Do You Have an Equation for Your Core Value?

In February 2021, I had Darius Mirshahzadeh on my Podcast speaking about his book: The Core Value Equation: A Framework to Drive Results, Create Limitless Scale and Win the War for Talent and a whole bunch of other stuff. Darius has one of the unique entrepreneurial journeys that you would ever want to learn and study about.

What Do You Do if You Want to Write and Sell a Book About Core Value?

Darius said that his book would have been a lot easier if he had taken the time to build a network. But he has the network now and has been soaring with success with his book.

If you want to do the work to really maximize the impact, you’ve got to have a community to put the work into — because without that, it is a heavier lift. So, if you want to get that word-of-mouth type of momentum, you got to have a community to put the book into. –Darius Mirshahzadeh

I love the idea of having an equation for your core values. Darius Mirshahzadeh has helped numerous businesses become 9-figure businesses. You will be impressed, as I have been, with this man’s extensive expertise and knowledge. Please listen to the full episode here:

So when I talk about core value — what do you think about those words? Darius brings core value into everything he does. I’ve always believed that people need to bring value to what they are producing in their products or services. But as Darius and I have talked many times before and since this Podcast — it’s what is at your inner core of self that makes all the difference in business.

It’s discovering the little details in whatever you decide to take on and making “doing due diligence” an art form.

In the Older Podcast Lineup — The Core Value Equation is an Essential

As I listened to this Podcast again, I was almost overcome with the depth of payment Darius has invested in gaining the knowledge he has. You’ll want to hear as he tells about his life-changing lessons in business. Darius said, “Going bankrupt would have been God being nice to me.”

Darius Mirshahzadeh went five years to work day in and day out without a paycheck — and paying and paying for a business mistake. He had learned how to do business in a certain way and with specific people who taught him — but it ended up being the wrong thing.

Listen as Darius tells about the deep scars that couldn’t help but come from that type of dedication to try and make things right — things that couldn’t really be righted. Lawsuits pummeled him. When he could have started investing again — he didn’t dare touch any money — he hoarded his cash. He was depressed.

What Do You Do With Depression?

But in his despair and depression — Darius Mirshahzadeh did what the rest of us should do — he hunkered down and found knowledge by reading and reading and reading and then putting that knowledge to work.

Darius literally pulled himself out of trouble and sadness- likely worse than any of us have felt. And he did it by finding out all he could on how to make his situation better.

Keep crystal clear in your mind — since then, Darius has been ranked #9 on Glassdoor’s list of Top CEOs of Small and Medium Companies in the US — and has received numerous Stevie Awards — and he wrote his book to help people grow their companies.

I’ve Seen You in Action, and I Know What You Can Do

Darius Mirshahzadeh now coaches people and businesses and reorganizes and recreates their organization’s values. He brings incredible value — core value — to everything he touches.

Darius now coaches businesses on growth and is obsessive about being better at every level. So when he takes on a company or business, Darius coaches them to greatness. Currently, he’s managing $100 billion with mortgages. All of this has grown from a small company with his partners.

Here is One of Darius’ Equations

Darius says that generally, a person can only manage ten people with any consistency without having breaks in the system they are working within.

Here is the math

I call it multiples of 10. It’s how many multiples of 10 can I manage? Because what ends up happening is one manager can generally only manage ten people consistently without there being breaks in the system. So, a thousand people are just a hundred of tens. So, it’s 100 groups of 10.

When you start calculations in this manner — it’s like, what the hell is the difference between 100 groups of 10 versus 200 versus 500 groups of 10. It’s all kind of the same because the skill set you need to manage 100 groups of 10 is pretty much the same skill set you need to manage 500 groups of 10. That’s kind of the way I look at it. — Darius Mirshahzadeh

Are You My Boss — Or Am I Yours?

When Darius is coaching and consulting — sometimes someone, like a CEO, will refer to being the boss. But if Darius is guiding you to greatness — that is definitely backward.

Darius Mirshahzadeh is the coach and consulting authority. He says, ‘I’m your coach, like, you’re listening to me. And if you’re not, it’s cool; we don’t work together.” The main point is this: Darius doesn’t care if you get to 100 million in your business — but if YOU care about getting to 100 million, you’ll do what he guides you to do.

I’ve made money. So, the money part, it’s a game now for me, and the winnings say that I’m creating value. –Darius Mirshahzadeh

Rip Open the Hood — What’s Broken?

Darius likes to “rip open the hood” of a business and ask, “What’s broken.” So he asks a few questions, such as: “All right, what’s broken? All right, who’s the problem here? All right, are we set up to scale and then dig in deep and figure that out?”

And, yes, he realizes that all the responsibility, the weight, the pressure, everything falls on him at that point — and he proves himself and his core value many times over.

Darius ensures that part of his core value work is teaching and coaching that every company has the same issues, strategy, people, process, cash, and accountability — it’s almost always those issues.

If You’re Going to Lose Money, Lose it as Early in Life as You Can

This is one of my pet sayings. If you’re going to lose money, lose it as early in life as you can.

Darius paid a dear price for his learning. He paid his way through college and said that he found working the mortgage was the path of least resistance to get where he wanted to be. But, he said, “I just didn’t know the business, and they didn’t really have any systems to train anyone.” So, he learned from the school of hard knocks with this one.

Getting Hardcore About Core Values

I got really hardcore about core values coming out of that experience because I felt like I got punished for doing the opposite.  — Darius Mirshahzadeh

Darius felt like ignorance was bliss — until he “Got really hardcore about core values.” As he says, “I was selling a product that had issues, and I didn’t have mindfulness around stakeholder value. I didn’t have mindfulness around creating value in the world.”

He says that he was naïve and young. So I say, yes, we have all been there, done that — but Darius takes the lessons he learned it to a higher level.

What he works with and preaches at a deep level is this — “You really do need to be aware of stakeholders, you do really need to be aware of what core value you’re putting into the world. And if something doesn’t feel right, then don’t just do it.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by KoolShooters; Pexels; Thank you!