The Luck Factor

Jason · 00:00Welcome to episode 188 of The Numbers Game. I'm Jase. I'm joined by Nick and Marty. How are we fellas?

Marty · 00:07Going well, thanks Jase. Got a bit of dilemma down at the dog park at the moment. Since, since we left Penny at dog days, which she's obviously turned from a pup into a woman, I don't know what went on there.

Marty · 00:20But, uh, but any time another dog tries to sniff her in any way, it's full blown attack. So Talk about setting boundaries, so yeah, so basically disgruntled most of my community now that we're in there, so big issues, but you know, dealing with the real issues in life, so yeah, apart from that, good. How are you, Nick?

Nick · 00:44I'm going well, still, still trying to locate the one last jar of honey.

Nick · 00:52Probably the most important one too, the one I really want, so I will, I won't stop, I won't stop until I find it.

Marty · 00:59Just

Marty · 01:00don't look at my drawer.

Nick · 01:02Uh, I don't want to look in your drawer mate, to be honest, who knows what'll come out of there. Um, nah, look I'm good, I'm good, look it's only honey. I'm sure, um, I'm sure one day in some life I'll be able to find the same kind of honey again.

Nick · 01:16Not sure, I'll keep hoping, but. How

Marty · 01:18are you

Nick · 01:20Jase? Looking, uh, looking good mate.

Jason · 01:23I'm feeling tired, Nick. I've bitten off more than I can chew if I'm going to be going to be real and honest with you, beyond end of financial year, tax planning, all the madness that is the accounting world, I decided to do Gold Coast Marathon and the week before I have to do High Rocks, so I signed up for High Rocks, which, um, for anyone out there who's heard of High Rocks, it's kind of like.

Jason · 01:45It's not like the CrossFit games, but it's like a CrossFit games for like people who do BFT or F45 and all those kinds of, um, bootcamp style gyms. There's a competition called Hirox, and it's basically, you do

Jason · 02:00eight kilometers of running, but between every kilometer of running, you have to do an exercise.

Jason · 02:06Like there's a thousand meters on the ski erg, a sled push, wall balls, farmers carry burpees. Anyway, so I had that on the weekend, like doing marathon training and training for that. I've decided it's probably, you know, when the wife tells you you're making the wrong decision to do things like high rocks and a marathon.

Jason · 02:27I think that's what made me want to do it even more when Casey told me that I was being an idiot for signing up to both within a week of each other. But I think I'm going to, I'm going to live to regret this one. I think she's going to be right

Nick · 02:37again. I've had the wrong decision comment a few times, but not, uh, not fitness related.

Nick · 02:43Yeah. Um, I was good. Well, you are, there you go. You're looking fit. So

Jason · 02:48I'll try my luck anyway. Hopefully there's a bit of luck when it comes to my ability to get through High Rocks and then seven days later, I'll need some extra luck to be able to run the Gold Coast Marathon, but, um,

Jason · 03:00Marty. While I'm talking about luck, uh, does that have anything to do with what you've brought to the table today?

Marty · 03:04Oh, look, I thought I'd, uh, glad you mentioned it, Jase. Lovely, uh, tie in really. Uh, I wanted to, I wanted to talk a little bit about, uh, luck and the controllables within it, uh, you know, as opposed to what people think luck is, which, uh, sometimes people just think it's dumb luck, which, uh, is not always the case, but, uh, would you consider yourself?

Marty · 03:28Lucky in your careers and in your health and fitness. Uh, Jace?

Jason · 03:33Oh, good question. Wish I'd read the show notes and was prepared for this one to come through.

Marty · 03:38Just asking. Do you feel lucky?

Jason · 03:39Yes. Yes. I feel lucky. I feel like, and this is an interesting one or a hard one to answer. Uh, I think I've said it before on other shows, but I never wanted to be an accountant.

Jason · 03:49Like I never deliberately chose the path to be an accountant and by whether by some dumb luck. all of the different events and things that have happened throughout getting to

Jason · 04:00where I am now hasn't necessarily felt like a deliberate decision to pursue a certain path in life. Um, it's been having, I guess, some kind of trust in the universe, um, which sounds a bit wanky in itself, but, um, a lot of things have fallen my way that have allowed me to continue to express myself and go down this path.

Jason · 04:18And yeah, even right up to before I took the job as an accountant, I was, you know, doing the police. Um, course, and I was doing the fitness test to become a police officer and, you know, even saying that out loud sounds crazy. The fact that I'd now ended up, you know, having an accounting firm working with zero being on CPAs public practice committee, I'm as like ingrained in the accounting community as ever at more than anyone, more than most people that I know who actually wanted to become an accountant.

Jason · 04:49And yeah, I was the guy who was like accounting stuff that how boring.

Marty · 04:53So, so would you say any of your behaviors. allowed you to be lucky in the, what you,

Marty · 05:00how you pursued life and how you, you know, how you, your attitudes towards it?

Jason · 05:05Hmm. I was curious. I was curious and always open to learning. And I think being curious and open to learning kind of probably pulled me to continue to, not necessarily, I didn't make the decision to do that, but if, if a, If something presented itself to me, I would dive into it and have a crack.

Jason · 05:21Um, so, you know, for example, Greg saying, I got you the job in accounting, just give it a go first. And then by giving it a go, I was able to continue to, to pursue things in that area with, you know, and things fell my way. Like I met a guy who. Bought me a trip to Bali to go to an accounting conference in Bali, which changed the course of my life.

Jason · 05:40But it was what, what is the chance encounter to be at an event? Because I think I wanted to see the comedian that was presenting at this depreciation report event at crown, like again, how boring the decision to go to a depreciation report, Christmas party. But I think Huey's like, well, there was a comedian who was like doing a show.

Jason · 05:57And I was like, Oh yeah, I'll go along to hear the comedienne and like,

Jason · 06:00that'll be funny. But met a guy who was in the industry who said. You know what, there's something about you. I'm going to buy flights and accommodation and take you to Bali because you should attend this accounting conference because I think it'll help you learn more about yourself and your career.

Jason · 06:14But if I didn't meet that guy on that particular night. Which I think was quite lucky that I did. Maybe I wouldn't be where I am today.

Marty · 06:21I'm, uh, glad you've actually, uh, communicated, uh, how you were lucky in that, because I feel like we have a little bit more control that we realized just in attitudes and actions.

Marty · 06:32And, uh, Nick, what about yourself? If you think about your career and you know, you're like, cause I look personally, I, I think we can be lucky and unlucky all at once, but I think part of its attitude as well, would you consider yourself a lucky person?

Nick · 06:47In business, no, I think in life. Yes. So, um, I'm lucky that I was born in this country and, you know, a roof over your head and food to eat is fairly

Nick · 07:00accessible for 99 percent of the population.

Nick · 07:02So that's luck. Um, business, I think you create your own luck, um, for sure. You know, and Jason, you're talking about lucky, but you keep putting yourself in these situations. You keep saying yes to things. You keep going to events. Um, you do create your own luck. Um, for sure, and I think, you know, if you take two individuals that, um, you know, on the same day started doing tats lotto every day and did mystery numbers, and at some stage one of them wins 10 million and one of them wins zero, I think the one that won 10 million was lucky.

Nick · 07:34Um, but I don't think in business you can say you're lucky. I think you get breaks for sure. And I think sometimes the right things happen and you're in the right place at the right time. But it's generally a reward for the work that you do, uh, leading up to that. Um, Of course some people have bigger windfalls than others that might have done the same amount of work.

Nick · 07:55You know, I think that's just life. But I, I, I wouldn't, I wouldn't call that luck, so I

Nick · 08:00don't, I don't think I'm lucky in business, Marty. No, I think it's, it's, it's a reward for the, for the time and effort put in.

Marty · 08:06Well answered. I, um, I had something happen to me on the weekend where I was chatting to someone that I went to school with.

Marty · 08:13And they said, geez, you're just a lucky person, aren't you? In regards to what has happened in business and in life. And, and I, I just reflected on it. And at first I thought, well, yeah, maybe, maybe I am lucky, but I think, I think in life circumstances can work in your favor and circumstances can work against you, but it's all in regards to what you do with that situation that matters the most.

Marty · 08:39And I was reflecting on it on the weekend and. know, the old saying, people say, you know, you're the five people you hang around most, um, which is, yeah, it's a saying, but I would, I would say your success as a person is defined by the five people you allow to influence you most. And that's a, that's a.

Marty · 08:58That's a different, different mess

Marty · 09:00methodology. And it's interesting when I think about my friendship group, how they seem to be luckier people than some. And I think there's a big difference between dumb luck, which can, everyone can categorize as just, you know, someone wins the lotto or, you know, the, the one in a million chance, right.

Marty · 09:20The same as you would being hit by lightning. Um, but I think there's luck. And Nick touched upon it, and I realized that over the journey, it's, it's uniquely interesting that it can start very young and it can develop through your professional career. So let's talk about professional and business career for now.

Marty · 09:41But I think there's different categories, and the first category I want to bring up is young luck. Like when you're young, how do you, how you conduct yourself matters? Like I see people getting pissed on social media and putting it out there and just doing some crazy stuff that they're putting

Marty · 10:00out there.

Marty · 10:00And I don't think that's bringing luck to you. You know, there's, there's probably a way you want to present yourself to the world. I know people want to fit in, but you got to decide. You know, who you are, you know, sports circles, you know, you can, you can be lucky in regards to the people you meet in sports, uh, your circles of interest.

Marty · 10:18Like for me, it was very, um, it was very much about doing stand up and what works business course when I was 17 years of age and that moved the needle for me. in testing out my courage. And like, you're talking about having a goal at things that others might not have been prepared to do. Some were doing it better and that's fine as well.

Marty · 10:38You know, your family and friends, opportunities that come out of that because of how you conduct yourself as a young person, you know, friends. Like for me, when I was young, I met a lady by the name of Ann Merriman, who was a girlfriend of one of my best mates that, um, we got to know each other, she came to the standup gigs.

Marty · 10:58She knew I had an interest in

Marty · 11:00business and got me the opportunity at the bank. Now that happened nowhere in regards to my background of the education piece or anything. It was only, I was very connected to business and she could see that and got me an opportunity. That was lucky, but I had to be conducting myself in a certain way and my attitudes at the time to be able to get that opportunity and adding value.

Marty · 11:24to people. So I think as a young person coming through the first category, it's really about, you know, understanding of how you can be the person you want to be for your future at this time. And you're still finding your feet, but you certainly don't want to be putting your worst self out there as a young person.

Marty · 11:42Uh, any

Jason · 11:42comments

Marty · 11:43to that Gents?

Jason · 11:44As you were talking, you know, thinking about being young and young luck and how you conduct yourself and then sport circles, all of those then threw back this Big, you know, flashback from a memory that getting my first job, the fact that I played, I played

Jason · 12:00juniors cricket at Endeavor Hills.

Jason · 12:02I was going for a job at Dufton McDonald's. And I think before I ended up taking the job, somebody let me know, Oh, the guy who's interviewing you really loves cricket. So as a young person who wanted this job really badly, I knew that my connection with sport and the sport circles allowed me to have this conversation and conduct myself in a way to be a little bit more confident than how I would have usually felt.

Jason · 12:26And McDonald's was definitely something that, you know, again, um, you know, as you said, Nick, you, you know, where you position yourself and how open you are to learning and everything else that, that job. And the lessons that I learned, the people I met have influenced my entire life and whether lucky or, you know, meant to be all those things.

Jason · 12:47But yeah, there's just, it was interesting to go. If I didn't play sport and I'd sat down and have a conversation with this guy and had nothing to say, would I have been, you know, would I have been the right candidate for the job? You know? Yeah. So not saying you have to play sport to be a good

Jason · 13:00job candidate, but for that, for me in that moment, at that point in time, this guy was scary as shit.

Jason · 13:05He was a huge unit. He was like six foot six and a meter wide. I was shitting myself, but when I got told, just talk to you about cricket, it'll all be fine. I reckon without that, I would have sat there absolutely just crapping my dacks and instead I had a great conversation and got the job.

Marty · 13:20Yeah. Perfect example.

Nick · 13:22Nick. I just think about sport. And I think. This is not to say everyone should say sport, but in what other circumstances can you get such a, a large community of people, uh, in a short period and different, different types of people from all walks of life that come together. Yeah. Outside of, I'm just thinking of some other examples.

Nick · 13:44Um, religion would be one. Um, I'm not religious personally, but if I look at religious communities, Circles and groups, um, it brings people together and gives you access to a lot of different people, um, pretty efficiently, I guess is the word I'm looking for,

Nick · 14:00um, I'm not sure, there'd be some other examples where communities come together, but yeah, for me, I look at most of the, um, events that have happened to me in life.

Nick · 14:09And I'd say 90 percent of them are connected to sport and people that I've met through sport. And that's just, that, that was my method of community, um, everyone else will, people will have different methods, but it's, it's, it's engaging with people in big groups and meeting all walks of life.

Marty · 14:25I had exactly the same with sport, you know, I still see clients today based out of those early days.

Marty · 14:31through sport. Now, do you think you would have warranted respect in your actions and behaviours in those sporting circles that brought opportunity to you?

Nick · 14:40Not knowingly, but um, looking back now, yes. Uh, I think you are who you are, right? And, and the type of people you are comes out in, and again, I'll keep saying sport, but in any community.

Nick · 14:52Um, so I'd say yes, yes is the answer.

Marty · 14:55Could be netball, could be, could be, um, could be drama, could be theatre.

Marty · 15:00It's like, it's how you show up, you know, it's how you show up in those circles that draw people towards you and people want to, you know, there's usually collaboration or people want to get to know you a little bit more and opportunities and doors open through it.

Marty · 15:15So even at that very young point in life, you know, you can set the standards that people are drawn to. So it's a great foundation piece. Definitely. Um, the second one is you get an opportunity. Definitely. The door opens and it's now what I call skill luck. So we have young luck and now skill luck. Like how do people advance their skills to their own performance?

Marty · 15:41You know, that they're coachable. They'll look to learn things outside of the job itself. They're hungry to accelerate their learning and capability. You know, they focus on one focus. And become a lead at it. Like how many times do you say people be very general across different things? And sometimes as you get older, you need to be right as

Marty · 16:00well.

Marty · 16:00But, but to have one focus and set yourself apart from, from everyone else as a point of difference, um, and they apply what they learned. You know, so they learn something and they apply it. I've seen a lot of knowledgeable failures that said, I have to learn this before I apply it. And then they get to the point of application and they don't take the actions and go, I have to learn this and then I'll be successful.

Marty · 16:25And the same thing happens. So they just keep acquiring knowledge without taking action on the knowledge and they don't get this real, real benefit. Ripple effective opportunity based on behavior around the learnings is really cool, and they show courage in the actions like they earn almost demand respect in regards to bringing on a skill and putting it out there in the market, and I think This is really somewhere as a young person coming through that you can really set yourself apart in regards to acquiring skills that give you a point of

Marty · 17:00difference in your focus on what you pursue.

Jason · 17:02I love it. I mean, there's so, there's so many areas where you can look at that and apply the logic of, you know, the more you advance your skills or your education or your performance and your ability, um, You know, you even look at the, you know, famous basketball players, like, you know, you're Michael Jordan's or the Ron James, how many, how many practice shots they would have taken in the 17, 18 years before they played their first game, you know, that, that, those things make a difference.

Jason · 17:29Um, and then taking it back out of sport to. you know, job level, you know, the people that are doing the extra courses and putting in the extra effort, um, you know, rising through my career. I didn't just finish my accounting degree. I then went on to do three or four years of CPA studies. Beyond that, I was doing business advisory courses.

Jason · 17:51Um, there was a course called business blueprint. I'd travel to Sydney every quarter to sit in a room with a hundred or 200 business owners and hear about their

Jason · 18:00problems and be educated. By this business program on how to solve problems for business owners, and I was the only person in the room who was sitting there as an employee.

Jason · 18:09I worked for an accounting firm at the time, and I was surrounded by, you know, anywhere from 100 to 200 business owners at a time. And I had this like insider. Kind of, I was like a spy, right? Like my own little weird game that I was playing, but I just sat there and sponge. I listened to all of the business owners would talk about their problems.

Jason · 18:28It was round table style and that all talk about their problems. And I'd sit there as an accountant going, I can solve that problem. I can help that person with that. But at the time, because I was a 20 something year old employee. They wouldn't, they wouldn't listen to me. They didn't want to borrow what I had to say because I was too young and perceived not to have the skills needed to have helped these people at that time.

Jason · 18:50But 10 years on people in that room now reach out to me and ask me to become their accountant, their advisor. Having remembered meeting me in that room.

Jason · 19:0010 years ago. So I've got clients to this day and some of them have been with me for a long lot longer than just recently. But, you know, again, the skills, the skill, luck of putting yourself in an environment where you care about your performance and your knowledge or your education or your physical or mental skills.

Jason · 19:16Um, yeah, it's, it's real and there's a real tangible outcome to, to doing that.

Marty · 19:22So I would say luck is 90 percent controllable. When you hear that, you're always going to become a business owner. And years later, the people in that room, um, saw value at a whole different level given the actions that you took over that 10 years.

Marty · 19:39And I, I mean, that's just incredible, Jase. When you hear that out, if people really listened to what you said there, to what, where you are at now, um, You know, that's pretty inspirational and you were in control of that because you, you, you had a focus. You didn't. But

Jason · 19:55interestingly, the luck side of that, my boss actually signed up to that course.

Jason · 19:59So

Jason · 20:00the business owner of the accounting firm was meant to do that course and he went to the first, the first quarterly meeting and he actually met a lot of those people as the business owner. Um, but I think, I believe he, he got a new girlfriend. Um, and I don't know whether she was pregnant, became pregnant at the time, or I think he just was more interested in rather than going away on the weekends.

Jason · 20:20I think he wanted to, um, spend more time with his new partner and he went, Jace, you know, I want you to be trained in this anyway. So

Nick · 20:27I'm going to interrupt there. He chose you, right? You knew

Jason · 20:30where that was going. I knew it was coming. I knew I was not going to get away with saying the luck, you know, it was just luck that, you know, my, the business owner decided to give me the course.

Jason · 20:39Of course. Well, maybe you were lucky that he

Nick · 20:40met a new partner. Yes. Maybe thats where the luck was. Yeah. .

Marty · 20:45No, but you were the choice. So I was

Jason · 20:48the chosen one.

Marty · 20:49Yeah. But it fascinating that that was the case. So there's doors opening here with the right behaviors that you can't even see. You know, where you're at in the future.

Marty · 20:59And this

Marty · 21:00is what I, you know, what I really like about this. Uh, and then I, you know, move on to the next one, Nick, you'll like this one. Uh, performance Luck. Like people just go, that person's lucky getting that performance. Not really. Uh, high performers generally see similar attributes of themselves in others.

Marty · 21:18So a lot of people say to me, particularly the younger, um, team members say, uh, why, why do clients, you know, like me when they can have more experienced people at 40 or, you know, 50 years of age that have been around forever, it's like those types of clients that are, you know, see similar attributes in themselves when they see you operating at a younger age.

Marty · 21:43So they want to foster that. It's natural. They want people to do well that when there's that, when they can see that, that similar sort of track that they've had, or they see you transcending their own performance beyond their own in a similar timeframe. and

Marty · 22:00actually admire and inspired by it. So the right people will open doors more aggressively with the right behaviors that you're doing.

Marty · 22:08And, um, and like I said before, you know, generally you'll see people utilizing their learn skills to advantage in the market. And if you do the best and you get a result best you can, you get a result. Someone will present you with better opportunities down the line. Don't always know when it's going to happen, but if you're consistent on that.

Marty · 22:29You will be presented with opportunities and you always have to remember this is layering young luck, skill luck, now into performance luck, that the top 20 percent of industry, and I don't care what industry that is, generate 80 percent of the performance. So you want to really, within that top echelon of performance, work towards that type of result, upskill yourself to that level, And if a market contracts, so let's say it's a bit of

Marty · 23:00a slower market out there, you then have a higher skill level, a better work ethic, you've got better relationships, greater cut through and you'll have a distinct advantage.

Marty · 23:10I love challenging markets for this reason because the cream rises to the top and the gap widens. And you always got to think whether you're dealing with an employer or a client, how difficult. Is it to replace you? You know, if you're in the top 20%, um, you are always going to be a required person and that goes beyond just, uh, you know, a financial performance that's in regards to your values in regards to a lot of different attributes there, but it's the same as a client.

Marty · 23:42How easy is it for that client to replace you as a professional? If you're bringing that skill to the table, we worked out, we talked about earlier. Then you're really setting your apart. And the more challenging environment, the more you'll get cut through and find a way to do well, Nick.

Marty · 24:00Performance luck or just earned luck?

Nick · 24:02No, earned luck. And you know, two, two words that come to mind, um, when I'm reading through those points, um, uh, effort number one, and the second one is habits. And, you know, I think about. Uh, the people in our business who, who outperform, particularly now because there's no doubt, uh, it's a quieter market for us being in, um, mortgages, um, financial planning is biggy busy, but mortgages is quiet.

Nick · 24:29Why is it quiet? Well, the market's down, uh, traditionally this time of year, a lot of real estate agents take time off so that, so the market does go quite, quite, quite in winter and, but the busy guys or the busy brokers are still busy. They're still busy because they've got a good pipeline of clients, they're doing the same things, they're still making the calls.

Nick · 24:47If anything, they're making more calls because they're not as busy. So, I think about, um, yeah, not just our business, but all businesses. Real, in real estate's a good example, really, um, really

Nick · 25:00difficult at the moment and you're seeing contraction in that market. And we're actually, one of the good indicators for us is when we put an ad on seek, um, whether it's for a mortgage broker or a lending analyst that we're looking for at the moment, a real good barometer for what's happening out there is how many resumes you get.

Nick · 25:19And at the moment we're getting a lot of quality resumes, which means other businesses out there are really struggling because people are looking for an opportunity elsewhere. Um, so, you know, I put that back to. I know we're talking about individuals, but even our business, Marty, you look at the things that we do repetitively to make sure that we are not quiet in a down market.

Nick · 25:40Now, you know, one of the things we do is we catch up every 30 days at the start or the end of the month and we look at market conditions and we look at what's happening at the moment in our market. Where are the busy areas? Where are the not so busy areas? Where can we extract opportunity, uh, that we might not have had in the last month?

Nick · 25:57And let's go all in on that

Nick · 26:00for the next 30 days to make sure that our volumes don't drop. So, that's habitual. That's something that we do all the time. Um, and it means that we stay busy in, in quite a period. So, yeah. Lucky you do that. Lucky we do that. Lucky we met someone who taught us to do that. I don't know.

Nick · 26:16So, um, yeah, for me, performance, like effort and habits, um, are the key words that come that come to the surface for me.

Marty · 26:26Absolutely. And when you're performing at a higher level, then, you know, you'll be attractive in the market and opportunities will, you know, work for you and people will want to have you on board.

Marty · 26:38And that's where team luck becomes involved. And you touched on it there. Nick, in regards to the benefits where you increase the gap further. So finding the right team is critical to your ultimate success because you learn from each other's mistakes. You get wider perspective on opportunity. You collaborate, you become stronger.

Marty · 26:58So this is all going back to that

Marty · 27:00sports team or theater group you're a part of in the younger days, but this is now at a superseded level. But you've got to earn the right to play in that top team. And for me, great teams are a rising tide that continue to grow and develop together and support each other and really, you know, see what the best is they can do.

Marty · 27:21And it's like sport again, sorry to bring sport into it, uh, to our audience, but hopefully they can relate. Yeah. A grade players. Inspire A grade players, you know, you can carry a couple of B grade players that are coming through, but you can't carry the C grade players that just want to have a bit of fun and have a hit.

Marty · 27:40That's fine if they want to do that, but they can't live in A grade teams. And it's actually a detriment if they stick around A grade teams. So with wider perspective of A grades, A graders, it's like a superpower. You create a point of difference in the market. That's very, very hard to duplicate

Marty · 28:00and the poor, poorer performers, the C graders, as I called them, feel like they're hard done by, by not being given an opportunity, you know, When there's poor performance out there in the market, course, correct.

Marty · 28:13Like Nick says, get together, find a way, um, readjust and continue performing. So there's no excuses. They love to win. They love their clients to win. They love their team to win. And ultimately they win. Whereas sometimes poor performers are happy to win at the expense of everyone else for a while, but it's not sustainable and eventually be found out.

Marty · 28:35And then ultimately, you know, they'll suffer at the hands of the team. But, uh, team luck again. It's like anything, a great plan for a team, how you can bring your best to that team in order for everyone to win a premiership and ultimately produce something greater to the market. Um, huge, huge, ultimate advantage.

Marty · 28:57Uh, Jase, got anything on that?

Jason · 29:00Uh, again, working with business owners, we talk about, you know, documenting mission, vision, values, and crafting a team culture. And, um, you know, we've seen fantastic businesses that are performing above benchmark that have no documentation on this stuff. And then what you could argue would be.

Jason · 29:19Luck that they've just got a great culture and a great team, but ultimately what it comes down to is, you know, the business owner or the senior leadership team have created a culture, even though they don't know that they've, it's not documented or it's not kind of written on the wall or a set of rules, but the actions of the top performers lead the way for everybody else to follow the actions in the team.

Jason · 29:39And you either get found out really fast. If you're not performing the same way as the top performers, if you don't. Act like them, look like them, talk like them and follow in their footsteps. You find your way out of a business pretty fast. When you realize that you don't form part of the cohesive culture that exists, the DNA or the core of a business that you go and work for.

Jason · 30:00And that's something that, that is unwritten. It's, it's, you know, as I said, it's in the DNA, it's stitched into the cloth that people wear to work every day. Nick, you're on edge to get involved. No, no,

Nick · 30:11no, no. Just what you said then on. You can't, you can't go and design a great culture or a high performance culture.

Nick · 30:22It's in the DNA and it just happens. You know, you can try and design it and, you know, talking about the business that's got it, but hasn't, uh, hasn't written it down. Doesn't matter. They're doing what they have to do, um, to create that culture. And that's probably because they're, you know, they're, they've got good.

Nick · 30:39And, you know, they're putting, they're putting effort in as we spoke about before. And I think the other thing too, is don't be guilty about having a high performance culture. And I think these days sometimes, um, we're, we're thrown into guilt for having a high performance culture. Um, so that's, you know, if, if you only want A and B graders to Marty's

Nick · 31:00point, and you don't want C graders, then there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Nick · 31:04And again, to your point, C graders will be found out, uh, in a, in a, in a high performing team. And, you know, we, we can definitely relate to that.

Marty · 31:11You put the right people in a room together, it, it almost transcends the culture beyond what your expectation is as well. So, which is another You know, that, that's a, another benefit.

Marty · 31:23Uh, okay. So we have a great team. Now, when you transcend it to a business level, then there's partnership luck as well. So you meet people on a business to business level, um, that are complimentary to your own strengths. Now this again, It might seem a little bit lucky, but it's designed by who you are as a person and who that other person is as well.

Marty · 31:48Um, so again, you know, we, we all think a little bit differently. We all have our own unique personalities, but even us three coming together. Is like a long track back to when we

Marty · 32:00played in sports as young people and the attitudes we brought to the table. We developed skill, we developed teams, we grew, we did learnings outside of our work roles in order to improve and get better.

Marty · 32:13And again, that's a lot of hard work. That's a lot of 18 hour days. And then you get to a point where you meet people on a similar path that are complimentary because no one knows everything and everyone has strengths and weaknesses, but there's an aligned vision and you bring that together and that compounds at a whole different level yet again at a business level.

Marty · 32:36So again, You as a person, you want to be the best partner you can be, you want to be the best associate you can be in that situation. There are merger and acquisition opportunities that come through that in alignment. Doors open to unique investment opportunities. So again, is it luck or is it the path you've chosen?

Marty · 32:57There are good and bad things that happen to

Marty · 33:00everyone. But it's what you make of it that really counts. And that's, um, you know, that's, uh, and I'm sure there might be, this would evolve to even more, but for today, that's, uh, I think that's where it can get to in your professional career and in your business career, if you're looking for it.

Marty · 33:16So.

Jason · 33:18Um, I feel very lucky that Greg was my crew trainer when I got that job at McDonald's. Greg was the person who taught me back in those days, you did used to, you know, you're cooking 10 cheeseburgers at a time. You were scraping the meat off the grill and doing all that. And Greg, Greg taught me how to make Big Macs and McChicken burgers.

Jason · 33:35And. Who would have thought that 18 years on that guy's been put, Oh, maybe more shit. 20, 21 years this year that Greg's been putting up with me since he decided to teach me at McDonald's. What, how much, how much luck's been involved in my career, Nick? I love it.

Nick · 33:54But you know, you made the choice to go and flip burgers and you know, not many people will do that.

Nick · 33:58So

Nick · 34:00I'll say it again. And how lucky

Jason · 34:02that Julian put us in a room together to have a coffee together and here's the numbers game.

Nick · 34:06You know, Marty and I met, I engaged Marty's services externally. I paid him a bit of cash, wasn't cheap either by the way, but you know, it was a worthy investment and look where we are today.

Nick · 34:17So you know, it was, um, yeah, I would have, I would have paid triple.

Jason · 34:21If this episode's got you thinking about your luck versus what you've earned and where you've positioned yourself in life from all different areas of team luck, performance, partnership, skills, sports circles, and young luck, we'd love to hear about it.

Jason · 34:34If you have thought about it, Post in the comments, YouTube, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts, or even on Instagram. We'd love to hear, uh, your version of luck and where it's led you in life. Um, we've really enjoyed what you've shared with us today, Marty, and you've definitely brought up some memories and some nostalgic, uh, yeah, thoughts and feelings, so thank you for sharing and, uh, until next time.

Marty · 34:53Life can happen to you or you can make it happen. Game over.

Jason · 34:59This

Jason · 35:00podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. The conversations are of a general nature and do not qualify as financial or tax advice. We recommend before you make any financial decisions, you consult a licensed professional.

Jason · 35:12Individuals on the podcast may hold positions in the companies discussed. ---