I was in a major rut about 4 years back as an entrepreneur. And the thing that got me out of the rut is the same key that Oprah said in an interview is the #1 thing she attributes her success to.
Revenues in one of my companies at the time were good… from the outside in it probably looked like everything was going gangbusters.
But inside, things just weren’t right.
Some days I didn’t want to wake up to tackle the day ahead. I’d felt like I created this company and trapped myself in a role that I had grown to despise. I was great at marketing and could implement online marketing strategy that pulled in revenue almost on demand.
Everyone around me thought I was great and (and enjoyed) creating marketing funnels, writing sales copy, and doing the minor technical things that need to be done to get our online marketing campaigns rolling.
In fact, I tricked myself into thinking that marketing *implementation* is what I was really great at and loved to do.
And it was an easy story to tell myself… because those activities are the ones that brought in the money. So I figured that’s what I should be good at and love to do.
But it led to stale growth both financially and mentally.
I was still netting into the 6 figures per year and living a great lifestyle.
But work was dragging me down and I didn’t feel there was a future in this company I’d created.
In fact, at times… I’d even had fleeting thoughts that it may be a “relief” to just go get a job and work for someone fun and cool… that maybe I’d have more fun and a bit less “stress”.
But, thankfully those thoughts were just fleeting. I couldn’t hack it too long as an employee I don’t think.
Then a successful buddy of mine kept on telling me I needed to find my “unique ability”. The things I was great at AND loved to do. The things that when I finished doing them, I had more energy when I was done doing those activities than when I started.
So I started writing down the things I was good at, but that sucked the energy out of me when I did them. Also the things I just plain hated and am bad at. Last, the things I was great at and LOVED to do. That energized me.
The funny thing is… those things that I was great at and loved to do… I was doing only maybe 5% of the time each week.
So that day forward, I decided to do more of what I loved to do and eliminate 100% of everything I was just plain bad at… and reduce (even outsource) the stuff I was good at but I just didn’t like doing.
This actually led me to selling my company to my business partner and going out on my own in a business that I could build around the things I loved to do and were GREAT at doing (more on what those are in another column).
A year or two later I heard an interview with Oprah Winfrey where the interviewer asked her, “What do you attribute your success to Oprah?”.
And she said something really really simple.
“I attribute my success to staying in my own lane”.
Staying in her own lane.
The same thing that doubled my income and quadrupled my happiness and sense of fulfillment a few years back.
So, what is in your “own lane”?
What are you great at and LOVE that gives you energy rather than sucks it away?
Whatever it is, do more of that and less of the stuff you’re not good at and hate. No matter how trapped you feel in your current role, job, or company… find a way to make it happen.