FlashCast By PDB, With Phil Di Bella

 Hi, you're listening to Phil Di Bella and this is Flash Cast by P D B Today, I have a, um, a friend of mine who's put in a, um, a question. So Steve Wco, who I know through the boxing world, and he is done some great. In that space is, um, put through a, uh, message to me and he said, I've been listening to your podcast.

I'm loving them. A question for the show that I haven't come across yet. Throughout your career and specifically early on with your startup, did you ever genuine, genuinely just wanna and give up? And if so, how did you push through the tough times and breakthrough? So you would continue and of course, goes on to say, were there moments that you questioned, you were doing what you were doing and seemed confused with the process?

Where did you turn to? Did you do to find the answers? Steve? Great question. And lemme tell you that anybody, not only that's about to go into business, but anybody that is about to make a change in life will have these uncertainties. So lemme start from the onset. Something I've talked about in the show, there is no silver bullet, but if there was anything closest to a silver bullet, It really is getting comfortable with your worst possible scenario.

A wise man once said to me that a pen and paper never lies. Remember, our brains have over 16,000 conversations with ourselves every day. 16,000. Grab a pen and paper and sit down and map out exactly what the question is that you're asking. In this case, throughout my career, especially early on as a startup, did I ever genuinely just wanna quit and give up.

Of course I did. However, I always mapped out and was very careful. And clearly able to identify the worst possible scenario. For me, the worst possible scenario was to lose $5,000. When I started to coffee, I didn't go and sell my house that I'd paid off and worked hard for. I was prepared to lose $5. So the worst possible scenario meant that I was happy to keep pushing through and not give up.

Now remember, and, and I know it's a bit of a clear cliche, but the the bottom line is that until you give up, you never. And of course, nothing's ever gonna go to plan. Or as easy as you think it was. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. So I always say the best way to answer this question is to plan, plan and plan.

Pen and paper. Sit down what is the worst possible scenario that can happen, plan and map out. Worst thing that can happen every step of the way because the moment that you sit down and plan the worst thing and are are ready for it, you'll find that it enables you to deal with it. It enables you to push.

So I was able to push through the tough times because I'd already mapped out what the tough times would be. And for me that would be people not wanting to buy my coffee. So every time someone didn't wanna buy my coffee, I would ask why I would gather the data. So my next tip is data analysis strategy.

Every time somebody says no, every time something doesn't go to plan, that is your opportunity to grab the data so that you can do the analysis and then build further. So when I went to Melbourne, and I'll use this as an example, no one wanted to buy my coffee. They liked the coffee. They thought it was great, but they said, why should we buy coffee from Queensland?

Melbourne's the coffee capital of the world, let alone Australia? The way I broke through that was, well, I'm just trying to sell coffee. That's my problem. What problem can I solve for my customers? And the moment I started to ask cafe owners in Melbourne what their biggest problem was, and it was service, it was.

I was able then to collect that data, analyze the data, and build strategy. So I became a service business and rather than go out in Melbourne and try and sell coffee, I went out and tried to help cafe owners make money. And it was by taking the nose, taking the downside, and pushing through, being ready for the nose, that I was able to gather the data, build analysis, and then build strategy, which then went on to help us, make us one of the biggest, if not the biggest, in what we do in.

So it really is about preparation. I find that a lot of people go into business not understanding exactly what can go wrong. They plan out the beautiful hypotheticals of everything going right, but very rarely do I see people planning that what they will do or what their fallback position is if things go wrong, and the best way to be able to push.

The downtime is to really, really be prepared and prepared as possible. But of course, there's gonna be certain things that you can't prepare for that are gonna happen, and this is where resilience comes in. And to me, resilience is all about mindset. Resilience is all about making sure that you have the right mindset to do what it is you can do or need to do.

Now, let's also be realistic. Not everybody's gonna be capable to. A business owner, not everybody's gonna be capable to be an athlete. Not everybody's gonna be capable to help children and special needs and be a car. Every single individual has a level of special about them and has capabilities that others won't.

The biggest thing that I find in the business world, especially in the startup business world, is that we get our ability and capability mixed up. We have the ability to lie to ourselves, yet we don't have the ability to assess what our real capability is. And that was something that I was very, um, honest with myself in the beginning.

I knew exactly the boundaries of what I would do and wouldn't do. And, and for example, my dad always wanted me to. You know, a secure job and work for government. Well, I was never gonna work for government cause it wasn't my style. It wasn't who I'm, I'm not very good under a strict regime of taking instruction from a regimented, you know, authority turning up every day and being ground on.

That's not me. It's not my genetic makeup. So I didn't take that path. But I knew that I knew myself. I knew exactly what it was that would make me who I. Now, the second part of your question, Steve, is very simple. What makes you keep going? What made, keep pushing through down around, remember, said, at 16,000 conversations, we ourselves, ourselves, we need people.

But don't tell us what we want to hear. We need people around us that will help us, tell us what we need to hear. And that is all about open, honest, authentic people around you. People that want to be the best themselves, but want you to be the best version of yourself. And I find that a lot of people that struggle.

With business, especially when things are going bad, is that they don't have the right circle of friends or the right people around them. They're tried, you know, Jim Collins calls it the sum of the five people around you. There's all different analogies, but it really is about the people that you surround yourself with because that can make or break you.

You know, the people that you actually associate with will be a reflection of who you are. There'll be a reflection of what is to come in life, so you need to really choose carefully the people that you keep around. Again, coming back to your mindset, it is all about what you can control, what you can influence.

And if you can't do either, you need to get rid of it. It really does come down to searching into that inner deep self, which comes back to preparation. So in recapping and summary, always be prepared for the worst. What is the worst possible scenario that can happen? Have it clearly written down and have a strategy in place.

Flowing down from that is to prepare for the different things that you're going to embark on and what can go wrong. And again, have a plan. The third thing is to really understand and know yourself, your ability versus your capability. You need to be able to define the difference in what you are able to do and capable, capable to do.

And the fourth is to always surround yourself with the right people of what you need. And this will ever change in my career of 20. Um, of full-time work and owning businesses. It has changed over the years, and that's not a bad thing. I try never to argue with people. Well, of course you're gonna have differences, but it really is about keeping the right people around you of where you can give them your best and they will give you their best.

Because this is what's going to keep, I call it the super glue that's gonna keep things together. Steve, thank you for your question. You've been listening to Phil Di Bella and this is FlashCast By PDB. As I always say, keep sending those questions in so I can keep sharing, uh, my thoughts, opinions, and ideas.

Until next time, take care and be the best you can be.

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