I have been self-employed now for nearly the past 4 years since I graduated college in the spring of 2005. One thing that I credit with being able to sustain the life of an entrepreneur is accountability.
That is not to say that I have always been accountable to someone else in business, but the times where I have been able to thrive have been as a result of accountability.
Accountability to me means having an outside party which you must answer to. The word can often be confused with responsibility. However you can be responsible for your own actions but you cannot act as an accountability partner to yourself.
Being accountable to someone else means that an outside party is expecting you and/or relying on you to meet some certain expectations.
Yesterday I wrote about goals. Goals to me carry a much heavier weight if there is someone you are accountable to in order to meet those goals. My example yesterday was that I wanted to interview one expert per week. Well I have now told that goal to my web developer, my brother and my fiance (and I guess you too). I now have three people (or several thousand) who I am accountable to! They all expect me to meet that goal.
I might not meet that goal every week, but if any of them ask me if I have met my goals and I have to say no…that will motivate me to work harder the next week so I do not let them down.
To tie both goal setting and accountability together, I would like to explain a concept I first learned from Joshua Shafran. He calls the concept a “Do or Die Deadline”.
A “Do or Die Deadline” is a goal which you create a deadline for and then tell all of your family and friends about the goal. To carry even more personal weight, you should tell your family and friends that in order to celebrate your achievements, you will hold a party at your house a few days after your deadline.
If you approach your goals this way, you now have an extremely high level of accountability. The last thing you will want to do is be at your party to celebrate your achievements and have to tell all of your guests that you did not meet the deadline or goal!
Obviously this works well for big goals…lets just say buying and selling your first real estate investment property.
You can also break that HUGE milestone down into smaller and more manageable pieces. This gives you goals to meet along the way! Start with a deadline for buying the first property or meeting with your first seller and then add in some type of smaller celebration…lunch with some friends to celebrate the milestone, you once again have a “Do or Die Deadline”!
Whatever your success in real estate investment or in business, try setting up “Do or Die Deadlines” to see how your success changes. I can almost guarantee that having a higher level of accountability will change the way your business grows.
“Do or Die Deadlines” have allowed me to stay self employed for almost 4 years now and I do not see myself ever working a 9-5 J.O.B.
Cheers,
~ Ross Treakle
