John Wooden’s Letters (And Setting The Conditions To Succeed)

John Wooden was one of the most famous college basketball coaches of all time.  The “Wizard of Westwood” won ten national championships in 12 years.  This run included an 88-game win streak and 7 consecutive championships.  This level of excellence will never be seen again at the collegiate level.  Wooden attributed his success to his pyramid of success.  A roadmap of life’s principles, that if practiced as an individual and a team, had the potential to end in competitive greatness.

Chances are you have heard about Wooden and his principles before.  But have you heard about his letters?  Did you know that after his wife died, he wrote a letter to her every month for 24 years?  288 times he sat down and organized his thoughts about his love for her and how she had impacted his life.  He only stopped when his vision began to fade.  This simple act was a consistent reminder of their love for each other that helped him to set conditions to cope with her death and his retirement.  Wooden knew that the mental game was important to winning all aspects of life.

Your Thoughts Determine Your Future

 I hate to break this to you, but hard work is not enough.  First, you have to be in the right system for success.  The prime example is you can dig as many ditches as you want, but no matter how hard you work you will never get to where you want to go financially.  You must be in a position where the results exceed your efforts by some kind of multiple and you are not just trading time for money.  This is why I am relentless about creating leverage in my life to produce cash flow and passive income.

There is another crucial step that a lot of people ignore until it is too late.  Setting a winning mindset.  One of the blocks in John Wooden’s success pyramid is poise, where he says “Just being yourself.  Being at ease in any situation.  Never fighting yourself.”  The last sentence in that quote is super important.  If you have negative thoughts or doubts about your success you will sabotage yourself. 

Can you see how setting a frame of success in your head is crucial to getting to where you want to go?  Now don’t get me wrong.  You don’t need to be a success robot, spouting affirmations and walking around with fake enthusiasm.  The key is to be on the positive side of the equation.  

If you can get 51% of your inner thoughts to be positive, then you will be trending in the right direction and will be able to take advantage of opportunities when they come to you.  This is called setting the conditions for your success.  Just like Wooden creating his pyramid and writing his letters, you can build a life that supports your goals rather than having circumstances short-circuit them.  Another part of this process is picking the right game to play.

Vending Machines:  A Low-Risk Starting Point

There are no sure things in business.  There are some really good bets though.  One such business is vending machines.  You read that right.  They have come a long way since you were a kid trying to shake a bag of Doritos loose from the coiled wire dispenser (More dangerous than shark attacks!  Those danger stickers are on there for a reason.)  But the best thing about them is they are a great way to break into business.

They have a low start-up cost, are super easy to operate, and once you get the hang of it you can scale into a vending machine route.  These can be sold, or leveraged to buy another business.  Throw in the fact that they are recession-resistant (everybody buys food regardless of what the economy is doing) as well as upgradable to micro-markets and you can set the conditions for your success.

These are just a few of the reasons that they are in the top five of my “can’t miss businesses”.

Top 5 Acquisitions By The Numbers

If vending machines aren’t hitting a chord with you, don’t worry, they don’t have to be your first deal.  There are plenty of other options that have an incredible track record.  Always remember that you set the conditions of success when you buy instead of build.  So much so that many businesses are in the 90%-plus range of success after acquisition.  I put a video together for you with my top five picks that are data-driven.  You can watch it here: 

Getting started as an Acquisition Ace does not need to be a scary proposition.  If you focus on putting yourself in the best position for all the factors that you can control there is a very high probability of success.  I helped many of my students do this.  It is so exciting to watch them succeed.  I know that you can do the same thing as well, so start thinking about how you can change your life and create your own pyramid of success.

Have a great rest of your week!

 As always, if you want to compress time frames and have me coach you on every part of the process, book a time to chat with me here: Calendar

Ben, I Want to learn more…

If you feel that you are constantly working "in" the business instead of "on" the business and feel that your goal of financial freedom has led you to a prison of your own design.

You are not alone, I used to be there as well.

I have 5 companies and counting and work less than 20 hours a week on them - COMBINED.

It is not rocket science and I can help you do the same for your business.

Choose a time on my Calendar and we will get to it.

Onward,

Ben

Forwarded this newsletter? Sign up here.

You can also find me on X (Formerly Twitter), Instagram, LinkedIn, and my YouTube channel.

If you enjoyed this week's issue make sure you are subscribed by clicking here (if you are already subscribed forward this issue to one person you think might benefit).