Most MSPs stagnate between $1 million and $5 million in revenue, struggling to break through what’s known as “the valley of death.” That you?
Legendary leadership expert, author, and speaker John C. Maxwell knows why.
A No. 1 New York Times bestselling author who has sold over 38 million books in 50 languages, Maxell has trained over 5 million leaders worldwide, and was named the No. 1 leader in business by the American Management Association.
At a recent TMT top-tier MSP peer group event, in a Q&A with TMT and MSP Success founder Robin Robins, he shared four critical strategies to keep your MSP business from getting “stuck” in “the valley of death.”
Avoid the Success Trap
“The greatest detriment to tomorrow’s success is today’s success,” Maxwell explained. When MSP owners achieve initial success, they become satisfied and cling to their proven methods. But, he warned, “what got you to where you are today will not take you to where you need to go tomorrow.”
At 24, a mentor taught Maxwell that “growth means change. If you’re going to grow, you cannot stay the same,” he emphasized. However, he cautioned, you can’t reverse it; meaning, “change doesn’t automatically mean growth.”
Instead, he said, “You build great companies and teams by constantly learning, growing, and changing.”
Maxwell calls this principle “Trade-offs Worth Making.” As you climb higher, you must release what got you to where you are now to climb higher toward the summit. When owners hit $1 to $3 million, comfort sets in. Their needs are met, their families are secure, and they become satisfied, which is precisely when growth stops.
To encourage the audience to continue growing, Maxwell shared a quote he memorized when he was 25 years old by Phillips Brooks, an American Episcopal clergyman and author (1835–1893). Brooks’ words became his lifelong compass: “Sad will be the day for any man when he becomes contented with the thoughts he is thinking and the deeds he is doing—where there is not forever beating at the doors of his soul some great desire to do something larger; which he knows he was meant and made to do.”
“I’ve never lost that desire,” Maxwell said. “At 78, I’m not finished. I’ve still not arrived.”
Shift from the $1 Million Muscle to the $5 Million Mind
Maxwell explained that, “You can muscle it up to a million, but you can’t get it to $5 million” without building a team. Most MSP owners can personally generate $1 million through sheer energy and hard work, but scaling beyond requires a fundamental shift in mindset: “You add with yourself, but you multiply with others.”
Elaborating, he said two essential principles will help you grow:
First, leaders have mentors and coaches. Maxwell still maintains mentors and coaches and meets with them every month. “I owe more to my growth and success to mentors and coaches than to any other thing that has added value to me,” he said. “I can’t fathom anybody not having coaches and mentors. If you’re at the head of the class, you’re in the wrong class. You always need somebody bigger than you, better than you, faster than you.”
Second, leaders are self-aware. Everyone has blind spots, and the most dangerous leadership weakness is the one you can’t see. “You can’t fix what you don’t see or know,” Maxwell stated. “Every time I’ve grown in an area of weakness is because somebody was kind enough to say, ‘Hey, it’s a weakness and we’ve got to work on it.’”
The moment you recognize a weakness, transformation begins. However, Maxwell cautions against unrealistic expectations: “Growth is incremental. You can’t turn weaknesses into great strengths. If I’m a two out of 10, I can probably get to about a four, but I can’t get from a two to a 10.”
The exception? When you can make a choice. “With attitude, you can go from a one to a 10,” he explained. “You can have rapid, phenomenal growth because it’s a choice.”
Build a Championship Team
Great leaders hire people who are better than they are. “A lot of people are insecure, and they don’t want to bring in somebody that is ‘better than them,’” Maxwell observed. “That’s a big miss. If you’ve got a weak area in your life, go find somebody that can complement you and really run the ball.”
He explained: “The quarterback doesn’t get paid to run the ball every time; he just gets paid to know who to get the ball to. I don’t run the ball all the time. I’m not the best runner, but I know who my best runners are. And it’s my job to get the ball to them.”
Leaders also invest in developing their people, even when they might leave. Rather than fret about training employees who might eventually quit, Maxwell stressed to focus on what would be worse: “not working and developing your people and having them stay. Don’t hire them and get out of the way. Instead, hire them and help them get on their way. A leader’s responsibility is to make people better.”
Refocus from Success to Significance
Maxwell’s final truth strikes at the heart of why growth matters: “I know a lot, not a few, a lot of unhappy, successful people. They’ve got everything they would ever want. And they’re not happy, because they’ve lived a life of success instead of a life of significance. A life of significance is about others.”
As Maxwell simply stated, “Growth is a catalyst for the success of your life.”
