1422: I can't stop thinking about college... (we ALL need to embrace this approach!)

Hey, what is up? Welcome to this episode of the Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.

As always, I'm your host, Brian Lofermento. And in today's solo Sunday episode, we are kicking

it old school. We are going all the way back to days of me sitting in college classrooms

and learning all about philosophy. And we are specifically going to talk about part

of a manual Kant's categorical imperative imperative. And if you're thinking to yourself,

Brian, what the heck are we doing today? I promise that this one has so much value

for all of us as entrepreneurs. I'm excited about this one. Let's dive in.

You know that something is valuable when it really sticks with you all these years later,

because this is probably a lesson that I learned in either 2008 or 2009. So here we are

many years later. Gosh, that is more than a decade later, almost a decade and a half later.

And so with that and more than a decade and a half later, it's crazy. And so the fact that this

has always stayed in my head means that there's something to it. And I'm so excited to talk about

it today because very few classes in college caught my eyes and attention and my participation

in my attendance. And so one of those classes though is always philosophy. It's funny. I obviously

went to school with the aim of starting a business and being in business and being successful in

business. And so when I look back at the courses that actually stuck with me, it's so funny that

philosophy, a Gen Ed class, is one of those. But I'm going to share with you exactly why because

I'll never forget that that professor taught us about Emanuel Kant. And I think that if you learn

anything about philosophy, you end up learning about Aristotle, you end up learning about so many

brilliant philosophers. And I imagine that Emanuel Kant is one of those universal ones. And so he's

got something called the categorical imperative. And this is where he talks about what it means

to be good, what it means to do good, what it means to behave ethically and virtuously,

similarly to Aristotle's works. And part of that categorical imperative really emphasizes that

we need to treat things and people as the ends in and of themselves rather than merely as means

to an end. And I'll never forget that even as a teenager, I sat there and I thought to myself,

such an interesting observation. What is it inside of life, inside of relationships, inside of

business that we do treat as merely means to an end? And I remember back then, especially having an

18-year-old, 19-year-old mind and wanting to get into business and always feeling like,

I've got to get some more money in order to save up so I can buy a domain name. I need to buy

web hosting. I need to do this. I need those resources. And so what I inevitably found myself doing

was doing things merely as a means to an end. The end being, of course, money and the means being

whatever it is that I was doing, whether it was an on-campus job, whether it was a gig that I would

take. I was taking so many gigs back then on, I think it was called E-Lance or E-Lancer. It has

since became Upwork, but it was really fun because I was treating everything as a means to an end.

It took me a long time to start to recognize both in myself and in others what it looks like and

how easy it is to tell when someone is doing something merely as the means to an end rather than

end in itself. So what does that mean? Because I'm telling you, we've all got to look at our own

behavior, our own choices, our own time investments, effort investments, energy investments. We have

to look at it through this lens, which is why I'm excited to bring this concept. It's an age-old

concept here into the realm of you and I, just hanging out on a beautiful Sunday talking about

entrepreneurship. What does it mean to treat something as an end in and of itself? Well, for example,

I love playing chess. I'll use that as an example. I know I've used it as an example a lot lately,

but I love playing chess. And so when I sit down to play chess, I'm not playing chess because I want

to get one over my opponent because when you play on chess.com, you have no idea who it is that you're

playing. You're playing a complete stranger that you'll never play ever again. That chess.com

just randomly pairs you up with via a username. And so when I sit down to play chess, I am playing

chess. Why? Just to play chess. There's no other means to an end than I'm looking for. I'm not playing

chess to gain some skills that I'm one day going to sell. I'm not playing chess because I really

want to impress somebody else just playing chess because I really like playing chess. I play chess

because it is an end in and of itself. That is the reason why I'm doing it. And so that might sound

very simplistic. Well, let's transfer that into the world of business. And that is way easier

said than done. That is way simpler than it actually is for people to behave that way. What do I mean?

I'll call out some really tangible things. We all know what it feels like when somebody approaches

us with their intent to be salesy. That is the means to an end. The end is they hope to get a sale

versus when somebody shows up for a sales conversation or a networking conversation or just a

virtual coffee with the motivation of that is the end in and of itself. There is no other ulterior

mode of here. We all know how different that feels because we all call it gut, call it intuition,

call it instinct. I don't care what you call it, but this is a human trait that we can all feel

when someone is treating us or situation or an opportunity or our business or our podcast or

our website or our blog or our coming event or our webinar or whatever it may be as merely the

means to an end. And so we talk very frequently in pretty much every episode. You hear amazing,

both strategy and tactics from our incredible guests that we have on every single day of the week

for you. And when they talk about those strategies, for example, let's call out partnerships.

When they talk about partnerships to be successful with partnerships, you have to embody and practice

this part of the categorical imperative that we're talking about today all the way back from,

I don't know, probably thousands of years. I have no idea when a manual count was,

but dating all the way back to then, we have to treat those things as ends in and of themselves,

not merely as the means to an end because we've all been in partnership conversations where

we know exactly why that person set up a call with us because they want us to refer clients to

them and guess what? If you do that, chances are it doesn't work and then it becomes really

frustrating and then you wonder why it's not working and then you get desperate and then you

treat things even more so as merely the means to an end. And so that's the funny catch 22 of this

entire situation is that if you find yourself in sales calls and potential partnership calls and

just general networking, acting like people and things in opportunity are merely the means to an end,

then things don't work and the funny part is and I guess it's likely ironic is that when you show

up as the end in and of itself, you literally don't care about the outcome, you're actually not even

looking for an outcome because the outcome is merely you doing the thing and I feel that I'll

use podcasting as an example. Obviously, it's a very easy example for me to give. We reach out to

a lot of potential guests here on the show and our pre-production team shout out to both Laura and

Charlotte because they manage so much outreach for our show to find the right guests and invite

them on the air and bring them on the air for you and you hear how many guests show up just because

they love talking about business and they're so open and transparent and vulnerable and sharing

their own lessons and insights and life experiences and so much more. Why is it that way? Because we

can tell so clearly as a podcast and spoiler alert, all of us podcasters, we can kind of tell this,

we can tell when someone wants to show up merely as the means to an end is that if you want to come

on the show because you want to promote your business, well then it's not going to work that way

because I as the host, I'm not going to enjoy that episode, our listeners are not going to tune

into an info commercial, none of it is going to work and so treating people as the means to an end,

not only is going to make you not necessarily liked all that much, but even more importantly

and relevant to your goals is it's actually not going to get you to your goals in any way at all and

it sounds very counterintuitive and I am right now I'm in real time imagining what if somebody told

me this when I was 19 when I was starting my first business that you have to treat everything as an

end in and of itself and we've got a lot of quotes and life advice just colloquially we talk about

you know enjoying the journey that the journey is the destination and things like that.

Well if my 19 year old self heard this advice and I kind of did when I learned about the

categorical imperative, I'm not sure I would know how to practice that and I think part of this comes

with maturity in life and in business but I think it really does come down to advice that we hear

quite frequently in the business world of detaching yourself from the result is just saying yes

somebody inviting me on the show I'm going to go on the show because I want to go on the show

and I'm just going to be my best me because if I show up as my best me that's the reward.

I don't care what happens after that and we have had unbelievable incredible heartwarming emails

from past guests some of my favorite guests that I've ever interviewed here on the air who have

shared with us holy cow I close we had one guest who sent us an email I was so excited to receive

this she was an incredible guest and trust me I know how many of you listeners absolutely adored

her adored her and she shared so vulnerably all of her thoughts not just her thoughts but how she

thinks she probably articulated that episode about how she thinks better than any guest I've seen

in this shows history and we got an email from her and she said Brian I literally didn't believe it

when you guys invited me on to the show I was super excited just because I wanted to come on the show

I ended up closing six figures in business from coming on your show and that was unbelievable I

quickly I frantically went back to her episode and I I went straight to the transcript and I said

what was her CTA what was her call to action what did she tease listeners with how did she invite

people to check out her business how did she talk about her business and spoiler alert she actually

really didn't she was just so amazing in that episode that it's so clear to me that that was

the end in and of itself for her she just wanted to be the best version of her and when she told me

the story about how she closed more business in from that one appearance and someone listening to

her or some people listening to her on this show she said that she was in competition with a lot

of potential vendors and and when these people heard her on the show they said we just love the way

you show up we love the way you think we love the way you talk about things and so it's so cool

to hear that her literally just being her that made the difference and so I'm someone everyone

always hits me up just go into my Instagram DMs my requests are wild which is funny because I don't

even use Instagram and so everyone's in a while I pop into there and it's so clear to me the

people who are reaching out because they want something they my show my platform my audience

it's all just a means to an end to them and guess what I never reply to those people whereas the

people who have approached me just because they want to hang out with me just because they want

to get to know me just because they want to talk about business and I just quite frankly cannot

help myself when it comes to talking about business because I love it because that also

is an end in and of itself for me those people end up becoming the very ones that I consistently

hang out with I consistently check in with I consistently think oh my gosh I really want to

introduce that person to this person who I really enjoy their company and so I don't know if this

episode is is more strategic or tactical but I guess at the end of the day the most important

episodes are ones that are inward looking it really challenges our MO our true

mode of operation and it makes us it reminds us that we have the opportunity to just start

showing up as ends in and of themselves I'm going to do this podcast episode just because I

really want to don't care what happens from there and when you make a habit out of that doesn't

mean it's going to pay off from that one podcast episode well one yeah the payoff is the thing

we talk about embracing the journey that is the payoff the fact that you come on a podcast

but is it going to pay off immediately maybe not in monetary terms but when you make a habit of

showing up on a podcast just as the end in and of itself and you're your best you and then that

same attitude in in life MO happens to work its way into a LinkedIn post that you write you don't

write that LinkedIn post because you want to generate leads you write it just because you want to

write it then you show up to that partnership call just because you really want to hang out

with a like-minded person who shares your values and is a fellow entrepreneur who's in the trenches

who can relate to you and then it leaks into those emails that you write not check boxes not just

because you have to follow up with somebody and you you just do a half effort email to them or maybe

you just have chat GPT write up some sort of email check in template not talking about that

approach i'm talking about writing those emails just because you want to just because you care

that is the reward in and of itself when you make a habit of showing up this way it's inevitable

that over time opportunities are going to find you things far bigger than you could have dreamed of

are going to start finding you and so it's so funny how this age old advice this very simplistic

advice this advice telling you hey just enjoy the things for what they are and don't look for any

sort of outcomes or results that's the most powerful strategy and approach that any of us can use

in our businesses and our relationships and in our lives and i know i use a bunch of random

examples today about podcasting and blogging and social media posting and referrals and partnerships

and all of that and sales calls of course but the real value from this episode comes when you

remind yourself of a manual cons categorical imperative before your next thing before your next

podcast interview before your next sales call before your next relationship call because if you

take a deep breath and you remind yourself that i'm doing this because it is an end in and of

itself i don't ever want to treat this as a means to an end you're going to show up and do that

thing in an absolutely brilliant way and i'm excited to see what that looks like and sounds like

for you so don't be shy in reaching out to me because if you're one of those listeners who has

reached out to me you'll see that when i reply to your email it is with no CTAs it's not with me

looking to drum up business or anything i literally just love hearing from you all so don't be shy

my direct email address my only email address that goes straight to me it's not a team inbox

it's not a podcasting inbox is hello at i met brion dot com now that you met me on the show hello

at i met brion dot com gets you straight into my personal inbox and i would love to reply to you

and chances are i'd love to hang out with you i talk about virtual coffees all the time here on

the air let's get a virtual coffee so much fun for me so that's it for me in today's episode

i hope it hits you where it needed to because it is a bit of a of course more philosophical episode

than what we normally do here but i trust that it's going to resonate with each and every one of you

in a very different way in a way that you probably need it because we all need this reminder from

time to time so thanks for sticking with me through my best recollection of a college philosophy

class and i'm super excited about this week's episode so make sure you pound that subscribe

button because we'll be coming at you as always every single day right here on the watcher

opener to entrepreneur podcast