mikecarlooch
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For my case in this thread, I'd like to bring more awareness to the topic of domain expertise, and maybe have some of the heavy hitters on this forum give their take on the subject.
As a young aspiring entrepreneur, I feel this needs to be talked about more and made more clear.
I think that, since this isn't talked about much, it's the reason why there are millions of so-called "marketing agencies" and things of that nature on the internet.
And for those of us who read TMF , I'm of the belief that E(entry) in CENTS is one of the most overlooked commandments, and I think this is for the simple reason that anyone who first gets into entrepreneurship has 0 domain expertise.
What I'd like to bring attention to and ask about for those that have already made it, is the following:
There's so much emphasis on.. taking action.. getting a customer.. That.. it seems to lead everyone interested in entrepreneurship with little to no skill or specific knowledge into businesses with a supremely low entry barrier.
My question here is - how can you possibly, obey the commandment of entry without being DEEP in an industry, without having specific knowledge or domain expertise?
There is just no way that someone who "just starts a business" without domain expertise can solve some of the world's most important problems in technology for example..
It seems like to do anything at that scale, you need to be very highly educated and highly experienced in that particular sector of business, how on earth do you have a chance at competing with the guy who put themselves through the domain education phase maybe through study or through working a job in the industry if you have never done anything remotely similar?
Is an investor really going to put money behind an entrepreneur who has 0 experience or reason why they in particular should solve the problem they're trying to solve?
And yes I get it, I completely understand YOU as the entrepreneur shouldn't know everything and delegation is the game.. But how can you communicate with people you need to communicate with.. and solve the problem you're trying to solve.. If you don't know even the basics of what you need / are creating?
Isn't there a truthful statement to be made about getting a "specialized education" (I remember @Antifragile using this term in a his thread on scaling up) and becoming obsessed with the problem or industry you want to solve?
If you don't know what the customer you're solving the problem for goes through like the back of your hand, how can you possibly serve them?
I don't know.. It just feels like the advice "just get a customer" is useless without having any domain expertise.
I've taken the advice "just get a customer" lots of times when I was running "marketing agencies" that were really just a bunch of shit thrown on the wall after reading $100M offers to create "the most valuable offer possible"... More like the most bullsh*t possible.. lol.. Didn't really have a business, I just had some trust through mutual friends and got paid thousands of dollars for perceived value I thought I could deliver on at the time but really, it was just a case of lack of education.
I would love to hear some opinions on this..
RANT OVER!
As a young aspiring entrepreneur, I feel this needs to be talked about more and made more clear.
I think that, since this isn't talked about much, it's the reason why there are millions of so-called "marketing agencies" and things of that nature on the internet.
And for those of us who read TMF , I'm of the belief that E(entry) in CENTS is one of the most overlooked commandments, and I think this is for the simple reason that anyone who first gets into entrepreneurship has 0 domain expertise.
What I'd like to bring attention to and ask about for those that have already made it, is the following:
There's so much emphasis on.. taking action.. getting a customer.. That.. it seems to lead everyone interested in entrepreneurship with little to no skill or specific knowledge into businesses with a supremely low entry barrier.
My question here is - how can you possibly, obey the commandment of entry without being DEEP in an industry, without having specific knowledge or domain expertise?
There is just no way that someone who "just starts a business" without domain expertise can solve some of the world's most important problems in technology for example..
It seems like to do anything at that scale, you need to be very highly educated and highly experienced in that particular sector of business, how on earth do you have a chance at competing with the guy who put themselves through the domain education phase maybe through study or through working a job in the industry if you have never done anything remotely similar?
Is an investor really going to put money behind an entrepreneur who has 0 experience or reason why they in particular should solve the problem they're trying to solve?
And yes I get it, I completely understand YOU as the entrepreneur shouldn't know everything and delegation is the game.. But how can you communicate with people you need to communicate with.. and solve the problem you're trying to solve.. If you don't know even the basics of what you need / are creating?
Isn't there a truthful statement to be made about getting a "specialized education" (I remember @Antifragile using this term in a his thread on scaling up) and becoming obsessed with the problem or industry you want to solve?
If you don't know what the customer you're solving the problem for goes through like the back of your hand, how can you possibly serve them?
I don't know.. It just feels like the advice "just get a customer" is useless without having any domain expertise.
I've taken the advice "just get a customer" lots of times when I was running "marketing agencies" that were really just a bunch of shit thrown on the wall after reading $100M offers to create "the most valuable offer possible"... More like the most bullsh*t possible.. lol.. Didn't really have a business, I just had some trust through mutual friends and got paid thousands of dollars for perceived value I thought I could deliver on at the time but really, it was just a case of lack of education.
I would love to hear some opinions on this..
RANT OVER!
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