alexanderkjones
Regular Contributor
@Tony I Has a great post going on - 6 Sign's you're a "wantraprenuer" and I started writing a comment that I realized would be more useful as a thread.
Tony's major points were to stop doing this:
1. you mentally masturbate by watching every "motivational video" on youtube
2. you talk and don't do anything
3. you start 100 different projects at once, and give up on all of them after a week
4. you read every business book but don't take any action
5. you make excuses, procrastinate, and overanalyze
6. you chase money
Tony's got a really good point here and I would add for any of you thinking, oh crap this is me, to abstract this to a higher level. Tony's key points are all symptoms of something very specific: Commitment.
There's a reason you're distracting yourself. It's not because you suck or because you have ADHD, it's because your brain is trying to make a decision since you're stuck in fear. Fear is the number one killer of entrepreneurs and the worst part is, it isn't even real. Fear is the perception of future pain. It hasn't even happened yet, but your neolithic noggin is constantly evaluating the probability of life vs death, pleasure vs pain, in everything you do. Can you imagine how that's kind of a mind F*ck for an entrepreneur?
You're looking for answers so that your brain can give you the A OK to move forward on your decision but the answers you're looking for come from experience, not books or videos. You'll never believe it until you do it, you'll never learn the lessons until you make the mistakes.
So, here's my top 6 Steps to Stop Being a "Wantraprenuer", hope you enjoy them.
1) Get clear on your outcomes. What is your goal, how is having a business going to change your life, not in money but in what money, time, freedom will mean to you, your family, and the people you care about. Write down all the ways you see your life changing for the better for at least 5 minutes. Circle the things you REALLY care about. Don't circle the farrari if you've also got "pay off my debt". Get clear, what are your top 3 outcomes for this business and how it will affect your life?
2) Look at your options. This is a great practice from James Altucher, write down at least 10 different ways your could reach the goals you've just said you wanted. Write down all the easy ones like whatever business you're thinking about now, and then 9 other ideas you have. If you haven't committed it means you've got quite a few options. We're about to help you decide, but let's get them all on paper.
3) Value Your Options. Ok, now really look at these and ask yourself one simple question: "What's the fastest path to my stated goals?". The fastest way to Pain is to misuse your time, it's the only resource you can't get back so make sure you make the best educated decision you can here.
Now, there's a caveat, are you excited about the business idea or solution to your goals that's the fastest? If not, go down a peg and hit whichever one gets you excited. We're looking for the most lucrative opportunity that you'll actually enjoy doing.
4) Test Your Hypothesis. Cool, so you've got an idea of where you think there's an opportunity. Great, now go test it. Take your idea and talk to 20 people who you would say are in the target market for this business. Do they care about it? Would they pay for it? HOW BIG OF A PROBLEM ARE YOU SOLVING?
GOLDEN RULE: YOU"LL ONLY BE ABLE TO CHARGE 10-20% OF THE VALUE OF WHATEVER PROBLEM YOU ARE SOLVING.
If people think your idea is cool but they're only saving an hour of time by using your product once a year and they value their own time at $20/hr you can charge $2. That's it. Make sure you've got a valuable solution to an expensive problem. It should be a no-brainer value proposition for your customers.
5) Re-Evaluate. Did you're hypothesis pan out? Does it make sense and was it really validated by potential customers? You can figure this out before spending a dime on product development and you should know this answer to mitigate as much risk as possible, that will make your decisions a lot clearer. If the answer is YES, this looks like a promising idea that can make enough money to get me to my goals, go to step 6. IF NOT, don't worry, go back to your list and grab the next idea, test it, and see what comes back.
You may not be ready to start a business if you haven't gotten good at finding problems. If you've ever read Rich Dad Poor Dad you'll hear how Robert Kiyosaki basically got the best education in the world by being taught from the age of 8 to look for problems and find lucrative solutions. Thankfully it doesn't take that long. Get good at listening to people, understanding what they need, and how you can solve expensive problems. If this is confusing please make mention in the thread and I'll write a follow up.
If you get down to only 5 ideas on your list come up with 10 new ones. If you run out of ideas, ask people what type of business they would start, they'll tell you what products they wish were on the market. It's more valuable to find a Validated idea that will make money than turn your wheels on something that doesn't make sense.
And Now, to step 6 which is what Tony was really talking about...
6) Revel in the Freedom of Commitment. I know right what is that bullshit!? This is really interesting actually. You have no idea how much mental energy and stress your mind is causing you by trying to make a decision to commit to your business. It's exhausting you and you don't even know it. You're living the fear of all your potential failures every day and that's what's holding you back from taking the next step. Commitment is freedom from your own insanity.
Once you've found an idea that makes sense, get's you to your goals, and target customers agree with you, that's all the information you'll ever get before actually trying to build the business.
But here's the trick - Make a commitment for a specific time period, I like 3-6 Months.
Don't say your going to commit to an idea that's unproven for the rest of your life! All you're mind is going to do is worry about what you're going to do if it doesn't work out. You'll be perceiving all kinds of new pain you haven't even fathomed yet. Keep it simple, Commit to developing this business every day for 6 months. Give yourself the freedom to stop worrying about better ideas and start getting traction. At the end of six months you'll have so much new information you'll be able to make an educated decision on wether to continue with the business or really let it go.
In this time period you should be able to create a bare bones product/service and sell it in some form wether that be through ad words, in person sales, or via ecomerce. But if you can't get traction i.e. $$$ from your idea with a few sales in 3-6 months move on or make the idea better, solve a bigger problem.
I hope this was helpful but I want to make sure anyone taking the time to read this post is supported. So, if you're a wantreprenuer:
First know that you're really a full fledged Entrepreneur waiting to get started. An Olympic Diver is still an Olympic Diver before he jumps off the platform. Every entrepreneur was a regular person like you until they made a decision to take the first step.
Second: Post your 10 ideas or your customer feedback here and I will give my best estimation on which idea you should pursue if you're having challenges. If you have sensitive content feel free to PM me.
Tony's major points were to stop doing this:
1. you mentally masturbate by watching every "motivational video" on youtube
2. you talk and don't do anything
3. you start 100 different projects at once, and give up on all of them after a week
4. you read every business book but don't take any action
5. you make excuses, procrastinate, and overanalyze
6. you chase money
Tony's got a really good point here and I would add for any of you thinking, oh crap this is me, to abstract this to a higher level. Tony's key points are all symptoms of something very specific: Commitment.
There's a reason you're distracting yourself. It's not because you suck or because you have ADHD, it's because your brain is trying to make a decision since you're stuck in fear. Fear is the number one killer of entrepreneurs and the worst part is, it isn't even real. Fear is the perception of future pain. It hasn't even happened yet, but your neolithic noggin is constantly evaluating the probability of life vs death, pleasure vs pain, in everything you do. Can you imagine how that's kind of a mind F*ck for an entrepreneur?
You're looking for answers so that your brain can give you the A OK to move forward on your decision but the answers you're looking for come from experience, not books or videos. You'll never believe it until you do it, you'll never learn the lessons until you make the mistakes.
So, here's my top 6 Steps to Stop Being a "Wantraprenuer", hope you enjoy them.
1) Get clear on your outcomes. What is your goal, how is having a business going to change your life, not in money but in what money, time, freedom will mean to you, your family, and the people you care about. Write down all the ways you see your life changing for the better for at least 5 minutes. Circle the things you REALLY care about. Don't circle the farrari if you've also got "pay off my debt". Get clear, what are your top 3 outcomes for this business and how it will affect your life?
2) Look at your options. This is a great practice from James Altucher, write down at least 10 different ways your could reach the goals you've just said you wanted. Write down all the easy ones like whatever business you're thinking about now, and then 9 other ideas you have. If you haven't committed it means you've got quite a few options. We're about to help you decide, but let's get them all on paper.
3) Value Your Options. Ok, now really look at these and ask yourself one simple question: "What's the fastest path to my stated goals?". The fastest way to Pain is to misuse your time, it's the only resource you can't get back so make sure you make the best educated decision you can here.
Now, there's a caveat, are you excited about the business idea or solution to your goals that's the fastest? If not, go down a peg and hit whichever one gets you excited. We're looking for the most lucrative opportunity that you'll actually enjoy doing.
4) Test Your Hypothesis. Cool, so you've got an idea of where you think there's an opportunity. Great, now go test it. Take your idea and talk to 20 people who you would say are in the target market for this business. Do they care about it? Would they pay for it? HOW BIG OF A PROBLEM ARE YOU SOLVING?
GOLDEN RULE: YOU"LL ONLY BE ABLE TO CHARGE 10-20% OF THE VALUE OF WHATEVER PROBLEM YOU ARE SOLVING.
If people think your idea is cool but they're only saving an hour of time by using your product once a year and they value their own time at $20/hr you can charge $2. That's it. Make sure you've got a valuable solution to an expensive problem. It should be a no-brainer value proposition for your customers.
5) Re-Evaluate. Did you're hypothesis pan out? Does it make sense and was it really validated by potential customers? You can figure this out before spending a dime on product development and you should know this answer to mitigate as much risk as possible, that will make your decisions a lot clearer. If the answer is YES, this looks like a promising idea that can make enough money to get me to my goals, go to step 6. IF NOT, don't worry, go back to your list and grab the next idea, test it, and see what comes back.
You may not be ready to start a business if you haven't gotten good at finding problems. If you've ever read Rich Dad Poor Dad you'll hear how Robert Kiyosaki basically got the best education in the world by being taught from the age of 8 to look for problems and find lucrative solutions. Thankfully it doesn't take that long. Get good at listening to people, understanding what they need, and how you can solve expensive problems. If this is confusing please make mention in the thread and I'll write a follow up.
If you get down to only 5 ideas on your list come up with 10 new ones. If you run out of ideas, ask people what type of business they would start, they'll tell you what products they wish were on the market. It's more valuable to find a Validated idea that will make money than turn your wheels on something that doesn't make sense.
And Now, to step 6 which is what Tony was really talking about...
6) Revel in the Freedom of Commitment. I know right what is that bullshit!? This is really interesting actually. You have no idea how much mental energy and stress your mind is causing you by trying to make a decision to commit to your business. It's exhausting you and you don't even know it. You're living the fear of all your potential failures every day and that's what's holding you back from taking the next step. Commitment is freedom from your own insanity.
Once you've found an idea that makes sense, get's you to your goals, and target customers agree with you, that's all the information you'll ever get before actually trying to build the business.
But here's the trick - Make a commitment for a specific time period, I like 3-6 Months.
Don't say your going to commit to an idea that's unproven for the rest of your life! All you're mind is going to do is worry about what you're going to do if it doesn't work out. You'll be perceiving all kinds of new pain you haven't even fathomed yet. Keep it simple, Commit to developing this business every day for 6 months. Give yourself the freedom to stop worrying about better ideas and start getting traction. At the end of six months you'll have so much new information you'll be able to make an educated decision on wether to continue with the business or really let it go.
In this time period you should be able to create a bare bones product/service and sell it in some form wether that be through ad words, in person sales, or via ecomerce. But if you can't get traction i.e. $$$ from your idea with a few sales in 3-6 months move on or make the idea better, solve a bigger problem.
I hope this was helpful but I want to make sure anyone taking the time to read this post is supported. So, if you're a wantreprenuer:
First know that you're really a full fledged Entrepreneur waiting to get started. An Olympic Diver is still an Olympic Diver before he jumps off the platform. Every entrepreneur was a regular person like you until they made a decision to take the first step.
Second: Post your 10 ideas or your customer feedback here and I will give my best estimation on which idea you should pursue if you're having challenges. If you have sensitive content feel free to PM me.
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