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A whole lotta “Ls”
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I basically never talk about the losses that come with growing a business. But in the last 90 days, I got slapped with an insane tax bill, lost three clients in 72 hours, and learned more than I have in years. Turns out, growth comes with a whole lotta “Ls.” Let me explain… As my agency has entered warp drive, I’ve found myself having to break out of my cocoon and turn into a pretty neck-tattooed butterfly. You see, the skills I had in place to have a six-figure business via freelancing or selling information could only get me so far… But having to learn:
Just to give my agency a stool to stand on makes me feel like I’m getting paid to go to Stanford Business School. But there’s one harsh lesson I learned last week that you’ll never find in a classroom. So I figured I’d share it here… You see, I’m competitive as fudge. Not sure why, but it’s just in my nature. I’d cry after every soccer game I lost as a kid. Every cell, every germ, every mitochondrial powerhouse in my body hates losing. And I learned that growing your business comes at a cost. That cost was a whole lotta “Ls.” For those of you not familiar with the nifty lingo, Ls = losses. For starters… I got slapped with an insane tax bill. Sure, that’s part of the game, but due to the growth of my business, I’d found myself owing 11x more in taxes despite not even being in my home country. Whatever though, it’s part of the game. Gotta level up those finance skills, right? But that was just the first price of growth. Because before my agency grew legs and started walking, I had a lot of freelance work on my plate. I had clients I was doing all sorts of fractional CMO Shyte for:
This work was bogging me down, took most of my time, and slowly got pushed to the back burner as higher-paying clients became the priority. Thus, in one fell swoop (72 hours to be precise), I lost these 3 clients. All of this stung. And it’s easy to have these events get you into a mental hole. You start questioning yourself, worrying about things that aren’t even problems, shaking your fist at the person you see in the mirror. But after kicking these Ls around my head, I’ve learned the lesson that I’d never learn in school. The cost of growth in business is losing the assets you had at the start. Instead of feeling sorry for myself, I’ve realized these clients paid the least, took the most work, and that I now had more time to go after the bigger fish. Even better? Was that this nasty tax bill forced me to find an American accounting firm whose founders actually live full-time in Brazil. In minutes, they gave me direction on advantages I didn’t know existed, and they understand my unique situation because they live it themselves. So when you find yourself being a sore loser, it means you’re taking enough risks, you’re playing big boy games… …and your next breakthrough is right around the corner. Catch ya soon, Parker |
The Story
Grab attention, monetize, and persuade with Storytelling Every Thursday you'll get one story and writing tactics in 5 minutes. This is the FREE newsletter that 50,000 follower accounts read.
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