One idea to Build your Business, one idea to Scale your life. Every Wednesday.

Welcome to Winformation Weekly. My 13 years’ experience of growing a business from £0-£100m, and the life that goes with it. All wrapped up, in one winning weekly email.

^{No AI, ever. Written for humans, by humans}

Business

The Ultimate Guide to Finding the Perfect Business Partner

I've been involved in many businesses over the years, and with all but one, I’ve had business partners! These partners have ranged from friends, ex-colleagues, friends of friends—even my now-wife! After a quick tally, I've worked with 13 different business partners. I can honestly say I've loved working with each and every one of them. I know full well, I wouldn’t have been able to cope half the time if I was doing what I’ve done solo. Partnerships for me are paramount. Some partnerships were more successful than others, and like any relationship, there were definitely ups and downs. However, I’ve never really had a major falling-out. But this wasn’t due to luck. 

Over time, I've developed 10 golden rules that I follow when choosing a business partner—some I wish I’d known far earlier. I shared this cheat sheet e-book on my socials last month, and it’s been downloaded thousands of times! So here I am, making sure my Winformation community gets their copy too. The link to grab your free copy is at the bottom of this email. 

And there’s more! I have cheat sheets, videos, and e-books lined up to launch very soon, all designed to help make your journey shorter and smoother with the benefit of my experience. Each of these will be shared through Winformation. Keep an eye out! 

Life

Comfort kills: 5 Ways to Break Free of Your Comfort Zone!

Us humans have it tough don’t we. Our entire existence is about seeking comfort. But as we know, the more comfortable we are, the less we are growing. As they say, you can only coast downhill. And then what? Building something big, whatever that may be is about continually seeking things that in the moment naturally feel uncomfortable. But what happens when you know you have stopped growing? We all know that stagnant feeling. Here are 5 ways to break out of your latest version of what you call “comfortable”.  

1. Name your fears. Have a long look inside and ask yourself what it is you are afraid of. This isn’t an exercise in self-humiliation, it’s about reverse engineering to the root of your fears in order to give some thought about how to face up and overcome those fears.

2. Make people roll their eyes. That’s the kind of reaction you should receive if you were to share your dreams and vision of success. It should seem unrealistic to the untrained eye. This is your north star, your long-term 5 to 10 year vision that should feel out of reach, therefore make demands of you to push.

3. Beware of the creep, is something the Australian cricket team use to talk about during their all-conquering decade of the 1990s. They were referring to how success has the potential to create complacency, bringing with it a plateau in performance. Remember that this is no finishing line when striving for success, so don’t settle and keep pushing on to improve in whatever it is you do.

4. Find and learn the lesson. Fear of failure is common in stopping people from trying so many things, when in actual fact, we all know in our hearts the real failure is to not do, to remain inactive. And what is a mistake, anyway? It’s the opportunity to learn on the job and improve.

5. Let passion strangle your fears. Stepping out of your comfort zone successfully doesn’t necessarily eliminate fear altogether. It can still rear its head, but you can overcome it by unleashing your passion to succeed against it. So if you can, try and find a way to reframe fear as a motivation.

…Plus More!

The Quote I Can’t Stop Thinking About

A few weeks back Chris Williamson had Alex Hormozi on his podcast. Hormozi as ever found a brilliant way to sum up the struggle of entrepreneurship, or really any huge sense of achievement that sits on the end of pain. “Everyone wants the view from the top but not everyone is willing to make the climb.”

This quote has brought me real peace over the last few weeks. This year has been tough. It’s easy to feel tired, stressed and sometimes a bit resentful. But when I do, I just remind myself. I’m climbing a mountain out here. It isn't always going to be easy. So many people in 2024 want the short cut, they want the medal, that view from the top, but very few of us are taking that cold winding road up the mountain. I’m on a different path to so many other people, but it will be worth it at the summit.

Until next week! 

Let’s win, together!

To download a free copy of my 10 Golden Rules of Business Partnership click here.