Featured Interview: Barry Moltz, Entrepreneur and Author, Bounce!

Typically we feature Fairy Godmother posts on Wednesdays… how about we switch it up and feature wisdom from a Business Wizard this week?

It was my pleasure to interview Barry Moltz, internationally known speaker, author, and entrepreneur this week. His latest book, Bounce: Failure, Resiliency and Confidence to Achieve Your Next Great Success was very refreshing to read as we don’t often enjoy reading about business failures, we typically like to read the success stories, but the truth is we go up and down in our careers and Barry calls it “Bounce.” Loved it.

QUESTION: Barry, please provide us with your definition of “Bounce”

Let go of what you were taught was the secret path to succeed in business and in life. Let go of the idea that something to learn comes from failure or that you can always duplicate your success. Let go of the shame of losing and the enlarged ego that comes with a big win. If we let go of whatever the last result was — we can actually Bounce! We can learn what — if any thing — from the last success or failure and get ready by bouncing to the next action that we need to make. Any success or failure is just a part of the entire business lifecycle. Individually, a particular result or outcome actually means nothing. No event will guarantee the same result in the future. By learning to bounce through this repetitive process of “success and failure, failure and success”, you will develop a resiliency that will lead to the true confidence that ultimately determines which ones of us succeed.More importantly, it allows each of us to have passion and enthusiasm regardless of where we are in the cycle. It allows us to get ready our next great success!

QUESTION: What 3 specific skills do you feel are helpful for entrepreneurs to develop early on in their careers so they are prepared for any unforeseen “Bounce” in their path? Is it an attitude?

1. Resiliency. Realize that life is not a linear line. It is a series of ups and downs. It is change. Regardless of the outcome, success or failure, you can always bounce! Take that next action
2. Define your own brand of success, not what everyone else says it is. Set money plus goals. Learn to downsize your dreams and define what makes you happily successful. Set patient interim goals: Forget about getting a foothold- get a toe hold! Set small goals to get surely toward your goal.
3. Strive for Minimal Achievement. Focus on one thing at a time. It will provide you incredible power in your business. This is becoming difficult because we are a multitasking culture. Multitasking actually reduces your productivity by 50%

QUESTION: When a business doesn’t go as planned and it looks like it’s time to close the doors, how do you find the courage within to try again?

This probably takes the most courage of all. Of course there is a saying that quitters never win and winners never quit. This is nonsense. Winners know when to quit. It is a lot harder to quit then to keep going. Closing the doors actually is a good thing. It provides an escape hatch for you to end and begin anew. It allows you to start again and go in another direction. It allows you to bounce! to a different path. Forget courage. Let your passion be your guide for what to do next.

QUESTION: How do you enroll your family and friends into supporting you if your first business was unsuccessful?

Make no mistake. Your family and friends support you out of love, not just success. Ask them for what you need (safe the money request for later). You may need their opinion, first customers or just morale support. Family and friends are critical as a support structure if you are to be successful.

QUESTION: Have you read “The Dip” by Seth Godin? And if so, do you agree that entrepreneurs need to be “the best in the world at what they do” or find their own niche to excel in or do something else?

I have just starting reading “The Dip”. I do not believe we have to be the best at what we do. I am not even sure what “the best” means or whose standard we should use. We need to approach all things with passion and excel to our own standards- our own brand of success. In fact, there is a lot of mediocre products and services that financially do very well in this world if they can solve a pain and have a niche. Marketing becomes key. It’s not the idea or the product, it’s the execution of your marketing and sales strategy that influences your financial success.