With Help

Is it weakness to seek help or surround myself with mentors and professionals to build my business?

"Yeah, I called my friend Esi.

She was the only marketing professional I knew at the time, who could help me with my idea for this BBQ catering business.

I also went to see my ex-boss Mrs. Smith, for more guidance.

I used to work at her small restaurant and bar during my holidays when I was in high school years.

Well, she also became my mentor since that day and has helped me avoid a lot of stupid and critical mistakes.

The journey hasn't been easy, but here we are after 2yrs.

We're now at every big outdoor event in the city and we just became the official BBQ vendor at the city's biggest event center.

It hosts around 90 events per year.

Now, our next target is opening our first BBQ restaurant.

But I'm more excited that the business can now run without me.

I get to have more time for the other projects that I want to do and even for my family."

Maggie*
Barbecue Chef, Food Blogger, Mom and a Business Owner.

*Names in this article have been changed.

First off, do not forget that this is a competition – a very intense competition.

You need all the advantage you can possibly get, in order to beat the game.

Besides, you and I hear stories like Maggie’s all the time.

It’s no different from how billionaires like Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg successfully built their large empires.

But I’ve never heard anyone call them weak or dumb for surrounding themselves with mentors, talented and smart people – sometimes even smarter than them.

We rather call them geniuses for turning ideas into businesses worth millions and even billions of dollars.

Not weak, dumb or stupid.

Genius!

Yeah, we do sometimes call them names like self-absorbed, narcissist, jerks and Bond villains for their character flaws.
But never weak or dumb.

“take Zuckerberg, for instance“

When Zuckerberg realized that he had a great product on his hands, he formed a team that’ll help him start Facebook.

Because according to him, he knew nothing about business.

And then, when he realized that Facebook could become a multi-billion-dollar company, he went and surrounded himself with people who can help him achieve that.

Since he himself didn’t know how and obviously, didn’t have any experience in turning a startup into a multi-billion company.

But, he didn’t care what people would call him. Because he knew he isn’t dumb and weak.

What he cared more about, was building something that’ll change the world and his life.

And with the help of others, he was able to do that; and still do it today.

The genius of people like Zuckerberg is not their ability to understand and invent things.

Their genius lies in the fact that, they work with people of genius.

“it’s not even a ‘genius’ move“

Besides, surrounding yourself with mentors, professionals and smart people, is not even a ‘genius’ move.

It’s just an everyday good business practice for anyone who really knows:

her business
and what she wants to build.

And here’s why.

Every business is basically a repeatable process or system that creates and delivers something of value, in a way that makes profits – hence, money.

But then, systems don’t build themselves; and money can’t make itself without systems.

Like any other building project, you’ll need a team to:

advise you on what and what not to do.
help come up with the various strategies.
also help you implement and run the systems.
and basically help you ‘avoid stupid and critical mistakes’.

And, the more experienced and skilled your team is, the better your chances of successfully building what you want.

In most cases, having that kind of team, is even more valuable than having a great product.

“you alone won’t be enough“

Now, you can try do it alone – all by yourself.

However, the sad reality is, you alone won’t be enough.

Firstly, there’s a broad set of things that you don’t know how to do; that require skills you don’t have.

Besides, you have limited time, energy and focus.

You can’t be everywhere and do everything you want to do – and do it well.

It’s hard enough to do one thing right; let alone trying to do ten things well at the same time.

And things are especially hard when you don’t actually know what you are doing.

“can’t let your arrogance make the decisions“

Look, if you want to build a business that:

makes you money,
runs itself,
and give the freedom to live your dream life.

Then you can’t let your arrogance make the decisions for you.

This is simply not a one-man show.

You can’t let your low self-esteem scare you from working with people who can help get you want you want.

You need to be realistic, truthful to yourself and be confidence enough to ask for help when you do need it.

In fact, doing this is what’ll actually show that you’re smart, genius and really know what you want and how to get it done.

Asking for help in any capacity is not weakness.

After all, the question you should always be asking yourself is,

Am I truly doing everything necessary to build the business that I want?

Because, you could either be a huge success with the help of others or be a proud know-it-all who’s always failing.

You choose.