Entrepreneurial Lessons from a Las Vegas Showman - Pt. 3: Follow The Yellow Brick Road

When Dorothy landed in Oz, her only goal was to get back home.  The yellow brick road as it turned out, was the road to getting there.

For Matt Goss and the Bros brothers (see parts 1 & 2), their yellow brick road wasn't quite so clearly defined.  But here we are almost 30 years later and now, Matt headlines a Las Vegas show at no less than Caesar's Palace (and has been so successful over the past 5 years they just doubled the number of shows each week) and Luke is a successful Hollywood actor.  It all seems just so easy, except that it wasn't.  It never is.

If you read about the years in between, we find their yellow brick roads were nothing like Dorothy's.  They hustled and worked doing whatever it took.  They had huge ups and downs.  Matt was so broke he sold off his watch collection to pay bills, literally one by one. They even moved countries in search of the opportunities they needed and so in Entrepreneurial terms, we'd recognize that they did whatever it took, to arrive at the destination they wanted.

Every business person has those same choices to make, the same windy roads to take but the problem so many people face isn't knowing the destination they want to arrive at, it's knowing which of the 5 roads they're looking at is actually the yellow brick one.

The problem is, the idea that there's only one road to success is a lie.  It's not the case at all.

I read an article recently about Yahoo's CEO, Marissa Meyer and the difficulty she was having in making a choice about her career path when a good friend of hers wisely pointed out, it didn't matter which path she chose because it was HER that was special, not the path. Whichever direction she took, she would find success because of what she brought with her.  It's the same for us 'Treps! It truly is.

We bring the skills.  We bring the energy.  We bring the ideas.  We bring US and that's what makes us special.  

If you're doubting your path, or you're faced with the dilemma of a decision that will affect your future in some significant way then stop.  Pause for breath and remember, if all the logical and rational answers make sense (obviously moving to Alaska to sell sun loungers isn't as smart a move as moving to Miami), then the unknown isn't really that unknown.  Believe in yourself and choose whichever path makes the most sense because the future isn't set, you create it and the reality is, all 5 of those paths could actually become your yellow brick road, because you're the one that will make sure they get you to your destination.

The truth of the matter is, the road doesn't turn yellow till you see it in your rear view mirror, it's rarely yellow in front.