The End of Ego
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man isn’t a king. He’s a slave.
He’s a slave because he has something that no one else has, and he’s going to spend all his energy protecting it. Every decision he makes will start with the question, “Will this endanger my one good eye?” He’ll anchor his power on that single point of difference. He’ll take a position of fragile authority–“Well, as someone who has an eye in his head, it looks like this“–but he’ll lose it all if he walks into a pointy stick. So everything he does, every rule he makes, every decision will be made to avoid walking into pointed sticks. And eventually, he’ll lose it anyway.
The real king, in the land of the blind, isn’t the almost-blind. It’s the person who embraced their blindness first and most fully. THAT person will lead, because they’ll have the most to teach.
Two-Brain Business is the largest gym mentorship agency in the world. We’re translating our materials into six languages. We have 20 mentors scattered across Europe, Canada, the US and New Zealand. We have our own Quality Control Department and Mentor Training Academy. Other “competitors” in the space aren’t within a hundred miles of our service. My first book, Two-Brain Business, didn’t have page numbers or even good editing, but it’s sold over 20,000 copies in English alone.
When I write a blog post for entrepreneurs, it’s usually valuable. I get letters back telling me so. And the reason is NOT because I pretend to have sight that I don’t have, but because I’m honest about my mistakes, and what I’ve learned from them.
“Well, I used to bang my shins off the coffee table a LOT. Then I learned to count my steps from the kitchen to the fireplace.”
“I predicted that my sense of smell would become super-strong, but that didn’t actually happen.”
“I tried the telescoping cane, and I found that holding it my palm dampened the little vibrations too much…”
Why? Because I embraced blindness. I discovered my blindness early, and turned myself over to it, and explored it completely.
If you own a CrossFit gym, you know what I mean: we’re surrounded by experts who have NEVER made a mistake. The rest of us are all blind, but they have one little eye, and it tells them: you need a wine bar in your gym! You need to take the vowels out of your name, and run your gym under four different brands because…branding! You need to de-affiliate! Re-affiliate! Cross-affiliate! Everything they do must be right, because it’s THEM doing it!
If you’re not a gym owner, but follow popular superpreneurs on social media, you’ve seen it too: they say so much, and get you so motivated, but never: “Ooooh, boy, I really screwed THAT one up.”
Who do people like and trust? People like themselves. And because we’ve all screwed up, we’re drawn to others who aren’t perfect, and suspicious of those who hide their mistakes.
No matter who your audience, your authority will be enhanced if you share your mistakes.
If you’re a personal trainer who struggled to lose weight in the past, tell everyone. If you’re an accountant who used to have a huge problem with organization, tell that story. If you’re a dentist who was born with bad teeth, write about it. Show people you were just like them, before taking the journey that you can now guide them through.
I’m nowhere near perfect. You don’t have to be perfect either. Perfect is the enemy of great.
Let people see the gritty parts; they’ll grab on tighter.
