Sponsored by

Table of Contents

• Pull to Eject

  • Gone with the Wind

• Modern Tools

• Old School Wisdom

• Free Knowledge

• Recommendations

• Visual Crapshoot

Pull to Eject

Nothing in business ever happens as fast as you think it will.

Technology has made us believe in instant gratification.

But it always takes longer to close a deal, or launch a product or hire the right person.

Always.

The largest sale I ever made took 2 years to pan out.

Growing this newsletter has been organic and not exponential.

Web and application development projects - without fail - have taken longer than anticipated.

So when people come to me asking for startup advice I always tell them to target something they can stay passionate about for at least 2 or 3 years.

Not something they think is hot right now.

One of the absolute best things about having your own business is the ability to change direction.

You can decide at lunch.

But as a college football fan, changing business direction is like hiring a new coach.

It takes patience for the new direction to play out.

Like the new coach hiring staff, meeting boosters, weeding out players, choosing vendors, and figuring out recruits - it all takes more than we know.

And that was before NIL money.

Plus, if the new coach doesn’t put a winning product on the field - a fickle fan base or an impatient AD - can get them fired before their new system pays dividends.

Gone with the Wind

How many people lack the patience to have a pay off?

They try something new and without instant gratification, they move on.

Or they stop before their work pays off. Who knows how good they could have been?

Over coffee recently with Launch Key subscriber Brooks Lockett, we talked about business focus and I riffed on folks I knew who had sales careers that changed with the wind.

• They started out in banking in the 80’s. But moved to technology sales in the 90’s.

• Many got washed out with the dot com crash.

• Next thing you saw them selling mortgages or luxury cars. Then the housing bubble burst in 2008.

• Some tried their hand day trading.

• Some got back into tech as bitcoin took off.

• Or moved to the HR side recruiting tech seats for corporate clients.

It’s hard to find a core with these people.

Oh sure they can sell - but they’ve changed with the times instead of being rooted in something they really believed in.

• The folks I know who really had a passion for finance, never left banking.

• The ones who were passionate about the internet are still developing.

• Even the car guys - who were really car guys - are still in it and will probably retire from it.

From my experience and more recently watching my sons play football, every drive should end with a kick.

Sometimes the best solution is a punt. Back the competition up and play some defense.

Sometimes you’re just happy to take the points and settle for a field goal.

But if your plan works, and everyone does their job, and you make the right adjustments - the patient business can score a touchdown.

The extra point is just icing.

Now go launch something 🚀 

Modern Tools

Airtable has become one of the easiest ways to build your own applications.

Drag and drop elements to make information digestible and actionable. Share apps across your organization and Integrate with other tools you already use.

Now Airtable users can organize information with AI, which might be one of the best use cases for it.

• Summarize and extract insights

• Generate and translate content

• Categorize and connect data 

Old School Wisdom

Harvard Business Review article digs into how effective leadership behaviors are enhanced by a show of patience.

In a world that demands agility and quick results, how can managers develop this essential quality?

By redefining the meaning of speed, like the Navy SEALs, who are paradoxically both methodical and patient in planning and executing their time sensitive missions; and by practicing gratitude, which research shows lowers stress and helps people delay gratification.

Free Knowledge

From gym bro to Internet multi millionaire, Alex Hormozi has built an incredible business by patiently learning all the details.

And he gives away an unbelievable amount of valuable info in his free courses. There are people who think he may kill business coaching business just with his free courses.

Today his Acquisition.com takes a stake in small businesses and helps them become $100 million plus businesses. But it didn’t happen overnight.

Recommendations

Meet Ava, The World’s Best AI BDR

With a database of 250M+ leads, built-in email warmup, advanced lead research, and the ability to send 1000s of hyper-personalized emails, Ava provides end-to-end cold email automation. With plans starting from $225/mo and a 14-day hire trial, what are you waiting for?

Think you need a BDR? Hire Ava instead.

Visual Crapshoot