Why do 98% of marathon runners succeed, while 96% of business owners fail? (2024)

When you look at the percentage of runners that start the London Marathon and then don’t finish you will see it is less than 2%. In other words, 98+% finish the London Marathon. And this relates beautifully to business.

So in this instance, we take “winning” in business as reaching a £1M turnover business. Only 4% of businesses reach £1M turnover. So imagine only 4% of people finished the London Marathon, it would not be a popular televised event.

So why do the majority of marathon runners succeed, while business owners don’t?

Firstly, if you are running the London Marathon you know where the start point is, and you know the finishing point is on The Mall, whether you run in two hours, three hours, four hours or whether you wear a rhino suit and walk it in 15 days, the only reason you would stop or not finish is if you stopped putting one foot in front of the other.

The runners know what success looks like to them, but how many business owners have a clear picture of what success means to them? Often the goal is very short term i.e. to have enough money in the bank to pay this month’s bills and payroll.

Secondly, marathon runners are committed. When they enter the London Marathon most people have a lot of sponsorship and that sponsorship spurs them on to keep going – they have that commitment to succeed. How do you as a business owner keep up your commitment over the long haul and through the hard times?

The third thing is that the runners have a route map – they have a plan. That route map shows where they need to go and if they’ve done any training then they know what they should be doing by a certain point. How many business owners have a proper plan?

Then the fourth thing is they’ve got a support system. There are people lined up throughout the whole of the marathon cheering them on and supporting them. And running a business can be lonely at times, what is your support system?

The trouble in business is that we don’t generally have these things, we don’t know what we don’t know. So the key to succeed in business as with running the London Marathon is – 1/ you need a goal, 2/ you’ve got to be committed, 3/ you’ve got to have a roadmap to get you there and, 4/ you need that support.

Those are the four vital ingredients. So if you have – the goal, the commitment, the plan, and the support then you just need to keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep going.

Eventually, you will finish the marathon and that means eventually you’ll have a £1M+ business (or whatever your ultimate goal is).

If this has resonated with you then you make like to take a look at The Entrepreneurs Circle – join free for one month and see the value it could bring to your business success.

And if you have any questions I would be happy to have a chat.

Cheers Julian

Photo by Miguel A. Amutio on Unsplash