RANT: Leaders Need To Make Decisions... Period

Late night rant. It’s time for the leaders to lead and to start actually making decisions.

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---Transcript---

Hey, what's up everybody. This is Russell Brunson, welcome back to the Marketing Secrets podcast. I'm here today on a little bit of a rant. All right, everyone, normally I do these episodes in the morning when I'm driving to the office, things like that. But tonight it's late ... Later, not super late yet, but just got home from wrestling practice with the kids. Anyway, just because of three or four things happened today, it's top of my mind. And so I probably won't give all the exact examples because I don't want to point people out, but I want to point the concept out, because it's something that I think you, as a leader, me as a leader, we need to become better at.

And so I think the best way to pre-frame this ... Actually, I'm going to step back to the book, Atlas Shrugged. So hopefully you guys had a chance to listen to the Atlas Shrugged interview that Josh Forti and I did, I posted it here on the podcast. And hopefully for a lot of you guys it got you into the book and got you reading. That was my goal, if I can get you guys reading it, that's more important.

But one of the themes that happens a lot throughout the book ... Dagny Taggart, who's the main character in the book, she basically ran the railroad. And there was all these people that worked for her, and all these people. And not just people who worked for her, but the whole society as a whole, and nobody wants to make a decision. Nobody wants to be the person who gets in trouble. They don't want to have their neck on the lines. The train would be stuck or something and they can't get it going. And she comes out and she's like, "Why isn't it moving?" And it's like, "Well, because no one's told us to." And, "Well, just do it." "I can't, because then I'm going to be held responsible, I don't want to get in trouble." And she's like, "Do your job. We need to get this thing moving." "I don't want to because I don't want to get in trouble."

And then they'd be like, "Well, will you take responsibility if I have a go, if I ... " Whatever it is. She's like, "Yes, I'll take responsibility." She was willing to take responsibility, and then because of that the train would go. But it was her coming in and taking responsibility. And one of the themes throughout the book is that ... That's the big thing is that nobody wants to take responsibility. Nobody will do something because they want somebody else to like, "Oh, well who's responsible if this goes wrong?" And they want to point to somebody else. And so that's a big thing.

I'm not going to get political, but right now we're in this weird thing, this whole COVID season, which is annoying for so many reasons. But one of the things, I'm one of the wrestling coaches and my kids are wrestling and trying to be part of that. And there's these decisions that they're supposed to be making be made. Whatever the decision is, I will follow it and respect it and whatever. But the problem is nobody wants to make decisions. That's the problem, because nobody wants to be held responsible if this happens or this happens or whatever happens. And so even school starting here in Idaho this year, at least in the county that we're in, it got passed three or four times. School started two weeks later than they're supposed to, because nobody wanted to make a decision. No one wanted to be on their clock, "I don't want to be willing to get in trouble. I don't want to be ... " So you keep pushing it, pushing it, pushing it.

And now we're seeing the same thing with athletics. These meetings were just like, "Make a decision," but nobody wants to make decisions. You can just pass another date, another date, another person. Nobody wants to just be like, "I'm going to be the one who's going to take responsibility for this decision." We see it in our lives, we see it in government, we see it in school, we see it everywhere. And I just want to pass this to you guys. This is the leaders, this the entrepreneurs, this the people who are trying to be the ones standing up and helping and serving people. The reason why you are called to do those things, because you have to be the ones to make decisions. You have to decide, you have to be willing to take responsibility for a choice. And so many people are scared. In fact, I see it so many times, even people that I coach. And so this is for you who I coach, who you're listening to me, I'm telling you this, because this is a pattern you have to become better at.

A lot of people will sign up for coaching and they sign up for you because they want ... If it's going to fail, they want to be able to blame someone else. Let's say you sign for my coaching program. And you're in it and you're like, "Okay, I'm going to do Russell says, I'm going to follow it." And I have people who all time, "Hey, review my funnel. I don't want to launch, look at my funnel first. I want to make sure, I want to get your opinion. I want you to look at ... " They don't want to decide their own. They don't want to take the lead themselves. They always want to have somebody else look at it. So that way if it fails, they go, "Oh, well, Russell told me it was good, it wasn't. So it's his fault not mine."

Knock that off. That's the reason why people aren't having more success in life, because you're trying to find somebody else to pass the blame onto. That's the problem. I want to make sure this is very, very clear. That is the problem. And so if you want to be successful in life, you've got to be willing to make a decision and stick with the consequences that happen with it. And sometimes it's hard, because sometimes you make the wrong decision. Many times in my life I've made the wrong decision. Many times in my business I've made the wrong decision. Many times inside of ClickFunnels I made the wrong decision. Many times with my family, with my parenting, I make bad decisions sometimes.

I'm not perfect, but I'm willing to make the decision. That's the key, that's what makes you a leader, is being the one who's willing to make the decision and then you're the ones who's ultimately responsible with the consequences of that decision. And so that's the key you have to understand. That's what makes a leader great, not someone who gets the right decision right every single time. Someone who's willing to make decision and then be held accountable, that's the other side of it.

I did an episode one time about Extreme Ownership, that book, Extreme Ownership, which is insanely good. But it comes back down to that thing, everyone wants to pass the buck and, "Well this is his fault or her fault, everyone else's fault." We have to stop that. We have to be willing ... Especially us, the people who are hearing the sound of my voice. You are the leaders, you are the entrepreneurs, you're the change makers, you're the people who are going to be changing this world. You have to be ones who are willing to say, "I'm going to make a decision, and I may be wrong but I'm going to make the decision. I'm not going to pass the buck. I'm not going to try to put it on somebody else, I'm going to take extreme ownership. This is the decision I'm going to make. These are the reasons why. And then I'm going to deal with the consequences and then go."

And I know it's hard, it is really, really hard. I'm not perfect, I'm not saying that I am. But I see it, I understand. I see it so many times with people who join a coaching program or buy a product or whatever, because they're trying to be able to figure out, "Who can I pass the buck ... Who can I pass the blame on if this thing fails?" And it's like, "No, no, no, no, it's all on you." You have to understand, when all is said and done, it's all on you, a hundred percent of the time.

So you can call it extreme ownership, you can call it making ... I don't care what it is, but you have to understand that it's on you. As soon as you're willing to take that on that's when you start on success. I look at the people in our community who are the most successful. They're the ones who are not looking ... They're not the ones who ... They seek after coaching. They are people who have been in my inner circle, they've been in my coaching programs, they've been in things. They're seeking that thing, not so they can, "If it fails, I have someone else to blame," which is why a lot of people do it. It's the opposite, it's like, "I want to come and make myself better and better and better so I can make the correct decisions. But ultimately the decision is mine, it's not Russell's, it's not somebody else's, it's my decision." And so you have to be the one.

And so it's good if you're stepping into these things, coaching or whatever else, to be able to become better at making decisions by understanding the lay of the land better, understanding the strategies and the tactics so you can make the correct decision. But ultimately it is your decision. Until you the one willing to risk that and say that and do it, you are going to struggle. And so I just I want to put that out there because, man, I wish I could go and talk to the leaders, the government, the school system and all these kind of things. I don't, I don't have their voice. They're not my people, you're my people. And so while I'm angry and frustrated at other things, I want to bring this back to you.

The same thing, and I see this inside companies, my own company, I see it in other people's companies, where there's this thing where they try to get buy-in by committee. So they come in and they have an idea and they get all their team together, "This is my idea, what do you guys think? Give me some feedback, I want to know." And they try to get feedback by committee. Oh, and I hate that, it drives me nuts. You as the leader should have the vision, you're not coming in getting feedback on a vision. This vision is yours, you are ultimately responsible for it. You come to your team, not with, "Hey, I think I have a vision, what do you guys think? Do you like this or not?" No. You come and say, "This is the vision. This is what I have decided." And everyone can line up and help me figure how to make this better and how to execute it correctly, but you're not having them figure out the vision and for you. That is your job, that is your calling, that is your responsibility. You understand that?

And that's why I'm not a big believer in marketing by committee, it drives me nuts. Everyone someone's like, "Hey, let's get on a call, lets map out the strategy together to try and figure things out." It's like, "No, no, no. You have the strategy, come to me." I want to see your vision and I'll give you tweaks or changes, things like that, but this is not vision by committee, marketing by committee, product design by committee. No, no, no. That's not how it can work on how it should work. It's coming down to you as the leader setting the vision. You can take direction, you can learn, you can ask for feedback and get all the things you need to be able to make the correct decision, the best decision possible. But you have to understand, as a leader you're not coming in by committee trying to get everybody to decide on the vision or the direction or the marketing thing. You've got to be a leader, flat out.

And so this is my calling to you. Leaders,, it's time to step up and lead. It's time to stop trying to outsource your decision-making to a committee or to a coach or to a whatever. Or just hiding from the commitment, trying to move it on, or like people inside Atlas Shrugged just sitting there waiting for Dagny, waiting for somebody who's willing to take the heat if it goes wrong. You got to be the ones willing to take that heat or else nothing's going to change.

Sometimes it's going to happen. You're going to make a stupid decision, it happens. I made so many stupid decisions. I can walk you through them all, one day we will. But I'm still here. Why? Because I was willing to take the personal responsibility, "That was my mess up. I messed up. I'm dumb." I get it, but I learned from it and I figured out I kept going forward. It's not like, oh, the fear of, "Oh, I don't want to get in trouble. I don't want to get yelled at. I don't want this, I don't want this." And, "Who can I blame? I got to make someone else make a decision," or this or that or whatever. That's what most people want to do. That's not what we can or should be doing.

And so that was the message for tonight. I guess that I've just a little mini rant. I was thinking about tonight and getting frustrated and it's like, "Ah, I got to vent somewhere." So you are my people, so you're the ones who understand what I'm talking about. And I think you can implement this and apply it for yourselves, for your team, for your people. It's time for the leaders to step up and become deciders and make decisions. And so this is my calling to you. No longer are you allowed to push blame on anybody else except for yourself. Don't try to position in a way where you're able to, don't try to blame it on anything else, it's always your fault. And that's the key, be willing to do that. And if you are that's how you're going to be able to make the changes in your own life and the people's lives you can call to serve.

So that said, thank you guys. I appreciate you, thanks for listening. Got any value out of this, please, take a screenshot on your phone right now of the app as you're listening to it, so I can see which episode you are. And go on Facebook, Instagram, wherever you're at, tag me. I see all those, I love it. It's fun for me to see what your guys' biggest takeaways were, and hopefully this one resonated with you. For those of you guys who this episode was offensive, for some reason, I'm guaranteed there's always a percentage that what I say offends, there's a scripture that says, "The guilty taketh the truth to be hard because it cuts them to the very center." So instead, if this triggers you for some reason, it's probably because you passing the blame on other people.

That's it. So the guilty take the truth to be hard, listen to that. Be like, "If this was hard for me, maybe this is where I'm struggling. Maybe I need to step back and figure this out for myself." Be coachable. It's a hard skill set to learn, but sit back and be coachable. If this felt weird for you, if you didn't enjoy it, if you felt whatever, I would recommend pausing for a second, sitting back and being coachable. Look at yourself, "Man, am I doing this? Is that why it bothered me? Is that why I'm struggling with this?" And so, look at yourself. And maybe I'm wrong, which is totally, totally possible. But from my experiences and I understand what I've done. What I've experienced in my life, this is what I believe is true, therefore I will share it with you and hopefully it'll resonate and serve you. So that said, appreciate you all. Thanks for listening, and I'll talk to you guys all soon.