Retired Marine Corps general and former secretary of defense Jim Mattis gave the following advice to his men one morning in a briefing while in Iraq: “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to shoot everyone you meet.”
He was also quoted as saying, “The first time you blow someone away is not an insignificant event. That said, there are some assholes in the world that just need to be shot.”
I suppose that disturbs many. Some of you sickos reading this not only agree but started making a mental list.
Point is, success is mostly achieved by tough-minded people willing to do things most people would never do and would classify as ruthless and cruel. O’Leary got a lot of flak when he said you need to be willing to fire your own mother if she is screwing up your business. Musk received massive criticism when, two weeks after acquiring Twitter, he put an end to all of the unnecessary, profit-crushing perks, initiated massive layoffs and fired multiple top executives who were not aligned with his new vision.
I’ve learned the hard way that it’s critical to be able to make tough decisions when necessary. To fire a toxic employee who may be loved by clients but is creating massive problems internally. Or let someone go who is super loyal, genuinely nice and desperately needs the job but is incapable of doing it well. To be willing, even eager, to absolutely crush a competitor. To risk a nasty confrontation and even a lawsuit for not letting a client out of a contract early simply because they want to “go in a different direction.” To raise prices, make demands on or even fire clients for not behaving in the manner you require. Or simply to be demanding about certain standards and quotas and be criticized for being a “micromanager” with “impossible” standards and a toxic work environment.
This is a governing principle I learned from my mentor, Dan Kennedy: If I find myself waking up every morning thinking about you and we’re not sleeping together, YOU gotta go.
While I’ve gotten a lot better at “firing fast,” I’m far from perfect. Occasionally I procrastinate for all sorts of reasons: I’m slammed with work, don’t have an immediate replacement, I don’t want to start over or simply feel unenthusiastic about going through the process of firing them and getting a replacement. So I ride it out and hope that maybe it will be okay, at least until I have more time to devote to it. I’m always proved wrong and the situation always gets worse fast. Whether it involves a client, vendor or employee, all of us have to be willing to have the tough conversations and make the hard, wildly unpopular decisions that nobody else wants to make IF we want to succeed.
The requirement for making tough decisions faster only increases as your business grows. If you think you have problems when you have 100 customers, wait until you have 1,000. Or 5,000. Or more. Tough decisions will become a lot more frequent and urgent. Most people are not up for this, so they stay small.
They run their business in a constant state of “think it over,” waffling, making excuses, tolerating and attempting to ignore the warning signs. Mattis was not attempting to deliver a motivational speech to his troops that day. He was deadly serious. He has to be because he’s dealing with real life-or-death situations. In business, it might not be actual life or death, but IS the life or death of our income, livelihood, assets and peace of mind. That’s only serious to you, not to the others around you who have their own motivations and agenda. If you don’t draw the line in the sand and defend your best interests – violently if necessary – you’ll end up with everyone else’s monkeys on YOUR back.
Several years ago, I cut ties with a close family member, evicting them from my life permanently and completely. This was the second time they had shat on me, behaving in a manner that was totally unacceptable. I’ve never looked back and I certainly don’t regret it today. Many people who know the situation ask me, “Don’t you miss _____?” saying it must be a shame that I’m not closer to this person, suggesting that I should consider forgiving and forgetting since they’re “family.” Sorry, Charlie, I already took that class. Whatever you tolerate, even in small amounts, you get more of. And if you continue to tolerate people taking advantage of you or screwing up your peace of mind, productivity or plans, you damn well deserve it.
Speaking of life lessons, this year at our annual IT Marketing & Sales Boot Camp, we are featuring keynote speaker Dr. Jordan Peterson, author of the 12 Rules for Life, a bestseller that provides life advice through essays. Ticket prices go up on January 30th. Save $2,000 by claiming your seat now .
