Three Fundamentally Different Business Beliefs That Will Make Or Break You

Brian Hood (0:00)

This is the Six Figure Home Studio Podcast, Episode 56

SPEAKER_2 (0:03)

You're listening to the Six Figure Home Studio Podcast. The number one resource for running a profitable home recording studio.

Brian Hood (0:19)

Welcome back to another episode of The Six Figure Home Studio Podcast. I am your host, Brian Hood, and I am here with my triggered co-host.

Chris Graham (0:27)

Uh-oh!

Brian Hood (0:28)

I'm going to go ahead and tell you guys today, Chris is on a rant today. He is rearing to yell at some people today about some stuff that happened to him recently.

Chris Graham (0:35)

I'm grumpy!

Brian Hood (0:36)

Yeah, he's grumpy today. He's just not in a good mood today. And so we're going to have a hell of an episode. My co-host, Chris Graham. How are you doing today, buddy?

Chris Graham (0:42)

Oh, I've been better.

I've been better. I had a weird week, man.

Brian Hood (0:48)

I hate to hear you had a weird week, man. But the good part that comes from your weird week is that it gives us cannon fodder for our podcast.

Chris Graham (0:55)

Exactly. Well, and that's the healthy thing about a podcast like this is I'm constantly trying to learn. I'm constantly trying to grow. I'm trying to become a better businessman, and I'm trying to learn more about people and learn more about myself. And as I do that, that inevitably turns into lots and lots of ideas for podcast episodes. We had like 10 or 12 today and we settled on this one.

Brian Hood (1:16)

So today, our episode is going to touch on three fundamentally different beliefs, or you can call them philosophies or axioms or whatever word you want to use here. Three different viewpoints that you can use to run your business, and these will make or break your business. And the first one that we're going to talk about today is one that just recently affected Chris this week, and he's got a story associated with it. But first of all, let's talk about what this belief system is.

What is it? And then tell us the story, Chris.

Chris Graham (1:44)

The idea here, there's different ways you can approach business. And ultimately, the reason I was resistant to get into business in the first place was because I thought business was something totally different than it was.

My experience with business was like only jerks were into business. And this first philosophy is this sort of like kill or be killed, you know, the rule of the jungle, like business is war, like that sort of mentality.

Brian Hood (2:10)

And that's what movies kind of portray business and business owners and business leaders and business moguls on in movies and TV shows.

They're the guys that are evil, even in musicals. There's like newsies.

Chris Graham (2:20)

Yeah, yeah, totally.

Brian Hood (2:21)

The guy in newsies is like a bad businessman. And so like you have this persona that is kill or be killed, and it puts a bad name for business owners out there.

But that's really not the way to succeed in business.

Chris Graham (2:32)

I've got two stories for you guys here. Not only is it not the way to succeed in business, it's completely the opposite historically of how people have succeeded in business. So I don't know if I've told this story before. That's fine. It's a podcast. You might be a first-time listener. So one of my favorite stories in business is about John D. Rockefeller.

And for those of you who don't know who he was, he was the richest man in history. He started a business in Cleveland, Ohio, selling oil and kerosene and petroleum products.

And at the peak of his wealth, he accounted for 3% of the GDP of the United States of America.

Brian Hood (3:11)

One person.

Chris Graham (3:12)

One person, 3%.

Brian Hood (3:13)

That's crazy.

Chris Graham (3:14)

So at the risk of like inciting people or triggering people that, you know, really into this 99% or 1% movement or whatever, the disparity in wealth that we have now, nobody is even remotely close to 3% of the United States GDP. Not even like nowhere even close. And so it begs the question, how did John D. Rockefeller get so rich? Let me tell you. When John D. Rockefeller first went into business, if you wanted to read at night or hang out with your family at night or hang out with your friends at night, you had a problem. There's no electricity. So you either needed to use a candle or the most popular method of light was a whale oil lamp. Whale oil lamps were extremely expensive and there was one serious drawback to whale oil. It blows up.