Learn To Deal With The Blur

I'm Alex Charfen, and this is the Momentum Podcast. Made for empire builders, game changers, trail blazers, shot takers, record breakers, world makers, and creators of all kinds. Those among us who can't turn it off, and don't know why anyone would want to. We challenge complacency, destroy apathy, and we are obsessed with creating momentum. So we can roll over bureaucracy, and make our greatest contribution. Sure, we pay attention to their rules. But, only so that we can bend them, break them, then rewrite them around our own will. We don't accept our destiny, we define it. We don't understand defeat, because you only lose if you stop. And, we don't know how. While the rest of the world strives for average and clings desperately to the status quo, we are the minority. The few, who are willing to hallucinate there could be a better future. And, instead of just day dreaming of what could be. We endure the vulnerability, and exposure it takes to make it real. We are the Evolutionary Hunters, clearly the most important people in the world. Because, entrepreneurs are the only source of consistent, positive, human evolution, and we always will be.

Learn to deal with the blur. I have always really loved cars, ever since I was a little kid. In fact, I think as entrepreneurs we are physiologically sensitive, momentum based beings. Our surroundings mean something to us. Our ability to navigate our surroundings means something to us. I remember when I was a kid, I wanted to run as fast as I could, and as far as I could until I figured out a bike. Then that took me as far as it could. The first time I realized what a car meant, the level of freedom it got you, the level of extended power it gave you. What does a car really do? It extends your ability to go where you want to go. To reach a new destination. I knew that I just wanted to drive. I wanted to be able to drive a car, and drive it fast, and drive it well. I remember the first time I twisted the key, it was like this connection to an extension of my physiology. And, this empowering feeling of being able to go faster than I ever could on my own.

Very early on I became committed to learning how to drive a car. Now, I wasn't very good. In fact, I was pretty terrible. My parents will tell you. I got kicked off of their car insurance, I totaled seven cars, I kept having accidents. I had a hard time driving. There was just a lot of inputs, and I wasn't as good as I wanted to be. And so, I committed to getting better. I started taking classes, I actually found an instructor. I started racing cars, learning how to drive on a track, learning how to manipulate a car, how to steer it with the throttle, how to put a car into a four wheel drift, how to purposely lose control of a car and then regain control. And, really understanding driving.

That has been something that has meant a lot to me. I really, I love getting into a car, and being able to go out to a track, and putting a car at and then just beyond its limits, and bringing it back. That's when you know you're going fast. That's when you know you're really connecting. I love that feeling. A few years ago I had this extraordinary experience during a track day, where I was doing a charity event. I had my Porsche out on the track. We were doing laps, and one of the things that we did in between our track sessions was the charity event had gotten a F1 car, a Formula One car to come and do laps around the track with us.

I was so excited, because when you are a driver, or when you are involved in motor sports of any kind. F1 is the pinnacle. F1 cars are, they are the most sophisticated four wheel machines on the planet. They're more computer than car. If you turn them upside down and drive them on a road, they generate enough down force to stick upside down. They generate G forces in excess of four G's in some turns. I mean, the drivers of these cars are human beings that operate at an entirely different level. Their reflex times, their sighting times, their ability to react, it's just so lightning fast. It's incredible.

We were going to be driven around, circuited the America's in Austin by a Porsche trained factory driver in a Formula One car that had been outfitted with two more cockpits. So, to either side of the driver there was an additional cockpit. I can't tell you how excited I was. Just standing next to the car when they started it, there was this physiological response to how insane an F1 car sounds up close. I mean, these cards do zero to 60 in under two seconds. But, zero to 200 in seconds. The amount of power they generate is just, it's incredible.

That day, people kept going out for laps with this, for one lap in this car. It was impossibly fast. I remember I was doing laps and thinking, "Okay, that's about how long it takes to get around this track." Then the first time the F1 car did it I was like, "I don't know if I would have been out of the third turn." It came time for me to get in the car and do a lap. It was the most intense experience. First, getting into an F1 cockpit was crazy uncomfortable. I'm over six foot tall. Everybody is always surprised. I'm in ClickFunnels right now in Orlando, and everybody I meet says, "Oh, I didn't know you were so tall." I'm over six foot tall, and I'm about 220 pounds. I didn't just get into the cockpit, I had to push myself, and shove myself, and will myself in. Literally had to compress my shoulders to get in, and then have them close in on me.

It was the most claustrophobic feeling in the world. Then, the driver started the engine and there was so much vibration in the engine, the engine's just direct mounted to the frame and you're basically sitting on the frame in an F1 chair. There's no cushion anywhere. It's like you're touching everything. It was jarring. He went and pulled out of the pit and I remember thinking, "This car cannot be going this impossibly fast." I felt like it had punched me in the chest. And then, we hit the end of the pit road, and for those of you who aren't familiar with racing, cars have an electronic governor that keep them under a certain speed limit until you hit the end of the pit road. What I didn't realize is the impossibly fast acceleration I had already felt, was when the car had the governor on it.

We hit the end of pit road and it was like somebody punched me in the chest and the face at the same time. The car went so fast it was ridiculous. Literally, everything started going blurry. We got to the end of the first straight away where we had already gotten faster than I ever thought we would. Then the driver slowed down and took one of the tightest turns on the track. Again, so fast that I felt like I was going to get thrown out of the car but there was nowhere for me to go.

As we went through the turns and through the track, it was like there was this entirely new feeling to being in a car for me. Because, I had never felt the level of acceleration that, that car provided. And, the amount of G forces the driver was able to carry through the turns. He was able to turn so fast and so hard, that it was physiologically draining. Then, we went through the S turns at COTA, long S turns. Then, you get towards the end of the track and the turn that you take onto the longest straight away is one of the slowest turns of the track. I remember thinking, "At least I'll get to take a breath before going into the turn." Because, the G forces throughout the time we were in this car were so crazy.

Then the driver went through the slowest turn on the track two or three times as fast as I had ever been through it. Then, we went fast. We were on a long straight away. He went up to 120, 130, 140, 150, 160, 170, 180. We got into the mid 180's, and above 170 there was this crazy blur. Everything went blurry. I could barely read the dashboard when I looked over to see how fast he was going. But, looking forward it was like the whole world was blurred. It stayed that way down the entire rear straight away, until he slammed on the breaks which made everything in my body feel like it was going to come out of my throat. Then went through another impossibly tight turn at the end of the straight. Then we made our ways back to the pit.

I remember thinking, "How do you ever get used to that feeling of that intense blur on the back straight away? How could you possibly ever be okay with that?" I only had one lap in that car, and I was shaking at how hard it was to see clearly driving the car. I thought, "You know, you must get used to it." So I waited for a while, and the guy who took me around the track changed drivers. I had actually chatted with him for a couple minutes before I got in the car. He knew I was a driver, and so I had to ask him.

I walked up and said, "Hey, I've just got a question for you. How long does it take before your eyes stop going blurry like that? How does that stop?" He said, "Oh, it never stops. You just learn to deal with it." I said, "So, when the Formula One drivers are out and they're going 205, 210, 215 miles an hour down that straight away and they're inches away from each other. They're looking at that blur and they're dealing with that?" He said, "Well, I mean. If you've done it for long enough, you learn to deal with the blur, and you can just judge where you are."

I thought, "That's incredible." But then for perspective I kind of had to back away and think, "Well I've only been down that straight away one time in an F1 car. Of course it was overwhelming 'cause it was the first time I'd ever seen that blur." I wonder how many times it would take me before I could deal with it a little bit better, or how many times it would be less jarring. It might feel easier.

Then the next time I was out in my Porsche that day, I actually went as fast as I possibly could on the back straight away. Really wound it out, and I realized, "You know what? Even in my car, there wasn't just a blur. There was a bit of a vibration throughout the whole car. But, I've been on a track in it so many times, I know that car so well. I don't even really feel it." But, I bet you if anybody else was sitting in the car, they certainly would have registered it.

It really reminds me of business. Because, business is the exact same way, except for in business there is no top speed. See, I love F1, and I follow the sport because I think F1 is just, it's the pinnacle of motor sports. It's also some of the most incredible drivers in the world. They maneuver these cars in impossibly tight situations, with G forces that would challenge the normal person to just be okay, like not lose their lunch. And, they do it for hours at a time in ridiculous weather, and with a level of precision that is unreal. But, even F1 cars can only top out at around 220, 225 miles an hour.

Businesses just keep growing. As business owners, we learn to deal with the blur. I think we need to remind ourselves of that. Because, here's what happens. With each new growth stage of business, what lies in front of us looks really difficult. But, what's immediately behind us that was previously really difficult, now feels easy. Each new level of growth we reach in our business, we reach a new level of vulnerability, a new level of exposure. If we don't, if we aren't there, if we're not feeling that, we're not doing it right. But, you learn to deal with the blur.

I watch this myself with my friends and their businesses. When someone first starts out, if they have a problem, or a customer return, or a challenge or anything like that. It can be devastating. When you first start in business, the first ... In fact, for most of us, the first client that we ever got, the first client that you ever got, that client probably at one point or another made you cry. I know it happened to Cadey when she was a real estate agent. She actually worked with a friend of mine. It was her first client she ever had in her life in any type of business. He had a really, he was really upset one night at everything but her. But, she was still so upset by the phone call she cried.

A few years after that, she could take three or four phone calls like that in a row. In fact, I'm pretty sure she took two of those phone calls not while she was pregnant with Regan, but while she was in labor with Regan. Finally, the midwife and the acupuncturist that were there had to wrestle her phone away from her, 'cause she was just going to keep taking calls. Because, it was easy for her at that point. She had learned how to deal with the blur.

You look at most entrepreneurs, like something like a lawsuit. It would throw us off like crazy. I can't stand getting certified mail. Every time I get certified mail, I'm having heart palpitations. But, I have friends that have entire legal departments because their businesses are constantly being sued. When you have 90,000 people working for you around the globe, you're going to constantly be sued. When you have teams of tens of thousands of people that are putting their hands on people, moving people around, doing things in the world. You're going to end up with challenges and issues.

But, at that point when you have a 10 figure company like some of my friends do. You get used to issues that would cripple the average business owner. Because, you get used to the blur. Here's how you use this for yourself. You have to realize that if the next step that you are taking feels like it's going to be big, and it's massive, and it's major, and it's hard. Good, because the next one's only going to be bigger. Because, as business owners we've committed to a life where it doesn't matter what goal we set. As we approach it, it loses importance to us so we have to continue to do more, and to be more, and to expose ourselves in a new way, and to be in a new level of vulnerability. While, we build the team, and grow an organization around us. In order to do that, if you're feeling vulnerable or exposed, you're doing it right.

The more transparent you can be about where you are, the faster you'll be able to build a team around you, and learn to deal with the blur. One of my clients, Natalie Hodson, who is ... She's just incredible. She is an incredible speaker, she spoke here this week at ClickFunnels. She is an amazing author, and thought leader. She wrote a ... I mean, this number still freaks me out. She wrote an eBook, $37 eBook. And, off of organic traffic that she created on Facebook, and a following she created on Facebook. Then, growing her funnels, she was able to make over seven figures with an eBook with one person on her team. That's just crazy.

When Natalie and I first started working together, she was having a hard time with the idea of building a team. Like me, Natalie's an introvert. A lot of exposure to a lot of different people for introverts like us, it's really hard. But, over the course of the last few months we've been working together, and step by step by following a process, she's learned to deal with the blur. I'm so proud of her, 'cause she went from not knowing if she wanted to grow a team. To going from two people, to over 14 people. And, she's spending 80% less time managing the team, and managing the business, so she can focus on what makes the business grow.

How did she do that? You put the right process, she put the right systems in place, and you learn to deal with the blur. As business owners, when somebody tells us they can give us a pain free business. When somebody tells you they can give you a self managing company. When somebody tells you they can put your business on auto pilot. You gotta be suspect of those people. Because, the fact is, you don't want any of those things. You want to be an adaptable, malleable, growing, and contributing leader that builds a business that can deal with the blur. That, builds a business that can deal with market shifts, and market changes. That, builds a business that can deal with competition. That, builds a business and a team that can deal with anything that comes up because you build an adaptable culture where everyone learns how to deal with the blur.

If you're an entrepreneur who's building a team, and you're ready to grow it faster, and you're ready to stop wondering about what the right decisions are to make next, and definitively create a plan that will move you forward, and have the forward planning system that will stop you from being a bottle neck in your organization. Go right now to BillionaireCode.com. That's Billionaire with a B, BillionaireCode.com. Fill out the short survey there, and we will give you information on exactly where you are on the Billionaire Code, what you need to do next to grow your business, and we'll also be in touch to help you scale and grow your company. BillionaireCode.com.