Stuck in a passionless wantrepreneur rut

[ThatOneGuy]

Part of me wants to write out entirely what happened and how I got here, and the other half wants me to just shut the f*** up and figure out how to deal with my own problems. I have been a wantrepreneur since around September 2014. Yes, I fully admit that for 8 months I have done NOTHING. Over the course of the 8 months I have had these 1 week or 5 day periods where I would get all hyped up about "finally starting" where I'd create a list of how I could get money online to eventually fund my startup and what I would do different this time around. When it actually came time to starting I would immediatly back out and use the excuse, "it's too hard" or "I am not passionate enough".

I am one of the few to admit that, when I starting I was motivated by money. I wanted to become an entrepreneur because I wanted to be different and I wanted to be rich. I was chasing money. I started the whole thing back up again a few days ago. But I started it in a very procrastinat-y mood. From this I have lost all motivation to do anything. I "want" to start, but its like I dont have the driving force to make it happen. I have considered multiple times to just "go" but I feel like I am not passionate enough to feel good about whatever business I am in. I have full confidence in my abilities. I have seen myself move mountains before, but that was when I was really motivated to "be better". Right now or any time can I see myself getting a job somewhere and being satisfied and/or happy with it. With that said, I don't see myself quitting anytime soon. I have delved to deep to go back, which is a good sign I think. I have been trying the last few days to figure out how I can fix this and get my head in the game. I have read TMF and all the other common entrepreneur books. I am not sure what I am asking from this forum or what the point of this thread is but I need help. I have questioned many times whether "wanting to be rich an powerful" is enough to drive myself to get capital and run an internet startup. I do have a "why" list but even that is not motivating me. Am I the only one having this issue? Can something like this be solved, or do I need to decide for myself?

Note: I am not 18 yet with a few years left of high school. I am INCREDIBLY grateful that I found entrepreneurship at quite an early age. I have not told my parents I want to become an entrepreneur yet.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Quit trying to win big, start by winning small. If that's buying something on Craigslist and polishing it up and reselling for $50 profit, than that's a win. Small wins build confidence.

You're young too, so I wouldn't be entirely too hard on yourself. Enjoy your youth.

 

[Vigilante]

Keep studying, keep learning, and keep living life. You have a lot of life in front of you before shit gets too serious. Relax.

 

[ThatOneGuy]

I had a feeling before that I was/am trying to do too much too fast. I think that's something I admire about myself though. I tend to set extremely high standards for myself, yet currently I fail to meet them.

I will make sure to make adjustments while enjoying life!

 

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[randomnumber314]

I agree with Vig, relax and learn to smell the roses. Constantly chasing the idea of entrepreneurship puts people in a weird mindset of isolation (even in social settings) where some people focus on idea extraction or how they can profit, which removes the concept of adding value.

So shut it down for a month, learn to live. After that, when you have an idea where you "wonder if people would pay for xxx?" Evaluate and verify the idea until you have a definitive answer. Do not give up until you know 100% it is a winner, or loser.

 

[RogueInnovation]

Been there, it takes time.
And then more time.

Just work on your foundations.
Financial integrity - controlled spending, budgets, trying to earn more each month, or get a better job with better time to pay ratios
Networking skills - get people on board with you via humility and not taking their money in a weird way
Soft sell skills - Talk about the products you are looking to sell, or maybe sell, and investigate what people would truly like
Emotional temperence - Give, rather than take

I go down and look for the most emotionally distressed homeless people, and I give them money exactly when I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH.
I buy em some bananas, give them a few bucks and take a short few moments to look them in the eye, and give them a nod.

Because, it steels my inner will, to give when I fear it.
It tempers my will, empowers my empathy, and every day it doesn't f#ck me over I don't shame anyone who has "less" than me.


There are small skills you can improve daily too, like going to the shops and being curious about where they came from, how they came together, why exactly they are placed where they are.
Look at a coke can and notice the engineering, the lip, the aluminium, the quality of the pull key, the exact size, shape, volume, contents.

Start to view and appraise and SEE that world, the stories behind how things came to be, the mistakes made along the way. I'm sure at one point cans of coke were actual tins, cylinders, of a round figure like 500ml or something, with a paper label.

Machines required those rounded bottoms, and you get sprayed on labels now, and it reduced to 375ml for a certain reason (I won't tell you, you can go discover).

Those changes were DISCOVERED just like you are discovering it, and by trial and error. Some delivery guy was like, hey look, these crack open, or a customer always left a bit in the can that went flat by the next time he went for a drink.

Each cost, each feature, all manicured through a process of SEARCHING that you must now learn too!


You need to sit and listen to markets, until you FEEEEEEL their beating heart, and you know it like your own hand AND with x-ray vision.

You are a kid in a candy store, there is so much to touch, to just look at and be curious about.

Thats the nice part.


There is a horrible part to biz though, your fear, your shame, the terrible monkey on your back.
But don't think of that for a few years, develop a healthy curiousity for it all

 

[RazorCut]

You are thinking way too big:

I would get all hyped up about "finally starting" where I'd create a list of how I could get money online to eventually fund my startup and what I would do different this time around.

Forget your 'BIG idea' startup. You are trying to be a tree when you are just an acorn.

Think of a low cost/low risk business you think you can turn into something profitable.

I have full confidence in my abilities. I have seen myself move mountains before, but that was when I was really motivated to "be better".

Well that shows you don't lack confidence just motivation. Just pick a sector, either on or offline, and do the research. Set a start date and just to it. Business is just a process whether big or small but if you don't put one foot in front of the other you will remain in the same spot for good. You are not on an escalator. There is no free ride.

If you are having problems with procrastination you need to be spending your time studying motivation, productivity and habit building NOT entrepreneurship. Sort your problems out first then look at a business education.

As MJ says do some easy flipping on Craigslist (there are some great threads on the forum here)

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/search/1408263/?q=craigslist&o=date&c[title_only]=1

Once you start putting one foot in front of the other you will find it starts to build momentum all by itself so get off your arse and do something. Life is too short to stand still.

 

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[ZCP]

Get a couple of jobs. Especially in sales and service. It will be all the motivation you need.......

 

[happybhoy]

Buy fix and sell stuff online and locally. I used to buy broken phones off eBay, fix them and sell them on Gumtree (UK equivalent of craigslist) to local people.
When you buy a phone for £30, fix it with a hairdryer and sell it for £130 it sure motivates.
Also when you have a venture to work on ideas seem far easier to come by. You have to be in business to get good at business.

 

[TedM]

Note: I am not 18 yet with a few years left of high school.

First, take a chill pill. There is no rush.
Second, take a small pad of paper and a pencil and keep it with you at all times. write down any stupid idea you think of that fits the only important criteria:
it will make peoples lives easier or better

Could be taking the sharp edge off of skateboards, could be a new flavor of bubble gum, could be .... anything.
write down 3 to five things a day. for two months.

Then, pick the 5 very easiest things to do. not the one that will "make the most money". the very very easiest/

come back here with the list. you can ping me with it privately if you want.

 

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[Growth & Learn]

If motivation and work ethic is an issue make the stakes higher for yourself. If you're making 60k per year from your day job your pain/fear threshold towards action might not have been triggered successfully yet.


When I graduated college I moved to my first city with $600. I hit that pavement and started making things happen immediately. There was no safety net. Succeed or homeless.

Scary as hell, risky as heck…but holy moly did my work ethic and focus go to the next level.


People are mostly motivated by pain and pleasure. Use that to your advantage in motivating yourself.

Those concepts are self triggered within myself constantly. Can you do the same?

 

[James Ryan]

I understand you. It's frustrating to have the ideas and concepts in mind but not the nessesary resources to bring them to life. My advice is that you have to start somewhere if you want to get, well, somewhere! Before I started my graphic design business and hired people I was doing graphic design freelancing, working by myself, in my room for ridiculously low prices for excessively annoying clients but it was a start. It was not not a glamorous start, I was far from my dream state but at least I was on the path.

Starting the path is the hardest thing you will do. It's like finding a road on the map (before Google Maps), spotting that tiny line on that huge piece of paper containing what looks like millions of roads and then actually going there is hard but once you're on the path you can follow it easily. Staying on the path without giving up is another story but you won't see history filled with people that gave up, you will see history full of people that did something.

Final thought: take your self seriously. You're a big deal. You're the biggest deal in your life, unless you decide not to be. If you decide to be you will force yourself to live up to your own standards. Strive to be that ideal, perfect-haired hero on top of a 10 billion valued venture and you will trigger yourself into doing something about that. Dreaming big is great, acting big is even better.

That's it for my inspirational post, take it or live it!

 

[NuclearPuma]

go to youtube... listen to some "Thank God It's Monday" videos by et the hiphop preacher.

Then go buy his book and read it, "The Secret to Success" if you haven't already.

Also, go read the book "Getting Things Done."

Make that your bible for a month, do exactly what it says... inboxes, context, everything. Try sticking to the GTD system for 3 months... If you do I bet you'll accomplish more in those 3 months than you did in the prior 12.

Focus on making $100 dollars for now, not 1 million. The $100 hour... spend 1 hour brainstorming how you can make $100. The shower, a long line, a boring lecture, all good times to be thinking about how you can make a quick $100. Just step out and attempt some of the things that come to.

Quick example of something I didn't capitalize on when I was a teen, but that will get you started in entrepreneurship. There was this tree removal company about 5 miles from my house and they would grind up trees there. Anyone could go there and take their wood chippings for FREE and use it as mulch, but I'm not sure many people knew this. My girlfriends Mom recognized the home owners associations in the areas had mulch requirements. She suggested we go load up my truck with this mulch we got for free and offer to lay it down on peoples yards around their hedges, etc for $50 to $100... It was GENIUS but I was LAZY and I didn't do it, but I could have made at least $1,000 in short order just hauling that free mulch to people's yards. Be on the look out for things like this.

Figure out how to make just $100. Every business starts small.

Look at UnderArmor. The CEO started UnderArmor selling shirts from his car! UnderArmor is huge now, but it started from 1 guy selling a couple of shirts from his car. All he had was a better undershirt, for keeping cool with his wicking fabric, combined with his initiative to sell them and build a business around them. He could have sat at home and though "Its too hard to sell these" or "These will never be as big as nike" and if he there would be no under armor. Instead he said "You know I'll just get out there and sell what I can" and Underarmor grew to be worth billions. You don't have to introduce some world changing idea or technology, you just need to add a little value. Do something slightly better or more convenient than what is currently being done and grow from there.

 

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[Brentnal]

WTF! This looks like i wrote this last year. Well i can help you out with this since i am sort of out of this situation right now.

Listen my friend.
You want all the nice things, the money and everthing that comes with it. And you thought that would motivate you to work hard right? Wrong it doesn't.
I have read books and looked for motivational videos i found some motivational things, but a few min after that feeling i was already beginning to procastinate. I looked for "do you really need motivation?" and "How to stop procastinating?" i have tryed and looked up so many things.
No result, nothing worked.
People said to me get a boring stupid job, got one and i hated it, still didn't have motivation to proppel me to the fastlane.
We are young we have much to learn, you are forcing yourself into this and i understand that. We have not yet really experienced the sidewalk/slowlane life, we have not been really stuck, so it is normal that we don't have alot of motivation, we have everything but freedom and money, so we're pretty comfortable.
But that does not mean for us to wait a few more years and wait for the motivation/passion to come through things that we experience in our lives.

You know what works when nothing else works?

HABITS AND DISCIPLINE

Discipline= forcing yourself to do things
Habits= things you do automaticly without making excuses
You create habits through discipline

Forget motivation, discipline is the key.

If may feel wrong to do everything through discipline but after sometime you will get used to it, and this is life really, accept that this is the reality. Because it is.
That is all you need man. Do something earn a bit of money with it learn, fail, repeat. You will get better and better and earn more. Doing one thing leads to another, suddenly you are an experienced salesman through that experience you learn alot of things like for example: Marketing, now you can do something with marketing earn money etc. Now after you did that for a few years you could be a millionare.

And another important thing that you shouldn't do is checking constantly how other people made their millions (that's what i did).
There are so many ways to make millions, and everybody is unique. We all grew up different. Just pay attention to yourself and don't be so hard on yourself. Don't try to do everything perfectly, you will get better overtime. And if something is boring or something sucks? Embrace it and don't hate it.

And life is not all about money, it is about: Friends, Family, Freedom, Health. Money is pretty important to but don't forget about the other things.
I know you can't remember all these things, you will learn this through life itself and analyzing what happens around you.
But what you need to remember is this: F*ck motivation, discipline is the key.

I hope i have helped you with this, i know this struggle.
If you have any questions feel free to p.m me

 

[Brentnal]

Constantly chasing the idea of entrepreneurship puts people in a weird mindset of isolation (even in social settings) where some people focus on idea extraction or how they can profit, which removes the concept of adding value.

This ^^^ i was acting all weird when i did this, i still remember it. My head went like this: take action, f*uck the sheep life etc. I couldn't even think clearly. I was brainwashing myself the fastlane

 

[NuclearPuma]

WTF! This looks like i wrote this last year. Well i can help you out with this since i am sort of out of this situation right now.

Listen my friend.
You want all the nice things, the money and everthing that comes with it. And you thought that would motivate you to work hard right? Wrong it doesn't.
I have read books and looked for motivational videos i found some motivational things, but a few min after that feeling i was already beginning to procastinate. I looked for "do you really need motivation?" and "How to stop procastinating?" i have tryed and looked up so many things.
No result, nothing worked.
People said to me get a boring stupid job, got one and i hated it, still didn't have motivation to proppel me to the fastlane.
We are young we have much to learn, you are forcing yourself into this and i understand that. We have not yet really experienced the sidewalk/slowlane life, we have not been really stuck, so it is normal that we don't have alot of motivation, we have everything but freedom and money, so we're pretty comfortable.
But that does not mean for us to wait a few more years and wait for the motivation/passion to come through things that we experience in our lives.

You know what works when nothing else works?

HABITS AND DISCIPLINE

Discipline= forcing yourself to do things
Habits= things you do automaticly without making excuses
You create habits through discipline

Forget motivation, discipline is the key.

If may feel wrong to do everything through discipline but after sometime you will get used to it, and this is life really, accept that this is the reality. Because it is.
That is all you need man. Do something earn a bit of money with it learn, fail, repeat. You will get better and better and earn more. Doing one thing leads to another, suddenly you are an experienced salesman through that experience you learn alot of things like for example: Marketing, now you can do something with marketing earn money etc. Now after you did that for a few years you could be a millionare.

And another important thing that you shouldn't do is checking constantly how other people made their millions (that's what i did).
There are so many ways to make millions, and everybody is unique. We all grew up different. Just pay attention to yourself and don't be so hard on yourself. Don't try to do everything perfectly, you will get better overtime. And if something is boring or something sucks? Embrace it and don't hate it.

And life is not all about money, it is about: Friends, Family, Freedom, Health. Money is pretty important to but don't forget about the other things.
I know you can't remember all these things, you will learn this through life itself and analyzing what happens around you.
But what you need to remember is this: F*ck motivation, discipline is the key.

I hope i have helped you with this, i know this struggle.
If you have any questions feel free to p.m me

Thanks.. Just logging back in here after gaining some more focus.

Since my last login my company laid of a few people, about 5% of the company. It really raised the sense of urgency in finding my Fastlane. Which I also call the Freedom Lane. It was a fear motivator.

Thank you for your wisdom.

 

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