Chasing the Tail

I know you did one of two things when you read the title of this article.  You either thought of a dog chasing it’s tail or you thought of something not very nice!  Either way, you are wrong.

I was recently reading a book about money and the author shared a concept about Compounding in a new way that very nicely summed up the pursuit of RESULTS in business.  He called it “being Tail Driven.”  (If you are curious about the book, read The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel)

The “definition” of tail driven is to see the results at the end and not the beginning.  Pretty much sums up just about any goal-driven pursuit.  We set the goal.  We pursue the goal.  We discover that it takes more time, effort and even failures to reach the goal.  The win only happens at the end.  Most of us get very disappointed when we work toward a goal for a couple of days or even a week and don’t see visible progress.  However, that isn’t how it works, is it?

We logically know the power of Compounding on our investments and savings accounts.  We understand that if we just leave the money in the account, regardless of recession or boom, it will grow over time.  If we panic in a recession and pull the money out, we never get the results that people like Warren Buffet do.  (Just something to ponder….Warren made most of his money after age 81.  He started investing at age 10.  He NEVER took money out that was principle.  He has bought stock in over 400 companies.  ONLY 10 of them generate the bulk of his wealth)

That made me think.  What are some of the Tail Driven successes that I have had in my business? 

The first one that comes to mind was an online course that I created at the very beginning of my business.  I had created this MASSIVE class…12 weeks long. (Made $1998)  While it sold, it wasn’t a home run.  So, I re-packaged it.  Three courses that would each run for 4 weeks. (Made $3735)  Again, parts of this effort were a little more successful but not a grand slam.  Then I turned them into smaller 1 and 2 hour webinars.

WOWZA!  In 3 years those 12 smaller units have generated over $54,000 in revenue.  What would have happened if I just stuck with the original model?  I might have made a little more but probably not much.  What If I stuck with the three course model?  Again, it might have generated a little more but didn’t’ really seem to be what clients were looking for.  The final effort was the most successful and is still a model that is generating about $18,000 minimum a year.

I am not sharing this to brag.  I am sharing to show you how Tail Driven success works.  Each time I tried the course with my network, I gave it a year to 18 month.  Every time I marketed it, I shared and shared several times a month over the course of the year.  Every time I had to re-package it, it would take me 2-4 months of work to change the model.

Nothing was quick.  Nothing was easy.  Nothing was without frustration or work.  But ultimately it paid off.

Disney wasn’t a success….until he was.

Warren Buffet wasn’t a success…until he was.

You aren’t a success…until you are.

I bet you are working on a Tail Driven Success right now.