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- May 9, 2016
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Entrepreneurship is very simple.
If you solve problems and create value, you will have a high chance of success.
It amazes me how many people think they get this, but they really don’t.
For the past few years, I thought I understood this simple concept. Only recently have I figured out what it really means.
I started a company at 19 and tricked myself into thinking it was about providing value or that it did provide value. It was just about money and helping myself.
I had some success with it, only because I excelled at marketing and selling. That's the only thing that kept it going. I completely ignored the market and never honestly asked myself if they really needed what I started. I didn't solve any real problem and my product was no different than all the other people doing the same thing I was doing.
At this point in time. Money (or any personal gain) no longer has any bearing on whether or not I pursue something. I just identify a problem that would provide value to people when solved, and pursue that.
Money will naturally flow to you when you create value, so there's no point in thinking about money or chasing it.
Chasing money only scares it away. It makes you start exploiting people, taking shortcuts, chasing events (and ignoring process)
Solving real problems attracts money to you, but chasing money destroys value and scares money away.
Expecting to get huge value (money) in exchange for providing little to no value makes no sense and doesn't work. You can’t give someone a dollar and get 50 dollars back. You can trick people into giving you $50, but you won’t create a real fastlane business and you’ll just spin yourself in circles.
Here is an example of what I mean.
There are a lot of “entrepreneurs” out there who started selling web design and lead generation services.
The vast majority of these people are only focused on marketing and selling their services to someone so they can lock them in a big contract.
Most of them are unable to get the results that they are advertising. Chasing money is why they fail and it's why the people who start these companies are scammed into it by gurus selling them on how easy it is to start these (those gurus are also chasing money and exploiting these people)
Coaching, blogging, certain types of real estate investing, website creation, landscaping, moving companies, drop shipping ect. These are all examples of people chasing money and convenience (a large part of them, not all)
Ironically, as I type this I just received an ad from a drop shipping guru offering to show me how to create my million dollar drop shipping company.
I’m the market. I don’t need another landscaping company, that problem has been solved by the hundreds of other landscaping companies around me. I don’t need another blog repeating the same thing every other blog is. I don’t need a dropshipper selling the same easy things that the other hundred drop shippers are selling. I don’t need another moving company, there are a ton of them in my city already.
Before anyone gives me hate for that, I’m not saying people can’t be successful in these areas. Many people are, the vast majority however are not. It usually would come down to exceptional marketing and sales ability or doing something different/value skewing (like a dropshipper selling something really obscure, difficult and boring)
The thing is, there isn't really anything you can do to significantly value skew a landscaping business for example. Its a commodity business. Many people want to mow my lawn, and the end result (lawn mowed) is the same in just about every case. What values do you plan to skew there? Yeah you can be more professional, better dressed, better priced ect. Firstly, this is the same exact thing every other landscaping business owner is thinking. Secondly, none of those things have anything to do with the actual product (my mowed lawn) and they have everything to do with marketing and sales. Most landscaping companies can do a good job mowing my lawn, what value do you plan to skew that somehow makes your great mowing any better than another companies great mowing?
The foundation of the landscaping business is missing, the need. Landscaping comes down to grinding out the marketing/advertising game to overcome the fact that I don't really need a new landscaping company to begin with.
But yes, people can grind it out for years to scale this type of stuff. But I think starting stuff like this (with the goal of being fastlane) is the equivalent to you shooting yourself in the foot. You can spend years grinding out the marketing/advertising game to get some decent margins with landscaping. Or you can spend years solving a real problem that creates real value and then have good marketing and it will have far higher chances of turning fast lane because it has all the pieces and not just good marketing. The goal is a productocracy.
IMO, to be an entrepreneur, you need to completely shift your mind to value producing. It’s not about you, it's about the market. Let this mindset flood into all areas of your life, not just business. Learn to genuinely want to help people.
Learn to ignore thinking about personal gain or what's in it for you. Start thinking about how you can help other people and you’ll start noticing problems to solve.
The other day, I was about to go ask the owner of my company (multimillionaire entrepreneur) if I could move into a sales position because it's something I thought I would be good at and enjoy. Plus I wanted more sales and marketing experience.
But that's all about me. Why does he care about that? 99% of the people that talk to him are asking him for things. Everyone wants things, no one wants to give anything.
I decided not to ask him for a sales position and instead decided to take to him a list of problems I found within the company and how they might be solved. I didn't ask for anything and wasn't seeking anything. It was purely to provide value to him and he noticed that. If he implemented the solutions and saved thousands of dollars, and I received nothing, I would be happy because I created value and it means I'm on the right track. If I keep looking for solutions that provide value to him, the odds of him returning value to me at some point go up. If I just constantly went to him asking for things then the odds of me getting any value go down because I provided no value and I am no different than the 99% of other people asking for things.
When you create an easy business that solves nothing, you aren't doing it because you want to help people and create value. You’re doing it because it's easy and you want money. Start looking at people with the goal of helping them by fixing their problems, when you do this, money will follow at some point. Trust the process.
Hope this helps some people out there.
If you solve problems and create value, you will have a high chance of success.
It amazes me how many people think they get this, but they really don’t.
For the past few years, I thought I understood this simple concept. Only recently have I figured out what it really means.
I started a company at 19 and tricked myself into thinking it was about providing value or that it did provide value. It was just about money and helping myself.
I had some success with it, only because I excelled at marketing and selling. That's the only thing that kept it going. I completely ignored the market and never honestly asked myself if they really needed what I started. I didn't solve any real problem and my product was no different than all the other people doing the same thing I was doing.
At this point in time. Money (or any personal gain) no longer has any bearing on whether or not I pursue something. I just identify a problem that would provide value to people when solved, and pursue that.
Money will naturally flow to you when you create value, so there's no point in thinking about money or chasing it.
Chasing money only scares it away. It makes you start exploiting people, taking shortcuts, chasing events (and ignoring process)
Solving real problems attracts money to you, but chasing money destroys value and scares money away.
Expecting to get huge value (money) in exchange for providing little to no value makes no sense and doesn't work. You can’t give someone a dollar and get 50 dollars back. You can trick people into giving you $50, but you won’t create a real fastlane business and you’ll just spin yourself in circles.
Here is an example of what I mean.
There are a lot of “entrepreneurs” out there who started selling web design and lead generation services.
The vast majority of these people are only focused on marketing and selling their services to someone so they can lock them in a big contract.
Most of them are unable to get the results that they are advertising. Chasing money is why they fail and it's why the people who start these companies are scammed into it by gurus selling them on how easy it is to start these (those gurus are also chasing money and exploiting these people)
Coaching, blogging, certain types of real estate investing, website creation, landscaping, moving companies, drop shipping ect. These are all examples of people chasing money and convenience (a large part of them, not all)
Ironically, as I type this I just received an ad from a drop shipping guru offering to show me how to create my million dollar drop shipping company.
I’m the market. I don’t need another landscaping company, that problem has been solved by the hundreds of other landscaping companies around me. I don’t need another blog repeating the same thing every other blog is. I don’t need a dropshipper selling the same easy things that the other hundred drop shippers are selling. I don’t need another moving company, there are a ton of them in my city already.
Before anyone gives me hate for that, I’m not saying people can’t be successful in these areas. Many people are, the vast majority however are not. It usually would come down to exceptional marketing and sales ability or doing something different/value skewing (like a dropshipper selling something really obscure, difficult and boring)
The thing is, there isn't really anything you can do to significantly value skew a landscaping business for example. Its a commodity business. Many people want to mow my lawn, and the end result (lawn mowed) is the same in just about every case. What values do you plan to skew there? Yeah you can be more professional, better dressed, better priced ect. Firstly, this is the same exact thing every other landscaping business owner is thinking. Secondly, none of those things have anything to do with the actual product (my mowed lawn) and they have everything to do with marketing and sales. Most landscaping companies can do a good job mowing my lawn, what value do you plan to skew that somehow makes your great mowing any better than another companies great mowing?
The foundation of the landscaping business is missing, the need. Landscaping comes down to grinding out the marketing/advertising game to overcome the fact that I don't really need a new landscaping company to begin with.
But yes, people can grind it out for years to scale this type of stuff. But I think starting stuff like this (with the goal of being fastlane) is the equivalent to you shooting yourself in the foot. You can spend years grinding out the marketing/advertising game to get some decent margins with landscaping. Or you can spend years solving a real problem that creates real value and then have good marketing and it will have far higher chances of turning fast lane because it has all the pieces and not just good marketing. The goal is a productocracy.
IMO, to be an entrepreneur, you need to completely shift your mind to value producing. It’s not about you, it's about the market. Let this mindset flood into all areas of your life, not just business. Learn to genuinely want to help people.
Learn to ignore thinking about personal gain or what's in it for you. Start thinking about how you can help other people and you’ll start noticing problems to solve.
The other day, I was about to go ask the owner of my company (multimillionaire entrepreneur) if I could move into a sales position because it's something I thought I would be good at and enjoy. Plus I wanted more sales and marketing experience.
But that's all about me. Why does he care about that? 99% of the people that talk to him are asking him for things. Everyone wants things, no one wants to give anything.
I decided not to ask him for a sales position and instead decided to take to him a list of problems I found within the company and how they might be solved. I didn't ask for anything and wasn't seeking anything. It was purely to provide value to him and he noticed that. If he implemented the solutions and saved thousands of dollars, and I received nothing, I would be happy because I created value and it means I'm on the right track. If I keep looking for solutions that provide value to him, the odds of him returning value to me at some point go up. If I just constantly went to him asking for things then the odds of me getting any value go down because I provided no value and I am no different than the 99% of other people asking for things.
When you create an easy business that solves nothing, you aren't doing it because you want to help people and create value. You’re doing it because it's easy and you want money. Start looking at people with the goal of helping them by fixing their problems, when you do this, money will follow at some point. Trust the process.
Hope this helps some people out there.
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