Episode Transcript

Michael Abernathy 0:00
Hey what’s up? What’s up? What’s up, everybody? Welcome back today and guys, welcome back to five minute rants. I’m your host, Michael Abernathy. And welcome to the show predicated on the journey of life and business.

Well, guys, today I want to talk about writing it down. So Andrew and I have a saying in the businesses that if it’s not written down, it doesn’t exist. And Here’s why. What is in my brain is in my brain, and only in my brain. And that even though if I tell somebody what I’m thinking, even though if I’m telling somebody What I’m feeling, and What I’m doing, if I really want the information to be transferred, if I really want people to be able to go back and actually look back at What I’ve said, and how we’re trying to build or create, it’s got to be written down. People need to be able to reference it.

And even like, I’m doing this podcast, and you’re listening to me right now, this is a great way to transfer information. But Here’s a problem with it. You can’t search it. And you can’t find the audio. Right? You can’t I mean, you can search it, but you’re gonna spend time skipping how what’d he say? What’d he say? What’d he say? And that’s one of the reasons why we transcribe everything. That’s one of the reasons why I said, Hey, I want this stuff written. So people can literally do a control find, he said, this, let’s go. Let’s go look at it.

And if you look at processes, and Here’s the reason why I’m saying, because for a lot of people who start building a company, right, we start off as technicians, we start off as the person who is actually producing all the work, we start off as the individual who is the main producer. And then we actually have to grow and morph into an entrepreneur and a manager. And from there, we actually have to build a business. So a business is not a, and I’m going to define this for you, a business is not a product or a service. Right? A business isn’t even a brand. Okay? A business is a set of systems, that is able to reproduce results consistently without the need of any key individual, of which it has to rely on to exist. And so in other words, a business is something that can exist outside the founders, it is something that can exist outside the CEO, it is something that can exist outside every single employee within that company, because it is its own living organism that is not dependent upon me to survive. And so if I’m building a company, and I’m not writing down the checklist, the processes if I’m not documenting the things I need to document, it’s actually never going to become a company. If my team cannot go research or reference the things we’ve discussed from our scrum meetings and the meetings to actually how do I execute this task to, hey, how do I do these things? When does this occur? And if that’s not written down to where they can reference it, and they have to rely on a single individual to tell them this, it’s not a business, I own a one man show, or you own a one man show, or you have a one man show.

And I’ve seen this a lot where employers get so frustrated with employees, right? They get so frustrated, please, why aren’t you doing What I just want you to do? And it’s like you have not equipped your employees to do What they need to do. You haven’t given them something that allows them to be interdependent and self sustaining without you. And as a result, they constantly need you. And this is the way that you’ve built things. So you created the thing that you hate. And I’m laughing because I again, I’ve got a Harvard degree in stupidity. And I’m talking to y’all about a lot of the things that I’ve done a lot of the things that I’ve done, oh my gosh, why am I in this mess? I don’t like this. This is so frustrating to deal with, oh, I made this. At face value, that’s not What I wanted to make. But it’s like, no, this is totally What I made. Because my actions, obviously say in the outcomes of my actions, obviously say, This is What I wanted to make.

So anyways, I’m saying this, write it down. If it does not, if it is not in written form, it does not exist. And Andrew and I talk about this all the time, if it’s not written, it doesn’t exist. And our team members don’t have anything to fall back on. Okay. And Here’s the reason I heard Alex Hormozi say this, and he said, We need to be reminded more than we need to be taught and that is so true. Like I think about anytime I’m learning something new. I see it pop up in my life consistently, oh, I need to be reminded of this or reminded of that. And some people need to be reminded more than others. But at the same time is why don’t we as leaders or as owners, or if you’re trying to start your own thing, why don’t you equip people so that they don’t need you so that you give them everything at hand to succeed? Would it be nice if you were given everything on hand to succeed? And so if you want to be treated that way, treat others the way you want to be treated. So give them everything they need to succeed. And if you have to scream and yell to get stuff done, I’m sorry. I think that’s poor leadership. And that’s just truth. And at least you know, I care enough about you to say it. Anyways guys, I’ll catch you later peace.