confronting a team issue.

A broken offer in your in your offer process in your marketing leadership gaps what is it that you know you need to confront and change avoidance is leadership debt avoidance is leadership debt meaning the more you avoid the harsh conversation of the hard conversation. The reality about money the the avoiding getting deeper into measuring your KPIs or key performance indicators whatever it is you're avoiding it's just debt that's stacking up that only you can repay as you push things down the road instead of instead of delegation and trust.

“and bring people into your world all you're doing a stack of debt that can only be repaid by you oftentimes when we go into businesses and we teach and train the empire operating system.”

We're dealing with all the past debts that the leadership has stacked up that only they believe they can answer business will collect debts with interest meaning there is going to be a bottleneck of debt stacked up of all the things you've put off her avoided.

collecting interest meaning all of the the opportunity cost that you're creating in your business because it's not flowing and fluid.

And number three who am I becoming under pressure who am I becoming under pressure under pressure it shows who you really are at your core under pressure are you more sharp are you more.

“Directive are you more dictatorial or are you more patient right like when pressure happens are you sharp or are you more patient.”

Are you more frantic is it more I got to get this stuff done and I'm just throwing things in the wall and I'm just trying to move paper and I'm trying to.

You know flush out these things or do you get more prayerful and more introspective under pressure are you more frantic or you more prayerful and introspective. Are you in internal internalizing are you taking it in and deciding what the best course of action is are you more defensive or you more decisive are you more defensive or are you more decisive when when those big pressure moments come. Do you have clarity and thoughtfulness and you make decisive decisions or are you defensive and all the things that have caused whatever that moment of pressure is.

Your business doesn't just produce revenue it produces a version of you when you are under pressure a version of you comes out. That version of you is that business putting a mirror in front of you and making you see exactly who you are. Now those around you also see it but oftentimes when you rise to position of leadership they can't express it.

Who do I want to be who do I want to be instead of always looking in the mirror and deciding who you were in the past or who you are in this moment look at that mirror and decide who do I want to be in this business.

“Do I want to be someone who is stable who's calm who's emotionally ready for the pressures that are coming do I want to be that bedrock that is holding and lifting up my employees do I want to be that stable source decide who you want to be.”

And in that mirror start shedding the things that are revealed in you that you don't want to be and start putting in that person that you're staring at in the mirror that business mirror the person that you want to be be intentional about who you are. In closing your business is not your enemy it's your greatest teacher your business is not your enemy it's your greatest teacher the stress that you're feeling right now the stress the pressure the hardships it's not punishment it's the greatest feedback that you could ever receive almost all things that are happening in your business are a result of some action that's been taken most oftentimes that action has been directed by you.

So it's the greatest feedback you could ever receive if you listen if you adjust if you mature the business will begin to grow you.

There was often a phrase that I heard for churches and it was a pastor that said I won't use my people to grow the church I'll use the church to grow my people and I think that that should be said of your business it's not that you should be using you to grow your business.

“It's that you should be using your business to grow you if you listen adjust and mature the business grows with you. I believe that God uses businesses just like he uses money to show us who we are and ultimately who were becoming.”

If you listen and you will look at this mirror you can not only correct the things that are improper things that are wrong but you also can choose the path that you want for who you're going to be.

Instead of asking how do I fix the business ask yourself this what is the business asking me to fix in myself. The business will only grow to the level of the leader who's willing to be exposed and refined.

“The business will only grow to the level of the leader who is willing to be exposed and refined life isn't about conquering all things life is about growth is about the journey it's about refinement.”

Think about Napoleon Bonaparte. I told you the end of his story. The end of his story was a horrible decision the invasion of Russia that ended up crushing the empire.

It would have been a better story had we talked about how Napoleon and his younger years grew built a system scaled did amazing amazing things and later on refined himself and became a better leader.

And then elevated those around him and there was this wake of these amazing leaders that were in the path and in the in the toe of all that Napoleon was and not only was Napoleon a great leader but he also created other great leaders and then he has this lineage of leadership. But that's not the story of Napoleon. The story of Napoleon is he grew to great power he was a brilliant mind and in the end his ego got the best of him and it was his great disaster is his great demise. How will your story end? Today your business is giving you the mirror that tells you what you're ultimately suffering with for the things that need to be refined and the path that you ultimately get to take in a church choice.

Thanks so much for being a part of the podcast for listening today. I'd love to connect with you further and you can connect with me on social media at any Wilson official on any of the social media channels.