Thread: The most important things you have learned

Hi richkid,

"things" as in concepts, its meant to be really general. It's kinda like the saying "here's the thing". It's an idea or concept.

1) Motivation creates opportunities.

The best opportunities that have come up in my life are always unexpected. But those opportunities presented themselves unexpectedly and at the right time.

Usually, when these amazing opportunites had presented themselves, I have just had an inner conversation with myself saying “this would never work because…” “I lack the funds, connections, experience…” “This will never happen because ….”
But I had picked myself up from my miserable state that morning and got up and went out to seize the day anyway.


2) Thinking too much on how it’s impossible will prevent you from accomplishing your goals.

If you are like me, who tends to over-analyze things all the time and see all the ways how the idea will fail or how impossible it is, then you will build these mental barriers that make it harder to accomplish your goals. If you put up enough of these mental barriers, it will immobilize you and make it impossible to pursue your goals and execute your vision.

example: It costs $150k to build the business according to your business plan. There is no way around it. You have no money. It is impossible.
YOU ARE WRONG, go out there and start building that sucker the best way you can, pick up a partner or bootstrap, max out your credit cards, borrow money from family, sell all your stock, etc, etc, etc..

I can testify to this, as every time I had to build one of my stores, I just moved forward as if I already had everything in place and connected all the dots later. I have even signed a 5 year retail lease (for close to $100k/yr) with $0 funding to build out and thought to myself, “well you better find an investor to finance this build, and quick, lol”.
REMEMBER: If you think you CAN’T do it, you know what, you are probably wrong.


3) You may keep going for a VERY long time without seeing any rewards & it’s NOT EASY.

Just based on my experience: I started in 2008 and I can tell you that even till now, it’s a constant struggle every single day, there are worries and some days you will get news that will give you every reason to question yourself “Why the hell am I still doing this?” and on some days the news or information that you get will even give you all the reasons to quit.

But you have to fight hard and reach within yourself to find the reason why you should keep going. It’s a constant struggle and a TON of hard work, it’s not easy being an entrepreneur and the ups and downs of the tides of business can drown you if slip and fail to pick yourself up even once.. Keep getting up when things like this knock you down.


4) In the beginning, $1,000,000 worth of effort equals to $10 worth of profit.

This will discourage a lot of people and is the reason why a lot of people give up before hitting success. In the beginning it’s very hard when you’re busting out 80hr weeks making zero to very little money while you see your friends with their careers making very good salaries working a 9-5.

The important thing is to have clear vision of where you are going and not worry about the money at first. You will never know how close you are to getting there. You might be inches away “3 feet from gold” if you give up.
See, In the end, once you build this thing, it turns around. $10 worth of effort becomes $1,000,000 worth of profit (or so I’ve heard but I will keep digging until I get there).


5) You will fail….. A LOT.

You might not go out of business, but you will have a lot of mini and major failures along the way. These are learning experiences and you must learn from these mistakes. Your first venture might even completely fail, but think of these as “missed shots”, like a beginner in basketball, the percentage of sinking in your shots will go up over time as long as you stick with it and learn why. Just keep doing, stop thinking, keep working on your craft and your “shooting” ability will improve over time.

Remember that failing is the necessary road to success that most people don’t see. Don’t wish for failure, but always learn from it WHEN it happens.



There are a couple more, but I don't want to write a novel here, lol.

This is a Fantastic post. I have worked with a lot of successful entrepreneurs and it looks like you have a decent chance based on some of your insights.

It's the little details, tiny workings and unique insights that successful entrepreneurs focus on. This is the trait that comes up time after time after time.

But if you are immature and critical....not so much.

Startups are basically ideas in search of a business model. Founders must be willing to revise constantly as customers begin to define what they expect and want from a business built on a new idea. Not to say you should compromise the original idea, just revise as information is gathered. Failure is nearly assured if the founders develop the entire project in their office without interacting with customers along the way. First develop a low cost minimum viable product, put it in customer's hands, and listen to them. They will tell you what they want. The key is to get out of the office.

Entrepreneurs who allow themselves to be the market's bitch, get rich.
(Give the market what IT needs/wants, listen, adjust to demand/road noise.)

Entrepreneurs who make the market their bitch, stay poor.
Give the market what YOU need/want (I wanna be rich! Do what you love! Follow your passion! [enter any other selfish 'feel good' mantra here])

Excellent post.

Originally Posted by MJDeMarco

Entrepreneurs who allow themselves to be the market's bitch, get rich.
(Give the market what IT needs/wants, listen, adjust to demand/road noise.)

Entrepreneurs who make the market their bitch, stay poor.
Give the market what YOU need/want (I wanna be rich! Do what you love! Follow your passion! [enter any other selfish 'feel good' mantra here])

I love that.

This is the essence of Entrepreneurship.

In the end the market designs the product or service NOT you. It's kinda like the GPS navigation in your car during your Fastlane journey. It tells you to turn left, turn right, make a U-turn, go straight, keep driving etc. And if you blow it off and give it the middle finger, chances are you will end up at the wrong destination, or crashed in a ditch bankrupt with no gasoline. It's up to the Entrepreneur to find the solution and "fine tune it" to the markets preferences primarily through two of the five senses: by Seeing and Listening to the market.

If you started a business with a selfish premise. You just embarked on a road trip on a dirt road with NO road signs and GPS navigation.

There is a wealth of locked doors out in the market place waiting to be opened. It's up to the Locksmith Entrepreneur to create(fastlane process) the key(product or service) so it can fit the locked door knob(market need). The HARDER the door is to open the more treasure is stored behind it(commandment of entry), think of how hard it will be to break into a bank vault door filled with millions compared to a locked bathroom door where you will just find a few pennies and dimes behind the toilet. This is kinda how barriers to entry works or the commandment of entry.

Are you gonna waste your time opening bathroom doors or are you gonna pull out that damn stethoscope(listen to the market!), hit the books, do intense research, read dusty books at the library that haven't been opened in years and work 100 hour weeks by going for the vault at the central bank?

Lets say you knew nothing about being a locksmith and someone brought you to a bank vault safe and said "try to break into that", your first reaction would be "oh shit!". Think about everything you will have to learn to get in there. You will have to learn lock mechanisms, electronic security, how to hack etc. It can be done, but its gonna require you to learn a new skill set step by step, and by the time you know it, you will open the door.

If you try to put together a random key by "doing what you love" or "hey lets see if we can make some money" or "do what you know", the door will remain shut and the market will simply ignore you. And as always the world keeps spinning and the clock on the wall keeps ticking, and not a fuck will be given that day.

This whole identifying market needs and executing them while tuning it to the market's preferences is very fascinating to me.
I wish somebody very experienced in the area could write a book, because I do not know of one that exist(if you do please share).

Originally Posted by socaldude

Here are a few of the most important things I have ever learned:

1. Everything is an argument!
Whether its Jim Cramer telling you to invest in a stock or a so called expert telling you its not gonna work or an author telling you the job market and the stock market and mindless frugality is gonna make you rich. No matter how much credibility some one has(yes you consider their argument) but you always have to make up your own mind in the end!

2. Material things do not matter as much as my FREEDOM. Which is #1!
Who is richer the guy with the lambo and the mansion but has a 12 hour a day job he hates and an endless supply of bills or the guy with no material items at all but never has to work another day in his life and has a full 16 hour day? Avoid debt and save your money while pursuing the Fastlane especially if you are young. If you have to finance a material item then you cannot afford it!

3. Be happy now!
Way too many people are just sitting around saying "if i get a lambo ill be happy!" or "if i get a girlfriend ill be happy". I have learned that if you are not happy now then you are pretty much never gonna be happy. Once you are happy everything else will follow: Fastlane success, relationship success etc.

4. The purpose of entrepreneurship is to serve the market's needs!
Start having a passion for making money, helping your fellow man, or for entrepreneurship in general. NOT do what you love or know, which has to be one of the worst advice in history!



What are some of the most important things you have learned?

GREAT post!

I need to print out #3 and engrave it in my computer screen lol I am so all about delayed gratification. Good for somethings but not good ALL the time.

THANKS

Originally Posted by PatrickP

I am so all about delayed gratification

I like that. This is how I do it. I ask myself "They didn't have Ipads 60 years ago" and people were happy. Stuff like that should be the icing on the cake type of thing.

a.) The faster you launch, the faster you get real feedback (instead of talking to yourself what's good and not...), the faster you can fail = the faster you can start again = more missed shots should equal more practice, more practice equals improved skills which increases the % to succeed (or at least hit more shots)

b.) Does your startup solve a problem? Vitamin or pain killer?
Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing: Does your startup solve a problem? Vitamin or pain killer?

c.) Gordon Gekko: It's not about the money - It's about the game.

d.) If you do it purely for the money, entrepreneurship is NOT the best way. Even if it sounds cliche entrepreneurship is about truely believing to improve lifes or even change the world.