Daniel Gefen is all about working on his business, not in his business. Hard work and dedication has built a life where he can do what he wants with his time, and this is , to him, is real freedom. In this episode he shares many nuggets of wisdom that can get you on the path to passive income as well.
Daniel had a rough go of things back in 2008 when he lost his 6-figure job (which he had negotiated up from $60K) due to the economy. This left him homeless with his wife and child, until he moved back to London to work at his dad’s grocery store. He was grateful to his father for taking them in, but he couldn’t stand working at the store. Being fed up with his job led him to pursue entrepreneurship.
He decided to start a virtual office and telephone answering company (Jet Virtual). It was a lot of work at first as he was filling all roles within this new company. Daniel hired people as the company grew, but this too came with its own set of headaches.
When his lead receptionist quit, he learned that you should “Never, ever rely on one person to do everything.” Her leaving really hurt as she knew all the protocols and handled all client issues and needs. On top of this, that same day he received a notice that he had to vacate his office within the next two weeks.
This was too much for him and he was about to close the business when he decided to make a rather bold and unconventional move. He decided to outsource all his clients to a competitor. This turned out to be the best decision he’d ever made. Over the next year he was a one-man crew building his company with a laptop and free internet access from a local hotel. He’d turned a disastrous situation into a passive income generating machine that didn’t require much work from him to continue running.
According to Daniel, the biggest area that people struggle with in business is second guessing themselves. The only way to overcome this is through action. “Once you start taking action, the action starts to get results and the results start to boost your ego and self-esteem.” This leads you to realize that you really can do this and can find success.
One other simple yet profound piece of advice is to “Stop consuming and produce”:
For every book you read, write an ebook For every 10 videos you watch, make a Facebook Live video For every 10 Snapchat stories you consume, produce one“You can’t earn money by consuming, the only way you’re going to earn money is by producing; putting stuff out there.”
To get entrepreneurs producing more, Daniel wrote an article entitled, ‘Focusing on ONE thing.’ He says that by nature we want everything and we’re distracted by all the shiny things out there. But we only have so much time in the day so we need to focus on ONE; product, platform, niche, etc. “People who try to be everything to everyone end up being nobody to no one.” Start small, conquer that area, then expand.
This was a great interview with Daniel, a flexible, honest and creative person who has built a business that allows him to live the life he wants. Now that you’ve heard some of his wisdom and great advice, get out there and start producing more for your business.
SOME QUESTIONS I ASK:
What was the motivation behind Daniel’s first company? What made him want to start his podcast? What’s the biggest area that people struggle with in business? How can people put the idea of focusing on the one thing that will grow their business?
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
Why Daniel thinks it's important to under-promise and over-deliver Why you shouldn’t wait for the results of your work but just continue to produce. Why it’s important to view taking risks as simply experiments and not potential failures. That the reality is it takes years to build a successful business and it won’t happen overnight. Plus much more…
DON’T STOP HERE…
Connect with Daniel: Website | Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter ‘Focusing on ONE thing’: Article
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
‘The E Myth’ by Michael Gerber ‘The 4-Hour Workweek’ by Tim Ferris Gary Vaynerchuk’s first ‘Wine Library TV’ Video