The Walt Disney Formula

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What’s shakin’? Hey, I’m Rick Jordan, and today we’re going all in. We’re back, and today we’re going all in. I’ve got some pretty cool stuff to talk with you about. Today. There was a there was a time. And if you’ve listened to the show before, you know that I’ve always been a Disney fan, except for some of the changes, you know, the big, stupid crap they’ve been doing the last couple of years. But even more than a Disney World fan or Disneyland fan, I’ve been a Walt Disney fan. I mean, this dude was a dreamer. He was a make-things-happen guy and just absolutely incredible, to the point where it was a few years ago, and this is what I’m talking about, like 10 years ago, right? I bought this right here, and I’ll explain what this is. This hangs on my wall in my office. It is one share of The Walt Disney Company. And I bought this. There’s a site, at least there used to be 10 years ago, called oneshare.com where you could buy just one share of anything, and you would get sent a certificate, the actual stock certificates, which you can have it in a plaque. 

You can do whatever you want to do. You know, you can get even just a document hold to yourself if you want to. But you get sent this certificate. And one of the reasons I got this is because of the Walt Disney certificates. The stock certificates are freaking beautiful. I mean, if you’re looking at this on video, whatever, but you can see this, right? It’s got all the characters, and it has Walt Disney right in the middle there. It’s pretty amazing. And I wanted this because Disney was going to stop issuing actual physical paper certificates with this amazing design on it. And you could; I ended up getting it framed. And the reason I got it framed is because I could get a quote at the bottom of this; there’s a quote by Walt Disney, and it’s my favorite one of his in the world, no joke, like actually, I think it might even be just my favorite quote in the world, period, not even just of his. Of his, but it says the way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. I’m gonna repeat that the way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. Right? You can even say to quit thinking, to stop thinking, and to start doing, which has been quoted in different ways. 

The whole time I’ve talked about a book that I’ve been in the wisdom of Walt, and this was inspired by this today, because this quote came up. I’m like, where is this thing? And finally, like, in chapter 17, it came up, and I was so pumped when I heard it, like, This is what I have to talk about, because this is where we all get stuck. Not even kidding, and what we’re gonna do is the Getting Started part. And I talked a little bit about this last week when I was speaking to a group of over 100 chiropractors. And you know that, like, the difference—it’s like, how do you know? Because one of the questions that came up in the Q&A was, you know, how do I know what my steps are and everything? I’m like, listen, you really don’t for the most part.. She’s like, I found myself procrastinating or just, you know, getting stuck in all this stuff. And this was a woman who actually just spoke on the stage at Funnel Hacking Live. Was invited by Russell Brunson and and that was my first thing. It’s like, you just spoke at FHL in front of 5000 people, and you’re thinking that you’re stuck, or you’re like, Come on now, open your eyes. But the limitation was still there. 

That’s great. It was a moment in time, and it’s like, now she’s like, where do I go? And we’re going to get into that, because there’s some there’s some concepts that we’re going to talk about, getting started, you know, or taking that first step, whatever that first step is, or even taking that next step, because there has to be a point, because people can plan. Even worse, people can overplan. If you’re listening to this right now or watching this right now, you can overplan things. And you know what? You do it every damn day for real. You overthink stuff, you overplan stuff, and it keeps you from moving forward, whether it’s implementing a new practice or a process at your business or if it’s, you know, starting something new with your kids, whatever it is, all this overplanning is the thing that keeps you stuck. And we’re going to talk about why. Because in order to get started, you have to stop thinking. You have to quit talking and start doing. Another concept that Walt had, which was amazing, is that you have to start early. And as the CEO of the first public MSP managed service provider, this is one of the reasons why I wanted to be the first. I’m looking around. 

Nobody’s doing it, right? There are a lot of people thinking about it. I see this when we announce things and press releases go out; a lot of people are thinking about it, but they’re not doing it. Because this is another thing that Walt Disney said, a person should set their goals as early as they can. You. And devote all his energy and talent to getting there. I don’t know what else to say; it’s all in that statement right there. That’s incredible to me; that moves me, that pushes me, that validates me in what I’m doing and putting my energy in, you know, even this show, even this podcast. People are like, oh my gosh, how’d you get to, you know, the top 2% in the world, which I’m very grateful for. It’s like, because I just started, I didn’t wait, and I didn’t plan it out. I didn’t make sure that was perfect. I didn’t sit down and be like, Oh, I don’t know what I’m gonna talk about. You know, I just started talking, which is ironic, because of this quote, right? Because of the quit talking, begin doing. It’s kind of funny to me, because that’s what the show is—talking—but the doing is the talking in the show, but the recording and putting it out there.

 There are so many podcasts, and I’ve talked to so many people who are like, Oh, I just want it to be perfect. And they record the first episode, they go back and they listen to it, like, oh, that sucked, you know. Then they record another episode. Oh, that sucked. You know what? I’m gonna wait until I get six episodes, state of them, and I’ll push it out, you know. But then it becomes, I’m going to wait until 12 episodes, and then I’m going to push it out, you know? I just want to build this thing up. And then it becomes excuse after excuse after excuse. Dreams are made from actions, not excuses. And I have a question for you today: what will you do when all of your excuses run out? What are you gonna do? Because they can only go so far. Your excuses only matter for a very short moment in time. Whatever you’re telling yourself, whatever this negative self-talk is about, the reason why you can’t start right now—that excuse is going to run out, because you will start to look around, and this is what happens, right? You look around, and now that excuse doesn’t work anymore. 

So now you have to go and try to make up something new, and you start telling yourself all this stupid bullshit. This is what happens when you continue to think and not do, when you continue to plan and not take action: procrastination steals your success. And do you know what procrastination is? Actually? Are you ready for this? This is going to hit people hard. Procrastination is just perfectionism in disguise. You want things to be perfect. I get that right. But perfection is actually an insecurity. Perfection is something that is unattainable. Did you hear me? Perfection is unattainable. Now we’re talking about the start, right? Perfectionism is actually a mode of control. Because when you’re insecure, you want to try to control everything you possibly can so that whatever bad you’re telling yourself is going to happen doesn’t actually happen. That’s really what perfectionism is, right? But then you look at it because of the perfection versus progress, right? Or the perfection versus process, and that’s even more important. 

I know everyone’s heard perfection versus progress. I’ve used that before, right? But what about perfection versus process? And I’m not talking about writing down steps one through 27; I’m talking about growth, the growth process, because as you go through things, as you start to actually do, as you start to take action, dreams are made from action. As you start to do those things, as you start to take that very first step, and you actually start, that becomes your process, your growth process, into the outcome, into the person that you’re going to be, that you want to be, that your dreams say you want to be in that spot. Because here’s the thing, right: the way that we try to combat this perfectionism is actually to take control of this insecurity. There’s a way that we we combat this thing is actually to take control of things as much as possible. I’m gonna bust your bubble today, because this is so powerful. And if there’s one freaking thing you get out of this today, you have to take this right now. Right now. You have to take what I’m going to say; the start is the only thing that you can control. Let that sink in. Start your start that one step, if it’s the first or just the next. The start is the only thing that you can control. 

Everything else along the way, until you get to the very end of that milestone, that success, that outcome that you want, that dream coming to fruition, you will look back and be like, Oh my God. I never expected those 87 things to happen. But you know what? I dealt with it, and I kept and I kept moving on. I kept pressing, I kept pushing, because there’s no way that you can possibly predict all the unexpected things that are going to happen. There’s no way you can possibly control all the movements that you’re going to have in reaching your dream. You. Because the start is the only thing that you can control. So if you like control fucking, take control of your start and do it right now. Man, this is amazing, right? Because from that point on, after you start, you just have one job. It actually gets easier. You just have one job, and that’s to show up; that’s to just continuously focus on your progress, your growth, the whole way through, and bring this full circle all the way back to when I started, when I spoke with this individual who just spoke on the stage at Funnel Hacking Live. 

And I was like, I love this analogy, because your start is always that first step. Your start is always that next. She’s like, Oh, I just have to step on faith. I’m like, No, not really. It’s not faith that you need to have. Because everybody, mostly everybody, can actually always see that first step. You actually typically know what you need to do right now. 

You might not know what to do after right now, and that’s okay, because it’s like fog, right? It’s like super heavy, thick fog. And if you want, you can close your eyes and imagine the super heavy, thick fog. If you look down, you can still see your feet. You can still see like the next three feet in front of you, even if you can’t see past that, but those three feet that is your step. And guess what happens when you take that step? You can see the next three feet in front of you. A lot of times, you can never see, and this is what I’m talking about—about control. You can only control that step. You can only control that start, because right after that, as soon as you make that, then you’ll be able to control what you do next, because you can see three more feet in front of you. I think this is by design, right? Whether you call it the universe or whatever, a lot of times you can see down the road as an outcome where industry is going. I can see those things, right? But I don’t know exactly how I’m going to get there. I never know the exact how on how to get there. Perfectionism will keep you from taking control. If you want control, control the start; that’s what you have control over right now, and from that point on, you only have one job, and that’s to show up and go all in.