There is a belief that holds a lot of business owners back.

It sounds responsible….It sounds strong…..It may even sound admirable.

“I’ll figure it out myself.”

….I know that belief well…because I lived by it for years.

When I ran into a problem, I worked harder.

When I didn’t know the answer, I spent more time searching.

When something failed, I went back to the drawing board and tried again.

There is nothing wrong with being resourceful…..There is nothing wrong with learning through experience.

My ego felt good when I solved a problem on my own…..But there is a hidden cost most people never calculate…

Time…..You can earn more money….You can hire more people.

….You can replace a lost client….But you cannot create more time.

Once a year is gone…it is gone.

….That is why one of the most powerful ideas any business owner can understand is leverage.

What Is Leverage?

Most people think leverage means using money to make more money.

That is one form of it…..But leverage is much bigger than that.

Leverage is anything that allows you to produce a greater result with less time, effort, energy, or risk.

A system is leverage….A strong employee is leverage…..Technology is leverage.

A trusted relationship is leverage…..A proven strategy is leverage.

And one of the most overlooked forms of leverage is OPK…

Other People’s Knowledge.

…OPK means you do not have to personally learn every lesson through trial and error.

You can learn from people who have already solved the problem you are facing.

You can borrow their distinctions….Study their systems….Avoid their mistakes….Use their shortcuts.

And compress years of learning into months…sometimes even weeks.

That does not mean you avoid doing the work.

….It means you stop wasting work.

There is a big difference.

Hard Work Is Not Always the Answer

We have been taught to believe that success comes from working harder….Sometimes it does.

But hard work pointed in the wrong direction still takes you farther away from where you want to go.

You can spend ten years climbing a ladder…Only to discover it was leaning against the wrong wall.

Tony Robbins has often taught that it is not a lack of resources that stops people…it is a lack of resourcefulness.

I agree….But I would add something.

One of the most resourceful things you can do is get around people who already know what you do not know.

That is leverage…..Imagine two home care owners facing the same problem.

Both are struggling to generate consistent private-pay referrals.

The first owner decides to figure it out alone….They hire a salesperson without knowing how to identify the right person.

They spend months training them without a proven sales system….They buy software.

They attend networking events….They sponsor lunches….They print brochures…They try a little social media.

They change directions every few weeks because nothing seems to be working fast enough.

Two years later, they may finally understand what the real problem was.

…..The second owner talks with someone who has already built a successful referral system.

Within one conversation, they discover that their salesperson is calling on the wrong accounts.

Their messaging sounds like every other agency….They have no process for prequalifying referral sources.

And their follow-up is random….The owner still has work to do.

But now the work is focused…..Instead of spending two years discovering the problem…

They discover it in two hours….That is the power OPK…..And that is the power of leverage.

….The Real Value Is Speed

People often think they are paying for information….They are not.

Information is everywhere….You can find books, podcasts, videos, conferences, courses, and articles on almost any topic.

The problem is not access to information….The problem is knowing which information applies to you…

What order to implement it in…..What to ignore…..What to fix first…

And how to stay with it long enough to produce a result.

The real value of learning from the right people is not simply knowledge.

It is speed….It is shortening the distance between where you are and where you want to be.

It is avoiding the expensive mistakes someone else already made….It is seeing around corners you did not know were there.

It is accelerating your time horizon.

A goal that may take five years through trial and error might take two years with the right guidance, systems, and relationships.

That difference matters….Because those three years are not just numbers on a calendar.

They are three years of additional revenue…..Three years of lower stress….Three years of stronger systems.

Three years of more time with your family….Three years of building the agency you originally set out to create.

The Power of the Mastermind

Napoleon Hill wrote extensively about this idea in Think and Grow Rich.

He described the mastermind principle as the coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people for the attainment of a definite purpose…..That idea is nearly a century old…

But it may be more valuable today than ever…Why?

Because no single person sees everything.

You have experiences I do not have…..I have experiences you do not have.

Another owner may have already solved the exact recruiting problem keeping you awake at night.

…..Someone else may have found a better way to structure their leadership team.

Another person may have discovered a referral strategy that is working in a market similar to yours.

When the right people come together and openly share what is working…

Everyone gains access to more experience than they could ever accumulate alone….Think about that.

A group of ten established agency owners may represent 100 years or more of combined business experience.

Hundreds of employees hired….Thousands of clients served…..Millions of dollars generated….And more mistakes than anyone would like to admit.

You could spend the next decade making those mistakes yourself…..Or you could learn from them now.

That does not make you weak….It makes you smart.

….Isolation Is Expensive

One of the hardest parts of owning a business is that it can feel lonely.

Employees may care deeply about the company…..But they do not carry the same weight you do….Friends may support you…

But they may not understand what it feels like to make payroll, lose a major client, manage staffing shortages, or wonder whether your growth has stalled.

Even family members may not fully understand the pressure….So owners often stay inside their own heads.

They replay the same problem….Look at the same numbers….Ask themselves the same questions….And eventually arrive at the same answers.

That is the danger of isolation.

….You cannot always see the label from inside the bottle.

Sometimes you need someone outside your business to look at the situation and say…“Here is what you are missing.”

One conversation can change a decision…..One decision can change a year….And one year can change the trajectory of your entire business.

…We Do Not Have Unlimited Time

This is where the topic becomes personal for me.

I believe we get one life in this body….On this earth……At this particular moment in time.

We do not know how long the window stays open.

That is not meant to be negative…..I find it motivating.

It reminds me that I do not want to spend ten years learning something I could learn in one.

….I do not want pride to keep me stuck.

….I do not want to repeat avoidable mistakes just so I can say I figured everything out myself.

…..And I do not want to arrive at the end of my career realizing I played smaller than I needed to because I refused to ask for help.

We should work hard…..We should take responsibility….We should be willing to struggle and do what could seem hard (that’s where the growth happens)

…But we should also be willing to use leverage.

…We should learn from people who have already walked the path.

…We should surround ourselves with people who challenge our thinking.

….We should borrow great ideas…adapt them…implement them…and make them our own.

Because the goal is not to prove how much we can do alone….

….The goal is to make the most of the time we have by working smarter and not necessarily harder.

Final Thoughts

The most successful owners I know are not the people who have all the answers.

They are the people who know how to find the right answers faster.

They use systems….They use relationships….They use mentors….They use peers….They use OPK.

They understand that asking for help is not a sign of weakness…

It is a form of leverage.So here is the question I want to leave you with…

Where are you still trying to figure everything out alone?

Is it sales?….Recruiting?…Leadership?…Operations?….Scaling?

Building a business that can one day run without you?

Whatever it is…

….Someone has likely faced it before.

….Someone has made the mistakes.

…..Someone has found a better path.

….And someone may be able to help you compress years of frustration into a few important conversations.

We only get one pass through this life.

Let’s make the most of it….Work hard……But use leverage….Stay resourceful…..But use OPK.

And never spend years solving a problem that the right room could help you solve much faster.

Article by Gregg Mazza