Progress Thread - Follow me on my path

[TimoS.]

Introduction​

Hey guys,

my name is Timo and I am currently 17 years old. Last spring I came across MJ’s books TMF / Unscripted and fell in love with the idea of entrepreneurship.

But I was way too scared to take action. I made up excuses and believed bullshit such as that I am too young and I can wait. Those beliefs allowed me to stay in my comfort zone and still feel productive.

Deep down I knew that all of those beliefs were excuses of myself because I was scared. Scared to fail. Scared of the hard path. Scared of judgement.

In the last months I gained a lot of knowledge through books and this forum. I felt productive but never used this knowledge. It just stayed in the back of my head. I was of the opinion that it will help me in the future. Sometimes I got the small thought to mind that I could take action now and don’t have to wait. But then again came the excuses.

I can’t say that I had other big priorities. I would still consider myself an productive person. I am going 5x a week to the gym for over a year now, quit most social media apps, have a healthy diet and drastically improved my social skills . In general I am working towards a better future.

Then one day it clicked. I read a random thread and came across the quote: “Unused knowledge is ephemeral, vanishing as swiftly as it was acquired”. Something happened in this moment and I realized that most of the knowledge I learnt I already had forgotten about or it’s unnecessary for my current situation. Every moment that I could have used productive was wasted. I am at the exact same spot where I was last spring. The only positive thing is that I know that this mistake won’t happen to me again.

I failed in the past because I was overwhelmed with the idea of starting. I didn’t know where to start. Sure I heard the advice that even little things help me to slowly move from team consumer to team producer but still it was much more comfortable to ignore it and just continue to live my life.

Recently I decided to change everything. I will do everything in my power to use my early years efficient so that my future self will thank me. I will try out new things, learn skills but most importantly show the world my work. Even if it’s not perfect. Feedback helps me to grow.

Now the question: What will I do?

Currently I got accepted for a small job that allows me to earn 450$ a month for only 34 hours of work per month. I don’t plan to spend this money because I want to buy my own car as soon as I turn 18 (in September). Also school is almost over for me. That means I got a ton of free time. Basicially it’s the perfect time to get serious about business. No more excuses

Now I realize you don’t need a masterplan to start. Just follow your curiosity and see where it gets you. That’s all.

I will set myself one important rule to follow on this path:

To provide the most amount of value possible to this world I need to produce and publish something out of every new thing I learn. In this way I will slowly move from team consumer to team producer, improve my skills and get feedback from the world.

I don’t need THE THING to start. It would be naive to think that I could get good business ideas while sitting comfortable on my couch. That’s stupid. They come along the way.

Currently I am interested in improving my English text writing skills. I want to be able to write paragraphs of text that are enjoyable to read without having to spend much time on it. It should feel natural to type my second language English. This will help me in the future.

In the next couple of days I will practice and research as much as possible. Then I will create something with my new skill. I currently don’t know what but I will be creative and I will share it with you guys.

Let’s see where my curiosity combined with hard work gets me.

Future​

I don’t know where I will end up in the next months, years but I know for sure that I will do everything in my power to use my limited time on this earth productive and fulfilling. I was holding back on publishing this progress thread and new excuses came such as who am I to create a progress thread without past achievements or a clear business idea.

But this isn’t me. I will show the world who I am and share all my successes and failures with you guys. I will be 100% honest here and I take full accountability for my future. I am responsible for everything.

I am really thankful if you took your costly time to read all of this. This means a lot to me. Expect to see me succeed and fail. But nothing will stop me. I won’t give up

Best regards

Timo!

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[TimoS.]

Sunday 7. May

Today I published my first article on Medium (700 words). Medium is a website similar to a forum where everybody can publish articles or blog posts.

I didn’t really search for a particular website. Medium was the first I found. I just needed a way to publish my written article

The title of my article is: “Let Your mind work for You not against you” and I used the knowledge I learned from books and gained through my own life experiences.

I really enjoyed the writing process. Partly because I am really informed and interested in the topic but also because it felt easy to write paragraph after paragraph.

Then I used Hemingway Editor to improve my written article. I think it was Grade 5. So still plenty of room for improvement. Mostly spelling mistakes. But I am optimistic that I will improve over time.

 

[TimoS.]

Monday 8. May

I woke up and chose to spend my day differently. Instead of writing another article I brainstormed about other ways to provide value to the world.

I couldn’t stop thinking about helping local companies. I live in a small town in Germany and nearby are many small companies. My thought process was that I would gain much experience helping them. Also, I would bring my name out there and I would have a portfolio for future clients.

Then I asked myself the most important question: How? How will I provide value? I thought it would be dumb to choose a skill/ service from the beginning without doing research and having an understanding of what the market needs.

So I started to research every company that is in my area and created an Excel document with their name, website, email address and observed the quality of their website and social media presence.

Right now I gathered the information of 30 local companies. There are still plenty more that I have to add tomorrow.

Currently noticeable is that most of the “larger” local companies tend to have a well-structured and quality website. Only some private businessmen have very bad websites.

Because of this, my first conclusion is that there is no local need for web design and website creation.

Now I know what the market doesn’t need. The next step is to understand what the market needs.

Tomorrow I plan to continue adding companies to my Excel sheet. Another idea was that I directly contact local companies undercover as a marketing college student to ask them about their current problems and challenges. I could find similarities between the companies and in this way better understands what problems I can solve.

What do you think?

 

[Subsonic]

Hey man greetings from Germany.

I wish you the best and couldn't really think of something better to tell you.

Oh actually one thing: there are two ways you can help a business.

You can save them time or make them more money. Find a way you can accomplish that if you want to help those businesses.

 

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[TimoS.]

Hey man greetings from Germany.

I wish you the best and couldn't really think of something better to tell you.

Oh actually one thing: there are two ways you can help a business.

You can save them time or make them more money. Find a way you can accomplish that if you want to help those businesses.

Heyy thanks a lot!

Yeah you are right. There are many ways in which I can help a business. I will find a way to prodvide value

Moving forward I will remember your advice

 

[TimoS.]

Tuesday 9. May

I wasn’t really productive on this day. This is because I am nervous about my driver’s license test tomorrow and couldn’t concentrate as I would have liked to.

Still managed to add about 50 more companies to my Excel Sheet. Now I got the information of 81 local companies.

Also started taking action on my plan to directly contact all local companies and survey them to understand local challenges and problems in order to decide which skill/ service to learn and offer.

But I changed my original plan. Instead of contacting them undercover as I wrote in the last post I will be honest about my motivations and include it in my email.

I used ChatGPT to choose my survey answers and the order in which I ask them. These are:

1. What are your main marketing strategies and tactics?

2. How satisfied are you with your current marketing efforts and why?

3. What areas of your business could benefit from improvement or optimization?

4. What are your current business challenges?

5. What do you think is holding your business back from achieving its long-term goals?

6. Are there any particular services or solutions that you think would be valuable to have access to?

7. Would you be interested in learning more about marketing services that could help your business grow?

And with the help of ChatGPT I created an example email template:

“Dear [Business Owner/Manager],

I hope this email finds you well. My name is [Your Name], and as a local resident, I am passionate about helping small businesses succeed. I noticed that your business is an important part of our community, and I believe that I can offer you valuable support

I am conducting a survey to understand better the challenges facing businesses in our community and to identify areas where I can help. By completing this short survey, you can help me to develop new services that can help your business grow.

Your responses will be kept strictly confidential and will only be used for the development of new services. Here is the link to the survey: [Insert Link]

Thank you for your time and for helping to support the local business community. If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know.

Best regards,

[Your Name]”

And no worries I translated all questions and the email into German using my own words. I just wanted a broad example by ChatGPT.

 

[TimoS.]

Wednesday 10. May

I did it. I passed my driver’s license test!!!

Additionally, I completed my Excel Sheet of all local businesses. I gathered information from over 140 businesses.

Then I created a Google Forms Survey with the questions you can find in the last post. I made it anonymous to increase the likelihood of answers from local companies.

Finally I sent the email to all 140 local companies.

I am excited about the results of my survey. I hope to get at least 10 – 15 answers. I am looking forward to analyzing the data and drawing a conclusion on what the local market currently needs.

I really enjoyed the past few days and the process of gathering the information, creating the survey, and using ChatGPT to send out my email.

Looking forward to finally start learning a needed skill

 

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[pavan_k]

Wednesday 10. May

I did it. I passed my driver’s license test!!!

Additionally, I completed my Excel Sheet of all local businesses. I gathered information from over 140 businesses.

Then I created a Google Forms Survey with the questions you can find in the last post. I made it anonymous to increase the likelihood of answers from local companies.

Finally I sent the email to all 140 local companies.

I am excited about the results of my survey. I hope to get at least 10 – 15 answers. I am looking forward to analyzing the data and drawing a conclusion on what the local market currently needs.

I really enjoyed the past few days and the process of gathering the information, creating the survey, and using ChatGPT to send out my email.

Looking forward to finally start learning a needed skill

It's very cool to see you taking steps towards your goal. Did you get any response from the companies ?

 

[TimoS.]

It's very cool to see you taking steps towards your goal. Did you get any response from the companies ?

Thursday 18. May

Yo a few days have passed since my last post.

I realized it’s more difficult to contact them than I thought.

So after another E-Mail to remind them of my survey I gathered a total of 5 answers. I hoped to get a broader view of the local market but I am not disappointed with the results.

But here are the results:

· Their main marketing strategies:

o 1x Google Ads à but they lack experience, so no good results

o 1x Use of Social Media

o 3x no real marketing strategies

· Then only 2 of the business are satisfied with their current marketing efforts. And to my surprise, this came from a business without real marketing strategies.

· Current business challenges:

o Lack of financial ressources

o No profit

o Too few employers

o No need in the market à probably no customers

· „Are there any particular services or solutions that you think would be valuable to have access to?“

o Online payment system

o Help with Google Ads

o Software developer

My analysis:

I came to the conclusion that the local market lacks marketing services.

Because 3x of the companies need a real marketing strategy and one struggles with Google Ads.

Next: I will research the field of marketing and specialize in a few skills. But for now, my main focus will be to study for my final exam. Next Wednesday I have the last oral exam. Still in my free time when I am not studying I will look further into the field of marketing skills.

And next week I can start my learning process