The X Factor

By Pat Rigsby

If you really want to know the thing that allows some people to enjoy success while others settle for mediocrity – it’s really pretty simple.

Drive.

If one of your clients wants to reach their goals, it’s more about their want, desire and willingness to stick to your program than it is about having any magic system.

If you want to build your Ideal Business, it’s more about your hunger and willingness to do what most won’t than it is about the latest greatest marketing fad or business system.

The truth is – a lot of different approaches will work…

…If you will.

I can look back and see this clearly hold true in pretty much any success I’ve ever had and for all the successful people I’ve known.

When I became a Baseball Coach, the two previous coaches at that University had been a former Major League All-Star and a legendary high school coach that had made the jump to coaching at the collegiate level.

Both struggled in the job I was about to take – and both had tons more experience, credentials and resources.

I was 23 and I can look back and count on one hand the number of people that expected me to be even modestly successful – and that’s including myself.

But the fear of failure drove me tirelessly.  With less experience, worse facilities and poorer resources than virtually everyone we competed against – I was able to be successful because I was willing to do what others wouldn’t.

When other coaches we’re vacationing during the summer, I was working.

When they we’re home, I was recruiting.

While they were comfortable, I was hungry.

Really, I was just unwilling to fail and it drove me constantly.

When I moved into the business world, I’d only read 4 books that could be considered ‘business books’ in my life, I’d never made more than $33,000 in a year and I’m pretty sure I was about as unprepared for success as someone could be.

But after taking about 18 months to work for someone for a while to learn the ropes of the industry and study up on business – I took the leap into entrepreneurship and went into business. But this time that Drive – and that fear of failure – was even bigger.

At that point, everyone I’d known in my life thought of me as a baseball coach and always expected me to go back to that.  So that fear of failure gnawed at me again. But there was a second Driver that wouldn’t let me fail. Family.

When we got started, Holly, Tyler and I lived in a basement for a year and under no circumstances was I going to fail them. Everyone has their stories like this where they struggled and paid their dues.

It’s just that most of them aren’t in their early thirties – but that was a choice I’d made since I’d decided to change careers mid-stream. And as far as I was concerned, failure was not an option.

Looking back, in both cases I had a lot fewer resources and experience than the competition. But that was made up for with Drive.

But this Drive – or willingness to do what others won’t is hardly exclusive to me. I know plenty of people who exhibit it more than I do or ever have.

I’ve been fortunate enough to work with a LOT of successful entrepreneurs and they all use different business models, different marketing strategies and even different training methods in one way or another.

But the one thing you’ll find in all of them – and every other successful person – is Drive.