Are you blaming others for problems in YOUR building business?
Until you take ownership of the outcomes things will stay the same.
Watch the video now, or read the transcript below.
Own Your Business Problems
Duayne
Until I owned it and I took responsibility, it just kept going on the same path. Stop blaming others for problems in YOUR building business.
Amelia
So Duayne, I know that lots of builders would be looking at you and saying, “oh, that’s all right for him. Now, he’s on top of it. He’s running this successful business.” But I know that from the conversations we’ve had, there is a particular thing that really was the turning point for you, where you decided that’s it, I now need to do what I know I need to do to make the change to my business.
Amelia
And this was after you had so many different people tell you, and you’re investing money in so many different people who were telling you all the things that you needed to do to change, to turn things around. What was the one thing that really changed the game for you?
Duayne
I had to take responsibility. No, it’s as simple as that. I spent a lot of money. I got coaching, I got mentoring, I had people giving me workbooks, templates, I had my wife telling me what we need to do. I had an accountant. I had all these people.
Until I owned it, and I took responsibility, I just kept going down the same path, round and round in circles.
Building Solutions in Your Business
Amelia
One of our favourite sayings in Live Life Build is the Grant Cardone saying “Nothing happens to you. It all happens because of you”. That’s something I know that you live your life by. What do you think that kind of saying really helps you remember in terms of taking responsibility?
Duayne
Well it stops you blaming everyone. I actually use that saying. I truly do live my life by it now. Every situation I get myself into, I think, well, why did I get here. I’ve either said something, I’ve done something. Something has been done by me to get me into this position. And whereas for a long, long time, I wasn’t owning things and taking responsibility.
My excuse all the time was that I blamed things. So I blamed that I had no time, I never had enough time. I blamed my clients because they weren’t paying me. I blamed my clients because I wasn’t making money on jobs. I blamed my contractors and staff because things were delayed or because they were charging me variations. I just had an excuse for everything.
Nothing happens to you, it happens because of you
[Grant Cardone]
So that saying, for me, I really run through it with my team on-site now as well. Myself, my wife use it, we use it in Live Life Build. Because every situation you get in, if you just take a moment and you repeat that in your mind, and you think about what has happened to get me to where I am now, it just makes you think, s…, that was actually my fault. If I’d have done that back there or if I’d owned that back there, or if I’d have said that back there, or if I had put in the time there, this wouldn’t happen. And for me, that was the change to everything. Everything just sort of started falling in place, once I took responsibility.
Amelia
Taking responsibility can be quite scary, can’t it because you can realise all of the things that you’ve been stuffing up for a really long time, and be none the wiser. It’s that whole thing you can then just start wracking yourself with guilt about how badly you’ve made things or about the mistakes that you’ve made along the way. What do you suggest builders do if they’re ready to take responsibility and truly own the situation that they’re in? What do you suggest that they do to be able to take those next steps?
Duayne
This is definitely a difficult one. And I think it’s about not being ashamed. Like at the end of the day it doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter what you have, how much money you have, we all make mistakes. And none of us know everything. And so, I think, I did have to swallow a lot of my pride because I think as blokes we find it hard to open-up and have communication about what we’re dealing with, what we’re going through.
And like I said, I got into a position because I was so strong-minded that I was going to sort things out, that things were going to get better, and because of that I just kept getting myself into a deeper and deeper hole. And most people would know I got into a position where I had a big business, but the bigger the business grew, the worse things got.
We were turning over more money but we were losing more money. And everything just got worse and worse and worse. But, on the outside, I was getting rewarded by suppliers. I was getting taken on overseas holidays. I was getting asked to speak at industry events. Everyone saw this young guy that was just killing it in the building industry. I even won the Master Builders Rising Star Award. And so having that on one side, and then knowing in here, that everything’s falling apart, was really, really hard to get around.
As hard as it was, I was the only person who could do anything about it.
It didn’t matter who was sitting beside me, who was telling me what to do. Like I said, people were giving me stuff that I could have implemented straight away and it could have made a difference, but if I didn’t own it, if I didn’t take responsibility. If I didn’t step up. I would still be in that same position now.
Stop Blaming Others – Make the Change
Amelia
I think that saying, as we said, at Live Life Build we live by it, “nothing happens to you, it all happens because of you.” Taking ownership and taking responsibility is really that first step and then seeking the help that you need. Not feeling shame around it. There are ways that you can get the support that you need. Of course, Live Life Build is one of those.
Duayne
You can’t feel bad. Don’t feel that you failed. I put so much pressure on myself for a long time thinking that I’d failed. But I would have only failed myself, if I hadn’t stepped up and owned things.
If you want to see how other members of ELEVATE have improved their business (and their mindset), then check out Ryan Brown’s story here: https://www.livelifebuild.com/blog/member-review-ryan-brown-rkb-renovations/ or Understanding Systems and Processes with Travis Griffiths https://www.livelifebuild.com/blog/member-review-travis-griffiths-sivart-construction-group/. Be sure to also follow us on http://www.youtube.com/@livelifebuild where we provide lots of tips to help builders improve their businesses whilst elevating the professionalism of the building industry.