Full transcript
0:00hey what's going on everyone at Sam
0:02Evans here and today I want to talk to
0:05you about cause and effect timeframes
0:07and I want to explain why and this is
0:11something that most entrepreneurs don't
0:12understand actually forget that this is
0:14something most human beings don't
0:16understand right and that is that
0:18today's results don't come from today's
0:22work into today's actions and most
0:25people fail to understand this and it
0:27causes them a lot of anguish pain
0:29suffering and everything because they
0:31just don't understand life and it can
0:33really be described and explained with
0:35this diagram I'm holding up here so here
0:39we've got memory then effect and here we
0:43have time right and let me explain it
0:46it's real simple so the things we do
0:48immediately right now the actions we
0:51take the work we do today we have very
0:54good memory of that you know memory is
0:56high but then tomorrow our memory of
0:59what we did yesterday is a bit less and
1:00then the next day our memories a bit
1:02less and over time memory fades and it
1:05pretty much fades away right but what
1:09doesn't happen is you know the actions
1:11we take today while we have good memory
1:13of them the results that we get from
1:16these actions that we take today
1:18actually come later on in the future you
1:21know we might get a very small result
1:24today but the big results we're gonna
1:26get from today's work is going to come
1:28months or years from now and most people
1:32don't understand this and it's a tricky
1:34one because as time goes on our memory
1:37fades so by the time we get the effects
1:40of the actions that we took years ago we
1:43have forgotten what actions we took and
1:46we've forgotten how these effects came
1:48to be you know we've forgot that we
1:50planted these seeds and then when they
1:53come to harvest we like oh like this
1:55must have been from what I did today or
1:56last week or something like that and it
1:58causes a lot of confusion and it it
2:01really wreaks havoc with pretty much
2:03every human being that I see and
2:05especially in the Entrepreneurship space
2:07because here's what happens you know an
2:09entrepreneur starts out in business and
2:12they're like alright I'm gonna
2:13start this business something to make
2:15some money and we're gonna get rich and
2:16all of this and so here today they start
2:19taking action you know they might start
2:21reading some books they might join a
2:22cause or they might start talking to
2:24other people they might start trying to
2:27pitch their ideas and trying to make
2:28sales and all of that and they've got a
2:30very good memory of what's going on
2:32right now and what happens though is
2:34that they don't get that much results
2:37immediately and that's because you know
2:39results take time to really come to
2:42fruition from the time we take the
2:44action and so what they do is they get
2:46disheartened because they do some work
2:48today and they can remember it very well
2:51but they don't really get that much
2:53results today so they're like ah what
2:56I'm doing must not be working right
2:59because I can remember exactly what I
3:00did and I can remember the results that
3:02I got and therefore cause and effect
3:05you know I know the cause I saw the
3:08effect which wasn't that much there for
3:10what I'm doing isn't working so I should
3:12give up and try something else
3:13and so they keep jumping around jumping
3:15around jumping around jumping around and
3:16they never escape this it's like you
3:19know it's like it's like a snake eating
3:20its own tail because no matter what you
3:23do in the short term no matter what
3:25action you take you're not going to see
3:27massive results because results effects
3:30take time to accrue and let me make this
3:32really really clear for you so in my
3:36business consulting com this month may
3:382018 we had our record month so we just
3:43it's May 31st right now and we've
3:47already made more money this month than
3:49we have any other month of all time ever
3:51and not just revenue but profit too and
3:53on cash collected everything we just
3:56smashed it this month and a lot of
3:59people might think well you know what we
4:03must have worked really hard this month
4:04and we must have done some really good
4:06work this month what were we doing this
4:08month that made the difference and I
4:11even catch some people at my you know in
4:13my company like my staff they they make
4:16this mistake too they're like whatever
4:17we're doing right now it must be working
4:19really well but here's the thing I know
4:22that the results that we we got this May
4:24came from
4:25work that we did one to two years ago
4:29right what we're seeing now is you're
4:32we're seeing things we're seeing the
4:34seeds that we planted two years ago come
4:37to fruition now so the results we're
4:39getting this month you know we've we've
4:41made over two million dollars this month
4:43and you know more than half of that has
4:46been profit which is huge and you know
4:51what what we you know a lot of us we
4:53look at it and we're like what did we do
4:55this month that was really big and that
4:57was you know that that's caused this but
4:59it came from work we did a long time ago
5:01and let me tell you exactly the work
5:03that I did
5:04so about it's almost two years ago now I
5:08decided to hire a team and because it
5:12was just me a while ago about two years
5:14ago so I hired a team and now we have 50
5:17people working for consulting calm and
5:19they're not only that I opened up an
5:20office one in Dublin in Ireland and then
5:23one over here and then in New York and
5:26you know we created a culture and a team
5:29and then we improved our customer
5:31support systems and then most that we
5:33know one of the biggest causes of this
5:34is that I totally rebuilt our product I
5:38went back painstakingly through our
5:40product and I made it better and better
5:42and better and I left no stone unturned
5:44in that thing so that it would it would
5:47just deliver insane value to the
5:49customers now this was hard work to do
5:51because we know was building it the
5:53product like I remember like one and a
5:55half years ago when I was slaving away
5:58at this thing you know I'd work like 15
6:01hours a day six days a week for a long
6:03time to build this product and we know
6:05it's building it I remember that you
6:08know I didn't get to see sales I didn't
6:10get to see like money flying in or I
6:12didn't get to see customers saying this
6:14is the best course in the world or this
6:15course has changed my life I didn't get
6:17to see those things when I was doing the
6:19work and grinding away at making this
6:21product but I knew you know I had been
6:23in the game for long enough and I
6:25developed enough awareness in
6:27self-discipline to know that Sam the
6:30results you're going to get from making
6:31the product better today they're not
6:33going to come today they're probably not
6:35going to come
6:36even this year but you're going to see
6:39these results in the future you're gonna
6:40see them in one year you're gonna see
6:42them in two years and then the customers
6:44are going to get more results that's
6:45going to mean more testimonials more
6:46word-of-mouth more people hearing about
6:48the program and enrolling in it it's
6:50going to mean better marketing it's
6:51gonna mean better everything but you
6:54need to stay disciplined and do the work
6:56now even though you're not going to see
6:58the rewards that you get and I'll be
7:00honest with you it was hard you know
7:02sometimes well as human beings we're
7:04used to really fast feedback you know
7:07like we do a post on Instagram or
7:09something and bam within like 10 seconds
7:11we get feedback we get likes we get
7:13comments or we might say if say an idea
7:16to a friend or a colleague or to our
7:18husband or wife and they tell us
7:20immediately with their facial
7:22expressions and they speak back to us
7:23and they give us feedback and so as
7:26human beings we optimize and we optimize
7:30based on feedback feedback from other
7:32people and you know feedback from
7:34different mechanisms so sometimes we
7:36look at how much money did we make from
7:38doing this thing or how many lights did
7:40we get how many comments what did people
7:41think of that did people get results
7:43from it and what we do is we take an
7:45action and then we seek feedback and
7:47then when we get the feedback we were
7:49able to kind of go action reaction and
7:52do a correlation there and be like okay
7:54this thing worked or this thing didn't
7:56work right that is the algorithm that we
7:58have in our brain it's how the human
8:00race has evolved so rapidly because we
8:04are able to think out into the future of
8:06what we want then hypothesize an action
8:08that we can take that is probable to get
8:11us to that place and then we take the
8:14action then we seek feedback and then we
8:17do it again or we iterate change it or
8:19we abort and try something else right
8:21that's what we do but most humans
8:24haven't evolved to think long term and
8:28this is huge
8:29honestly if you just change this one
8:31thing in your business if you change
8:32this one thing in your life it will
8:34change everything seriously this is one
8:37of the most powerful things that you
8:38could possibly learn and understand in
8:41life because the the actions that you
8:45take today you're not going to see the
8:48the full reward until years from today
8:51and you know I'm Steen he said you know
8:55the eighth wonder of the world is
8:57compound interest and Warren Buffett has
8:59built his fortune on compound interest
9:01too and pretty much every smart
9:03billionaire has used the law of
9:05compounding to get to where they are in
9:08life and what it is is that you know
9:11small actions taken over a long period
9:14of time produce insane results so I'm
9:18sure you've seen the compound interest
9:19calculations where all you have to do is
9:21save like a small amount of money each
9:23day and it looks like nothing each day
9:26you're like oh you mean I'm saving $10 a
9:28day and so on that day you know here's
9:31here's this blue you know this blue
9:33thing is the action this red thing is
9:36the reaction or cause and effect and
9:38then along here we have time all right
9:41so if you just save $10 a day and you
9:46know you're doing that and right now
9:50today you'll like this sucks you know
9:52I'm not getting rich I don't have a
9:54Ferrari and I'm not really my life isn't
9:56changing and so this saving thing sucks
9:59the saving thing doesn't work right
10:01that's what most people think because
10:03this short-sighted they can't think long
10:05term they don't understand things so
10:07they stop saving but those disciplined
10:10people who keep saving just ten dollars
10:12a day it turns into millions of dollars
10:15over time and it's because of the law of
10:17compounding but what happens is as our
10:20memory fades here the effect starts to
10:23kick later on and so in business you
10:26always want to be thinking like what
10:28things - what seeds can we plant today
10:31that in 1 year 2 years 3 years are going
10:35to harvest and you know really help us
10:38in business so you want to think out
10:40into the future we do you want to go and
10:42then you want to reverse engineer that
10:44down to the actions that you need to
10:46take to get to where you want to go and
10:48then it you want to execute those
10:51actions day to day and don't get
10:54disheartened if you don't see the reward
10:56immediately because the rewards will
10:59come but it takes a while for them to
11:01kick in and so I spent probably six
11:05entire months working 12 to 15 hours a
11:08day six days a week building the latest
11:11version of our product which is called
11:13consulting accelerator and consulting
11:15accelerator is a six-week online course
11:17which shows people how to start their
11:19own consulting business from scratch get
11:21clients make money into it all of that
11:22it's an end-to-end solution right now
11:25when I went to rebuild their product
11:28well actually let's rewind a little bit
11:30there so I grew my business up and it
11:33was you know it's making quite a lot of
11:34money it was making like a million
11:35dollars a month pretty consistently with
11:37the product in this state that it was
11:39and just with me running the business
11:41right and so if I was short-sighted I
11:44would have thought oh well let's just
11:46keep going the way we're going or let's
11:48try and scale it and sell and sell more
11:50of it and while that might have made me
11:51more money in their short term and the
11:54long term it would have absolutely wiped
11:56me out I can tell you that if I still
11:58had the same product that I had two
12:01years ago today I wouldn't be I wouldn't
12:04have a profitable business because the
12:06world's changed you know online
12:08marketing moved the markets moved the
12:10standards have changed everything in the
12:13world is constantly changing it's
12:14constantly evolving and if you don't
12:16evolve with it you get left behind and
12:19is the saying that I love and it's it's
12:22that if you're fighting change most of
12:25the time you're fighting the future and
12:27people who fight the future they don't
12:29win so you know you want to think like
12:32you want to think about this what things
12:34in your business are working well now
12:35but you're taking for granted and I can
12:38tell you that most of the time this is
12:39your product this is your service and
12:41this is the the main thing right that is
12:44the core that's the Nexus of your
12:46business and that's the main thing it's
12:48the most important thing there is what
12:50most businesses tend to do is they get a
12:52product or service that's just good
12:53enough and then they put all their
12:55efforts into marketing or or sales or
12:58things like that and they try and scale
12:59the business up that way and it works in
13:01the short term and they scale up but in
13:03the long term they end up out of
13:05business and not able to turn a profit
13:08and what's going on here is it's just
13:11short sightedness you know they're
13:13looking for short-term causes and
13:17effects they're looking for things they
13:18can execute today that they're going to
13:20see a result in today or this week or
13:22this month and this is how most business
13:24is run you know they might invest some
13:26money this month and see what they make
13:27this month and then they might do some
13:29work this month and see what the result
13:31is this month and actually I'm being too
13:33nice to people
13:34most people don't wait anywhere near a
13:36month you know you think about most
13:38millennial kids these days on their
13:40Instagram and their snapchat dude if
13:43they did a post and it took them a month
13:44to get feedback there is no way that
13:47they would do it they need that feedback
13:49BAM instantaneous otherwise they're too
13:52ad D in too neurotic to even bother
13:55doing it you know they expect instant
13:57gratification and what this means is
14:01that once people become hooked on
14:03instant gratification and living in
14:04these day tight little things here they
14:07never think long term and they end up
14:10getting good results here but they end
14:11up getting taken out in the future
14:13and really good businesses they think
14:16long term and they think what seeds can
14:18we plant today that it can't gonna
14:19harvest and come to fruition later on
14:21and give us a competitive advantage and
14:23get us to where we want to go and though
14:27I really learned this a lot when I read
14:30books like on the people who have really
14:33made it in the world so one thing I like
14:35to do is read books from not just
14:38anybody as I especially don't like
14:40reading books from academics because
14:42they haven't done it right it's like who
14:44are you who do you want to learn if you
14:46would - if you had the option like let's
14:48say you wanted to learn how to ride a
14:49bicycle right and then let's say there
14:52was the professor of Oxford and Harvard
14:55and Stanford University with the world's
14:58leading theory on riding bicycles right
15:00would you learn from him or would you
15:02learn from just some dude who's like 16
15:05just riding his bike around on the
15:07street doing some tricks you would learn
15:10from the guy riding the bike any day of
15:11the week right and so I hate learning
15:14from academics because they are
15:16explaining in great detail what they
15:18think is going on but they don't really
15:21know because they
15:22haven't done it and so I like to learn
15:24from people who have done it and I don't
15:28not just people who have done it but
15:29people who have done it the best in the
15:31world and so two of my favourite
15:34entrepreneurs to learn all this three of
15:36my favorite entrepreneurs to learn from
15:38there is probably number one Jeff Bezos
15:40right he is an absolute master number
15:44two would probably be Sam Walton from
15:46Walmart and number three probably Ray
15:48Dalio
15:48Warren Buffett right those four people
15:50they're their kings they really know
15:53what how things work and when I studied
15:56these guys I found out that you know
15:58these are long-term thinkers every
16:01single one of them they weren't so
16:03worried about being famous and rich in
16:05the short term but in the long term they
16:07absolutely kicked us and so with Amazon
16:10today we look at it and we're like oh
16:12wow like Amazon and Jeff Bezos and this
16:15business just exploded out of nowhere
16:17and even chief Bezos he sees it himself
16:19he sees that you know people come up to
16:22him and they say oh chief you at an
16:24amazing quarter this year Amazon because
16:27they read the financial reports right Oh
16:28Jeff you had an amazing quarter whatever
16:30you guys are doing there at Amazon this
16:32quarter you must be doing like the right
16:34thing and Jeff Bezos saw it it's like he
16:37doesn't say it back to them because he
16:39doesn't want to be rude or anything but
16:40you know he thinks in his head like the
16:43thing that the results that we're
16:44getting now they're the results of work
16:47we did three years ago the you know
16:50whatever results we're getting today we
16:52did the work for that three years or
16:54more before and this is the thing that
16:57people fail to understand you know if
16:59you're not getting awesome results right
17:01now it's not because of what you did
17:03right now it's not because of what you
17:04did last week it's because of what you
17:06did over the last few years and a lot of
17:09people they they don't understand this
17:11even with books you know like you might
17:12read a book today and you might learn
17:14some great stuff but then you look in
17:16your bank account and you don't have a
17:18lot of money and you're like reading
17:20that book what didn't work reading that
17:22book like was useless didn't help me
17:24make any money but I can tell you that
17:26over time you know those books are going
17:29to make you a fortune and I remember
17:31when I was first getting started in
17:32business I used to read a lot I used to
17:34do a lot
17:34courses I was like a sponge and I
17:37remember thinking man I've learned a lot
17:39of stuff there's a lot of stuff in my
17:40head but I'm poor I'm I'm not rich so
17:44maybe this learning stuff has been a
17:45waste of time and then over time things
17:49that I learned early on I got to apply
17:52and they made a huge difference then
17:54they got me results and so thinking back
17:57over it now like every single book I've
18:00ever read has made me money and it's
18:01made me a profit because I've learned
18:03things from it that I've got to apply
18:04later on and when I applied those things
18:06later on I got the reward later on and
18:08so life isn't as life isn't how most
18:12people look at it you know most people
18:14just look at right now immediately or
18:17they might look at their job and they're
18:19just like this is this is the reason why
18:21I think most people can't leave
18:23nine-to-five employment and they can't
18:25quit their job and they can't start
18:26their own business because they're too
18:28short-sighted and what they do is they
18:30look at their life right now and they're
18:32like oh I'm paying for this lease on
18:34this car and paying for this apartment
18:35rent and I'm able to go to these
18:38restaurants and have fun with my friends
18:39and I'm making this much money and you
18:42know life is good but man if I quit and
18:45start my own business then I'm gonna go
18:48back to the start you know I'm gonna be
18:50poor and I won't be able to do all of
18:53those different things and they're like
18:54oh I can't do that
18:56so I must stay in my job that's
18:58short-term thinking that's thinking that
19:01like you know you're only going to be I
19:04can tell you now that like if you leave
19:06a good-paying job probably the first
19:08year out of it you'll probably make a
19:09little bit less money but in the long
19:12term you will make a shitload more and
19:15so you've got to think long term instead
19:19of short stop being so short-sighted I
19:21remember when I quit my corporate job
19:23back in New Zealand I moved back home
19:25with my parents into their garage I sold
19:27my car I sold everything I had and I
19:30pumped all of that money into my
19:31business and I was living in a garage in
19:34New Zealand and I even can't solve my
19:35gym membership I can't solve my phone
19:37subscription and went back to prepay you
19:40know I cut everything and ice no longer
19:42went out with my friends and I no longer
19:44went out to restaurants and things like
19:45that and
19:46to make ham sandwiches at home and my
19:48life went backwards for a little bit and
19:51it was probably about a year and you
19:53know most people aren't willing to do
19:55that but man what a difference it's made
19:57because by living just tight and being a
20:00bit poorer for one year it got me to the
20:02point now where you know we're making
20:04more than 20 million dollars a year and
20:06that's like if I thought well back here
20:09I shouldn't quit my job at Vodafone
20:11because I'm making good money here but
20:15by quitting I was able to make you know
20:17like more than four times the CEO all
20:20right and there's no way in hell I would
20:21have got to the CEO position in that
20:23amount of time if I'd stayed in that job
20:24and even if I did there's no way that it
20:26would have paid this much right so
20:28that's what happens when you're when you
20:30have a long term vision and so like I
20:33said this month in our business we've
20:35had a record month and it's not from
20:38what we did today
20:39it's from planting seeds and doing a lot
20:43of hard work one year ago two years ago
20:45and I can tell you that the hard work
20:47I'm doing today and the hard work that
20:49my team's doing today we're not gonna
20:51see the full kick of that until like two
20:54three years from now and you have to get
20:57this driven into your brain right
20:59because when you start to think like
21:01this you start to make better decisions
21:02you start to be more methodical with
21:05what you do and you start to become less
21:07of a frantic opportunist just
21:11jumping around shiny objects trying to
21:13make a quick buck and trying to run this
21:15Facebook Ads then Pinterest ads then a
21:18Twitter ad and then a you know God knows
21:20what else crap
21:21right trying all these different things
21:22just trying to get like some quick money
21:25within like one week to a month trying
21:27all of these courses and just hanging
21:29around like a crazy psychopath trying to
21:32get rewards
21:33trust me it's never going to happen
21:35you're not ever going to get an amazing
21:37instant reward that's not how it works
21:39great rewards in life come from hard
21:43work sustained over a long period of
21:45time and they come over the long term
21:47you know how did I grow my business to
21:50this point no miracle efforts it's just
21:53been daily actions every single day
21:56chipping away at it putting in the
21:58work and overtime it's compounded and
22:00blowing up to this point so if you're an
22:04entrepreneur or a business owner or if
22:06you want to start your own business then
22:08I can't encourage you enough to you know
22:11print this thing out why what I'll
22:13actually do is beneath this video I'll
22:15put a PDF of like this diagram here and
22:19what I want you to do is right now just
22:22pause this video go down grab that link
22:25to that to this PDF download it print it
22:29out and put it on your wall and
22:31understand that the cause and effect
22:35relationships they happen over the long
22:38term and the biggest mistake most people
22:40make is as memory fades over time and a
22:44fit it's exponential over time we can't
22:48remember what cause created that effect
22:51and that's a dangerous scenario to be in
22:54you know you don't want to forget or you
22:56don't want to not understand and not see
22:58the causes that created the effects you
23:01need to be able to connect the dots and
23:03you need to have a very clear head and
23:05you need to have very clear thinking
23:07because all life and business really is
23:10is trying to just look through all of
23:13the noise and all of the chaos of life
23:15and you're trying to spot patterns and
23:18you're trying to spot cause-and-effect
23:20relationships so that you can figure out
23:23what actions create different reactions
23:27and you can sift through all the
23:29variables and all of the noise and start
23:31just doing more of the things that work
23:33and less of the things that don't and
23:35you're just more clear-headed that way
23:37you know what cause creates what effect
23:40and you know roughly what time horizon
23:42it takes to to realize that effect and
23:44you don't get caught by you know fads or
23:48shiny objects or things like that
23:50because you can think for yourself and
23:52you can see for yourself and you have
23:54that hyper-awareness that's needed to
23:56really succeed in life and business
23:58because when you can see properly and
24:00what I mean by this is you know not your
24:03eyesight but when you can really see you
24:05know and I can tell when I can meet
24:07somebody that
24:07see because they can connect the dots
24:09they can see that what causes create
24:12what effects and it's often not the high
24:14P buzzword things that other people are
24:16talking about most of the time the
24:19cause-and-effect relationships come from
24:21things that nobody is talking about and
24:23the things that everyone's talking about
24:24is noise and distractions that don't get
24:27any kind of reward and you don't want to
24:29fall for those mistakes you want to be
24:31able to see you know instead of being
24:33blind you want to see and when you can
24:36start to connect these dots you'll be
24:38able to start seeing properly now if you
24:41liked this video what I want you to do
24:43right now is just click that like button
24:45and also if you want more videos like
24:49this subscribe to my youtube channel
24:50there should be a button there click
24:52that subscribe
24:53I release a video like this every single
24:54week and I also release about 5 customer
24:58interviews every week as well and I
25:00release Q&A or recordings and things
25:02like that so go ahead and subscribe
25:03right now click that like button and
25:05then let me know what you think in the
25:07comments let me know what you thought of
25:09this video if you've got any questions
25:10about it let me know I'm going to be
25:12checking all of those and replying to
25:13them myself personally and once again
25:16I'm going to include the PDF for this
25:17available for download beneath this
25:19video just find that link click it
25:21download it print it put it on your wall
25:22and don't forget this because when you
25:25start planting seeds today they're going
25:28to harvest and get you where you want to
25:29go you're going to start winning and
25:31you're going to start crushing the
25:32competition and getting what you want in
25:34both business and in life so that's it
25:36for this video thanks for watching and I
25:38look forward to seeing you in the next
25:39one soon