Latest / From Chad / Improving #1211

Transcript

Improving #1211 · From Chad

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  Bigger is the wrong goal. There's a story behind that.
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  This is your daily message from Chad #12111 to upgrade your
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  mental game today by telling yourself a better story.
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  Because the most important story you hear is the story you tell
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  yourself. This message is dedicated to
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  Mark Miller. Here's the upgrade.
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  You may think your problem would be solved if you were just a
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  little bigger. But upgraded thinking knows
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  better comes first, and bigger follows.
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  Here's the story. In 1946, True Kathy and his
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  brother Ben opened a little diner in Hapefield, Georgia.
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  They called it the Dwarf Grill. Tin stools, 4 booths.
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  They started another restaurant with a really funny name.
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  The first Chick-fil-A restaurant didn't open until 196721 years
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  later. And that first Chick-fil-A in an
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  Atlanta mall was 384 square feet. 21 years of work, learning
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  and persistence, followed by another small beginning.
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  Fast forward to the 1990s. A chain called Boston Chicken
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  went public in 1993, raised a pile of money, started opening
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  restaurants at a fast pace, and was a serious competitor to
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  Chick-fil-A. Chick-fil-A's leaders started
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  talking about how to respond, how to grow faster, how to get
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  bigger. Truitt Kathy, who was not a
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  table pounder, started pounding the table.
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  And when the room went quiet, he said if we get better, our
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  customers will demand that we get bigger.
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  Here's how it played out. Boston Market, as it was called
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  by then, filed for bankruptcy in 1998.
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  McDonald's bought it in 2000. That same year, Chick-fil-A
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  passed a billion dollars in sales.
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  One meeting didn't decide all of that.
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  But the contrast is hard to miss.
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  One chased bigger. One chased better.
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  Truett understood. Two things.
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  First, bigger isn't in your control.
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  Customers decide that. Better is completely in your
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  control. You decide that every day.
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  Second, bigger before better breaks things.
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  Growth you're not ready for doesn't build you up.
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  It exposes you. Getting better is how you get
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  ready for bigger. John Wooden, the great UCLA
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  coach, built his pyramid of success near the very top.
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  Just under success. He put patience.
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  His note under it was just 4 words.
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  Good things take time 1 and bigger isn't bad.
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  You probably want a bigger audience, a bigger paycheck, a
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  bigger influence, a bigger team. That's fine.
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  But you don't control bigger. You control better.
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  The better story to tell yourself is get better.
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  Bigger will find me. These messages aren't the bigger
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  story to tell yourself. Pick one thing you do and make
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  it a little better today, then do it again tomorrow.
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  Let your work get so good that people demand more of it.
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  Tell me a story of a time getting better mattered more
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  than getting bigger. To from chadsmith@gmail.com.
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  Send someone a text and ask them.
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  Just out of curiosity, what's one thing you could get better
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  at this week? You can get a free copy of my
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  book, The Most Powerful Story in the World, by going to from
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  chad.gumroad.com. The transcript of this message
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  and hundreds of others are always available at
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  www.fromchad.com.