Gino Wickman and Rob Dube discovered that entrepreneurs can maintain their driven natures to achieve great things and still have balance and peace in their personal and business lives.
Gino Wickman and Rob Dube Show That Too Many Leaders Make Decisions Based on Fear
Gino Wickman and Rob Dube know from personal experience and that of their clients that all too often burnout is felt when trying to achieve entrepreneurial success.
Wickman had a tumultuous early life. He was sexually abused, small and bullied, and his family moved almost every year to serve its business of training real estate agents. He barely graduated high school in 1985, but set a goal of making $50,000 a year by age 25 in jobs at a machine shop, in corporate travel, and real estate sales. He doubled that goal by 23, then joined the family business only to discover it was virtually bankrupt, but turned it around and sold it when he was 31.
“I realized then that my true passion was helping entrepreneurs have successful careers and personal lives and friends referred one client after another to test my ideas,” he told Startup Savant. “In 2000, I created the Entrepreneurial Operating System, which provides tools that are now used by over 250,000 businesses.”
Today, EOS Worldwide is one of the world’s largest business coaching companies. Wickman has drawn on all his experiences to write eight books, one of which, “Traction,” has sold over two million copies. The latest is “Shine: How Looking Inward Is the Key to Unlocking True Entrepreneurial Freedom,” co-authored by Dube.
Dube is a lifelong entrepreneur and now CEO of The 10 Disciplines, as well as co-founder with Wickman and host of its podcast, The Shed and Shine Podcast.
But Dube also had a mixture of success and huge difficulties earlier. By the time he was eight, he was sexually and physically abused. His asthma nearly killed him when he was a teenager. In his early twenties, he became severely depressed, discovered he had obsessive-compulsive disorder, and was always anxious. He began finding help through talk therapy, meditation, journaling, and other approaches to discover what the authors call his True Self.
“Too many entrepreneurs are so driven that they actually get in the way of achieving real success because their goals are short-term and they make fear-based decisions, creating an undesirable work culture and having miserable personal lives,” Dube said. “We offer a path based on more self-awareness and an understanding of the big picture of how to be successful that will result in attracting and retaining the best employees, better vendors, and the type of customers that are an ideal fit for the company. It also leads to a more balanced life beyond business.”
Three Discoveries About Entrepreneurial Habits
What both Wickman and Dube discovered is that virtually all books aimed at entrepreneurs, business owners, and corporate executives focus on achieving business goals, the “outer world.” But all leaders and employees have weaknesses, as well as strengths, and “Shine” is aimed at addressing their inner world.
At 45, Wickman found that because of the many years of extreme stress due to working nonstop, one of his heart valves was damaged. By 52, he realized just how much he had neglected his family and it was terribly painful. Then he nearly died three times―his car brakes went out, there was a gas explosion at home, and he caught COVID.
The authors provide summaries and self-assessments at the end of each section to make reading the book interactive, not just something to skim for a few good ideas. At the end of “Finding Your True Self,” readers are asked to rank themselves using a scale of 1 (not true) up to 5 (100% true) to questions about self-awareness.
Part I is about “The 3 Discoveries,” showing the extent to which those the book is aimed at are not fully aware of their counter-productive habits. They are driven to the point that when they are not working, they are not fully present to others, especially their family and friends. “Your mind is always racing, thinking, solving, mentally distracted, absent, or drifting,” they note.
The second discovery is that decisions are made out of love or fear. This is the longest chapter in the book.
“The ego, often misunderstood as arrogance or other negative behavior, represents our conscious mind, self-identity, and the way we perceive ourselves,” they write. “It is not a bad thing, but it can become overly dominant or rigid. Our ego protected us from saber-toothed tigers, but fear is not a healthy motivator today.”
Philosophers have called the True Self the authentic self, life force, or soul. “We don’t expect you to fully believe this concept, that the real you is stuck behind layers of ego—yet.” They assert that everyone is essentially a ball of energy, citing pioneering physicists like Stephen Hawking and Richard Feynman, and list ways to release energy that have been blocked by everything you have experienced in your lifetime.
“Imagine being your True Self, having substantially more energy, creativity, productivity, impact, peace, joy, and fulfillment,” Wickman writes. “I am happy to say that, after my wakeup call, in the last four years I have experienced more peace, joy, and fulfillment than in my previous 52. I am more driven and motivated to make an even bigger impact on the world than before.”
The third discovery: “Rob ran his business, imageOne, for 31 years, but sold it 13 years after starting it, then bought it back when he realized he could be driven and have inner peace. The company culture began to flourish, as did the success of the business, and it began working with Fortune 100 companies and was named by Forbes as one of America’s Small Giants, a list of those that value greatness over growth, have sound business models, strong balance sheets, steady profits and are fixtures in their communities.”
But Dube realized that he was not the person to lead imageOne to the next level and made the “love-based decision to transition to his successor and now sits in the owner’s box with no formal role in the company and time to bring the cause of The 10 Disciplines to the world.”
10 Disciplines for Maximizing Your Impact and Inner Peace
The first discipline to achieve true success personally and in one’s business is 10-Year Thinking. ”Most driven entrepreneurs are preoccupied with today, this week, this month, and maybe this year at most,” Wickman writes. “Yet this short-sightedness is limiting you. I was 35 when I shifted to this mindset and I’m convinced that I accomplished much more as a result. I set a goal to grow EOS from the 50 companies I had running on it then to 10,000 within two decades. The EOS Worldwide leadership team spent 20 years making 10-year decisions and we achieved my goal almost to the day.”
It’s much more than goal-setting, but a process of drafting the steps that will bring about the long-term vision for a company (which the authors detail).
Second, Take Time Off.
“The driven are intense and get a rush from the dopamine hit of business,” Wickman told Forbes. “To them, sitting by a pool at a resort with their laptop answering emails or reading the latest business books is taking time off, but it’s not. Being away, completely unavailable, allows for the mind and body to settle down. When this happens, there is more clarity and space is created for new ideas and attracting new opportunities.”
Wickman has taken 150 days off per year for 20 years, including a sabbatical for the entire month of August.
Third, Know Thyself.
Everyone thinks they know themselves, but as documented by Harville Hendrix in the classic bestseller “Getting the Love You Want,” the subconscious mind gets programmed in the first years of life, making the conscious mind unaware of what is influencing its viewpoints and habits, such as being a workaholic or an alcoholic.
Talk therapy (especially cognitive-behavior therapy) is widely recognized as important to help anyone become more objective about themselves. Wickman and Dube also recommend profiling tools to increase self-awareness, such as Myers-Briggs, DiSC, Culture Index, Kolbe A Index, and the Enneagram (which is Dube’s favorite).
Fourth, Be Still.
Dube spends 45 minutes meditating each morning when he wakes up and 20 minutes before going to bed. Wickman meditates 30-60 minutes most mornings.
“The main point about meditation is that you are not trying to free yourself from thoughts, it is normal to be thinking most of the time. It is about bringing awareness to your thoughts, simply letting them go and returning to focusing on your breath or a mantra.”
Other stillness practices:
- Contemplation—reflecting on your understanding of yourself and the world around you.
- Prayer, “which can be transformative to connect with a higher power.”
- Journaling, putting the deepest thoughts on paper quickly in a quiet area, allowing the conscious mind to let go.
Fifth, Know Your 100%.
To have the greatest impact in your business, find the perfect number of hours per week you need to work. For Wickman it is 50 hours a week for 40 weeks per year, usually starting at 8 a.m. and ending at 6 p.m. “In between, I go very hard and love it.”
Dube’s 100% is 43 weeks a year and 45 hours a week, waking at 5 a.m., meditating, 10 minutes of journaling, 20 minutes of contemplative reading, followed by yoga/stretching and a run. He gets to his office at 8:30 a.m., returns home for lunch with his wife between 12:30 and 1:30, followed by a 30 min. walk, and returns from the office by 6 p.m.
Sixth, Say No Often.
“Say no to everything that doesn’t fit into the first five Disciplines.”
If something is not a clear yes, it should be a no. Examples of Say No Boundaries:
- No meetings before 8:30 a.m. or after 5 p.m.
- No email Saturdays or Sundays.
- No lending money to friends.
- No taking meetings with someone who hasn’t been referred by someone you trust.
- No more than four hours of meetings a day or back-to-back meetings.
They quote Warren Buffett: “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”
Seventh, Don’t Do $25-An-Hour Work.
“Eliminate all administrative tasks, such as checking email, opening mail, managing your calendar, scheduling appointments, managing social media, reporting, paperwork, ordering gifts, vendor research, bookkeeping, scheduling travel, or doing follow-up or follow-through work. These drain your energy and you must delegate them.”
Wickman’s email processing system by an assistant divides them into junk (which he never sees), informational (the assistant knows what to send to a subfolder for him to read), and those that need a response (half of these Wickman needs to answer, while the assistant is trained how to respond to the other half). “By delegating $25-an-hour work, I make $125 an hour,” he writes. “By delegating $100-an-hour work, I make $500 an hour.”
Eighth, Prepare Every Night.
Before you lie down to sleep, write out exactly what you plan to do the next day. Doing this allows your subconscious to go to work on your issues and challenges while you’re sleeping. You’ll wake and hit the ground running with answers and solutions the next morning, they say.
“Since all the Disciplines are interconnected, I encourage you to think of the most important thing from your 10-year Thinking Vision and see it before your head hits the pillow,” Wickman writes. “By preparing the night before, you will achieve the peace and space that will let your mind expand to your new possibilities the next day.”
Ninth, Put Everything In One Place.
“Pick the one place where you will capture every idea, commitment, thought, action item, or promise.”
Wickman has been writing everything on legal pads for 30 years, which he carries with him everywhere, but this can be done on a smartphone, tablet, or laptop.
Too many entrepreneurs they have observed write reminders on sticky notes, send themselves an email about a promise made, say yes to a texted proposal, jot feedback on the hard copy of a presentation, try to just remember a great product idea, or scribble something on a napkin at lunch about a family matter.
10th, Be Humble.
“What does being humble have to do with impact and peace?” they ask. “Contrary to what many think, being humble is not weak. Humble people are powerful and strong.” They cite author Rick Warren: “Humble is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking less about yourself.”
What does this have to do with becoming your True Self? “You realize you don’t have to prove anything to anyone. You just want to be yourself. You understand that living from the outside in does not work anymore and living from the inside out makes for a better life. Your True Self guides how you show up in the world by providing genuine care in every one of your actions and interactions.”
“Shine” is designed as a workbook that you can go back to over and over, taking its self-assessments as you make progress towards your goal of being a great leader who is effective, has a huge impact on the world, but without burning out.