The Two Ways To Make Money

The choices you make will set the tone for your business and for your wealth.

I listened to a great podcast yesterday. It was an interview with Brad Burnham and Fred Wilson, the founders of Union Square Ventures.

In the interview, Brad talked about the two ways to make money:

• Doing the right thing
• Doing things right

In today’s issue, I’ll break this down and share some context on how this can help you frame your decisions.

LFG 🔥

Doing The Right Thing

To me, this means solving the right problems.

At its core, entrepreneurship is about solving problems. What problems can you solve for the marketplace? Which solutions are more valuable than others? What problems do people have that they don’t even realize they have but still need solutions for?

In the beginning, “doing the right thing” is exactly how I started finding success in business. For example, in 2011, there was really no such thing as SEO or internet marketing for addiction treatment. After seeing how much attention I was generating with Sober Nation, I recognized there was a valuable market for anyone who knew how to build digital marketing campaigns in the behavioral health space.

I did the right thing. I chose the right problem to solve.

Doing Things Right

To me, this means executing with expertise, precision, and skill. The reality is not all work is equal. Some people and some organizations are simply better at execution than others.

To make money by doing things right, you need to deliver the best solutions to the problems the market is asking to be solved.

This is a quality issue.

Looking back, there were two decisions I made that I believe helped separate me on the quality front.

The first was the KPIs we reported on for Stodzy. At the time, marketing agencies were pitching all kinds of irrelevant services, and we decided to go the other way. We focused only on the services that generated leads for our clients. We ignored everything else. We weren’t a marketing agency. We were a lead generation agency.

That decision affected every other decision, because it meant we were on the hook for our work. We either generated quality leads, or we didn’t. As a result, we had to do things right.

We took no shortcuts, and we kept the main thing the main thing.

That decision stuck with me. I’ve actually taken it one step further. Now, if I take on a client, I don’t even focus on lead generation anymore. I focus on sales and admissions.

That is the true KPI, so why not focus entirely on that?

I must do things right. There is no other choice.

What About You?

Are you doing the right things? Are you solving the right problems?

Some opportunities I see right now are:

• Sales or building a sales team
• Marketing for service businesses
• Anything AI related
• Cybersecurity
• Health tech and longevity

If you’re just getting started in business, it’s easier to succeed by doing the right thing than by doing things right.

Over time, you’ll differentiate yourself by doing things right. This is what separates you from the pack. It’s how you build a reputation for great work and real results.

At that point, you’re unstoppable.

Love you guys. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tim

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