It’s never the process. It’s always the person

Commitment, not a cool product.

McDonald’s legendary “process-driven” business model is touted in Michael Gerber’s book, the E-Myth, as the central thing you need to succeed – a system will get you off the treadmill. Problem – 21.4% of SBA-funded McD’s fail. Huh?

We’re fascinated by “secrets”, “amazing”, “nothing else like it”, “three easy steps”, and other cheap parlor tricks to make us believe something great will happen if we have a special product, process, idea, great market, etc. It doesn’t work that way.

One out of every five SBA-funded McDonald’s franchise fails. Processes are incredibly helpful and I encourage Process Mapping as a standard business practice (much different than the McD’s or E-Myth model). But plenty of businesses have great processes and fail.

We’re always looking for something outside ourselves to fix our business. We spend thousands on complex business plans, layers of systems and process manuals, and buying every new marketing gimmick coming down the pike in hopes of fixing our business. But we’re not going to move the needle with these things. I put them all in the same category as “shelf-help” books – it all helps your shelf look good.

I’ve had countless conversations with people about what makes for success or failure, and almost invariably people point to outside forces to explain both of them. But the keys to success aren’t out there, their in our heads and our hearts. If we want to lead, succeed, and make more money, we must be transformed. There is no short cut.

I wince when I see franchises and multi-level marketing companies selling business opportunities by claiming you’ll make more money with them then with the other guy because they have the better product, better commission structure, better marketing, better financing, cheaper entry point, better process, etc. Then they trot out a few highly successful people to prove their point.

The problem with this is that you could take those same few people and put them in just about any other business and I guarantee you they would be successful there, too. Why?

Because it’s never about the process, or the product; it’s always about the person. People who are successful get there because they are relentless, not clever.

I’ve seen people be successful with good or bad products, good or bad processes, good or bad financing, and good or bad marketing. People who are successful will find a way to be successful in any business. People who aren’t successful expend an awful lot of time looking for the secret sauce, that great product, the perfect situation or anything else they can find outside themselves to distract them from the fact that they should be living conatively (with Committed Movement in a Purposeful Direction), not cognitively.

The keys to success are inside of us, not out there in the world. Put on your big boy pants, face the music, and figure out what you need to do to get where you want to go. Then stop blaming the world around you for not providing you the secret sauce, and get after it.

Create your own success. Gradually. Then suddenly.