The biggets indicator of success

A major indicator of success is someone’s standards. 

We don't rise to the level of our expectations or the ideal version of ourselves, we fall to the level of our standards.

For example, when you are in a rut, it’s not as if you go out onto the street and start doing a bunch of drugs to cope (maybe it is).

It’s more likely that when you’re in a rut you are just a bit less productive, you coast through work days and just fulfil the bare minimum for clients while not really getting much done.

That is because it’s your minimum standard to at least get some work done (I hope).

Your standards are basically just accepted practices, requirements, and quality of work.

Some companies might say it’s normal to fulfil their work in a month. 

Others might have a minimum standard of finishing in three days.

I learned this when I was reaching out to a friend to learn more about growing on Instagram.

I was kind of being slow, I hadn’t gotten to it properly (still haven’t really) and I wanted to know more about what he did.

To be honest, he embarrassed me a bit. 

We got to talking about content creation in general and he noted that just to edit one of his reels, it took his editor 20 hours. Let alone how long it took to write the script.

I just went “oh.”

It was pretty clear that my standards for effort were too low.

He asked me:

““If Mr Beast and his team put in millions of dollars in budgets and still only put out a few videos per month, what makes you think your videos that you spin up in 30 minutes and then immediately post will get results?”

After that I realized when someone looks like they are operating at a much higher level, it is most likely that they have 10, 20 or 100x higher standards than the average person.

They just don’t accept anything except the best.

For example, it is the standard of a lot of investment banks that the employees work 80 hours a week.

How many of your employees work that much? Or even care that much?

It’s an interesting concept, especially when you think about how few agencies take the time to have company standards written out.

And it’s also interesting to consider how few people in general have strong personal standards.

How many times do you skip a workout, show up late, or give yourself a pass for doing something the wrong way?

The truth is, your standards will carry you as far as you deserve. 

And no further.

When people say “how you do one thing is how you do everything” this is what they mean.

Winners have high standards personally and for their company.

Losers have lower standards.

This impacts every employee, every client relationship, and every day of your life. 

The reason this matters so much is because you get to set your own standards for your business.

If you want everyone inside your company to think “no that is too hard, we can’t fulfil that fast” they will believe you.

But if you set the bar high, that will become normal.

I’ll give you a hint though, the people above you in business have 10, 20, or 100x higher standards than average amounts.

I go into more detail on this in my full lead gen guide, you can check it out here if you like (link)