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I have more difficulty coming up with idea's than I executing them

Idea threads

PrimeLF

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This is my first real post here at TFF, so I guess I should start by giving some basic information about myself and my current situation.

I'm a 17-year-old high school student in America. My family is financially stable, completely supported by my dad's personal business as an electrician, but his work has significant peaks and dips on small news events - more than other markets do.

During the economic issues in ~2009, he was pretty much out of work for a year. During this time he sold his "dream house" and we moved into the basement of some new friends. And although we're financially stable now, during this period, I realized I never want to be in a situation like that again, and that I wish to do more than support myself, I want to live a luxurious life and be in the top 1%.

I've read and plan to reread The Millionaire Fastlane as well as take notes on the most important parts so I can have quick access to the areas of the book I found to be the most beneficial and important. But all of this will do nothing for me as I have difficulty with the portion of going Fastlane that most people find to be the easiest - ideas. I know that although many individuals come up with a lot of idea's many of them aren't Fastlane. But I have difficulty coming up with ANY ideas.

I'm not sure if I haven't practiced enough, or I'm doing it wrong, or if it's just not as easy as it appears to be; but I have a fear that due to this one obstacle, it's going to inhibit my road to wealth.

I was curious if anyone could share advice on how to possibly come up with ideas, and even better if it helps with good ideas. I try to listen to others complaints and form solutions to those, but it rarely helps, I also have a notebook in which every week I brainstorm ideas for a particular category, but I end up getting stuck and sometimes get nothing written down.

Thanks in advance to anyone who comments - and big thanks to MJ and all the other significant contributors to the forum. You've all helped me out immensely with the amount of material you provide for me and others to expand our knowledge.
 
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PrimeLF

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Don't look for ideas. Look for problems to solve.
and that's what I have trouble with. Maybe it's because I'm in a more closed environment considering I'm not around adults as much as if I were working, so I don't hear about more serious problems other than "I hate math" and similar complaints. I do look online for issues but generally I feel as if I rarely find anything that I can come up with a solution for.
 

Fenix

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Read this book, mate, to find ideas Faster & Better

Better-and-Faster-Innovation-Book-600.jpg


By the founder of Trend Hunter

This caucasian fellow down below:

6kuxKSCyLvHw1SEe7qKqlBvz5klIilSCo_BbUw871IpHRKWU_XLDMSsHKoCY0tMbZu1g-5cMKH03OKPHzJmgarIz1tH7FXdFvvnTtfPjEUShPt9rEhUR3KDzQMyMtDdX59J_Hw=s0-d-e1-ft


I am not affiliated in ANY way to this fellow, so I'm not suggesting his book to you for commercial purposes.

I'm doing it for this 1 reason:
Jay Abraham made me discover the "Intellectual Redbull can". Do you know who Jay is?
1f914


He's the "9 Billion Dollar Man", a legend in the marketing arena

& in his email, he claimed that Jeremy Gutsche's keynote, with over FIVE Million visualizations, is a must watch.

Look at it, so you don't risk to waste your time learning from a book that you may not need.

Moreover, if you watched it at 2x speed, it'd last just less than 17 minutes.
Hope you find it useful, Prime LF
1f642

Have a fantastic Fastlane day
270c
 
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AndrewNC

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This is my first real post here at TFF, so I guess I should start by giving some basic information about myself and my current situation.

I'm a 17-year-old high school student in America. My family is financially stable, completely supported by my dad's personal business as an electrician, but his work has significant peaks and dips on small news events - more than other markets do.

During the economic issues in ~2009, he was pretty much out of work for a year. During this time he sold his "dream house" and we moved into the basement of some new friends. And although we're financially stable now, during this period, I realized I never want to be in a situation like that again, and that I wish to do more than support myself, I want to live a luxurious life and be in the top 1%.

I've read and plan to reread The Millionaire Fastlane as well as take notes on the most important parts so I can have quick access to the areas of the book I found to be the most beneficial and important. But all of this will do nothing for me as I have difficulty with the portion of going Fastlane that most people find to be the easiest - ideas. I know that although many individuals come up with a lot of idea's many of them aren't Fastlane. But I have difficulty coming up with ANY ideas.

I'm not sure if I haven't practiced enough, or I'm doing it wrong, or if it's just not as easy as it appears to be; but I have a fear that due to this one obstacle, it's going to inhibit my road to wealth.

I was curious if anyone could share advice on how to possibly come up with ideas, and even better if it helps with good ideas. I try to listen to others complaints and form solutions to those, but it rarely helps, I also have a notebook in which every week I brainstorm ideas for a particular category, but I end up getting stuck and sometimes get nothing written down.

Thanks in advance to anyone who comments - and big thanks to MJ and all the other significant contributors to the forum. You've all helped me out immensely with the amount of material you provide for me and others to expand our knowledge.

Step 1 - Choose a market to serve:

police officers
parents
business owners
dog owners
people who go to the gym
etc.


Step 2 - surround yourself with that market.

Make real life connections with them, and make friends.

Step 3 - you will find your problem

Step 4 - think of a solution
 

PrimeLF

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Step 1 - Choose a market to serve:

police officers
parents
business owners
dog owners
people who go to the gym
etc.


Step 2 - surround yourself with that market.

Make real life connections with them, and make friends.

Step 3 - you will find your problem

Step 4 - think of a solution
I never thought of doing something like this, and I think it'd help a lot. Thanks!
 
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regilmour

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Start a residential cleaning business and outsource the work...or hire employees and do it...

You are never going to get anywhere if you are asking people for ideas. There are tons on this forum. Just pick one and start.

You might..you probably will F*ck up the first time you start your business or it may not go the way you planned, but you learn, make the necessary adjustments, and start again.

Just start it. And when it doesn't go right, its not the end of the world. Figure out what went wrong and try again.
 

AndrewNC

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I never thought of doing something like this, and I think it'd help a lot. Thanks!
It helped me to narrow down my focus. An old sales saying goes. If you try to sell to everybody, you'll wind up selling to nobody
 

Thiago Machado

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and that's what I have trouble with. Maybe it's because I'm in a more closed environment considering I'm not around adults as much as if I were working, so I don't hear about more serious problems other than "I hate math" and similar complaints. I do look online for issues but generally I feel as if I rarely find anything that I can come up with a solution for.

Don't overthink it.

What do your parents (or friends parents) hate?

- Walking the dog?
- Cleaning the house?
- Mowing the lawn?
- Cleaning the carpet?
- Running errands?

Solve that problem.

Here's some ideas:
- Flipping things on craigslist
- House Cleaning
- Lawn Mowing
- Window Cleaning

Pick 1 and follow through.

P.S. - Flipping things on Craigslist can be quite lucrative at your age.
You don't need much to start. You can start today. And there are people on the forum who have had success with this.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv_8StGEegc
 
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Last edited:

PrimeLF

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Don't overthink it.

What do your parents (or friends parents) hate?

- Walking the dog?
- Cleaning the house?
- Mowing the lawn?
- Cleaning the carpet?
- Running errands?

Solve that problem.

Here's some ideas:
- Flipping things on craigslist
- House Cleaning
- Lawn Mowing
- Window Cleaning

Pick 1 and follow through.

P.S. - Flipping things on Craigslist can be quite lucrative at your age.
You don't need much to start. You can start today. And there are people on the forum who have had success with this.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv_8StGEegc
For the examples like mowing the lawn and cleaning, what do you mean by solve them? Obviously, I can do it in some ways, and I know that, but do you mean simply do it for them/start up a business or create something? I can't imagine something to make washing clothes much easier than a washing machine, although I'm sure something exists.

I feel like service markets like these aren't as good as they once were because I feel as if they aren't as scalable. To provide excellent customer service its best to know all of your employee's and that they're all reliable and hard workers as well as having startup funds or some reason for a customer to choose you over "MaidPro."

I would like to point out that this is my personal view with NO EXPERIENCE. I know as time went by I would learn more, but would it be better to focus that energy and time towards something else?
 

Thiago Machado

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For the examples like mowing the lawn and cleaning, what do you mean by solve them?

I feel like service markets like these aren't as good as they once were because I feel as if they aren't as scalable. To provide excellent customer service its best to know all of your employee's and that they're all reliable and hard workers as well as having startup funds or some reason for a customer to choose you over "MaidPro."

I would like to point out that this is my personal view with NO EXPERIENCE. I know as time went by I would learn more, but would it be better to focus that energy and time towards something else?

People don't like to mow their lawns. If you mow their lawns for them, you are solving a problem (the dread of mowing a lawn, wasting time, etc.)

If your customer makes $50 an hour, it's better for him to pay you $20 an hour to mow his lawn so he can:

  • Buy more time to focus on making those $50 an hour
  • To use that time to grow his business
  • To use that time to spend with family
  • To use that time to get more hours of sleep
  • Etc.
You're not selling lawn mowing services.

You're selling time and piece of mind.

Not scalable? There are landscaping companies making millions of dollars per year.

You haven't even made your first dollar yet. Focus on that. Then focus on scaling.

Your putting the cart in front of the horse. In your situation, the goal isn't to make a thriving, millions of dollars in revenue, scalable business. You need to learn the basics first. These include:
  • Fulfilling needs
  • Marketing
  • Selling
  • Recruiting
  • Management
  • Etc

Read the book again. You clearly didn't understood the lessons (solving problems.)

A second round of reading will help you internalize the concepts.

Good luck.
 
Last edited:

PrimeLF

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People don't like to mow their lawns. If you mow their lawn, you are solving a problem (the dread of mowing a lawn, wasting time, etc.)
If your customer makes $50 an hour, it's better for him to pay you $20 an hour to mow his lawn.

Not scalable? There are landscaping companies making millions of dollars per year.

You haven't even made your first dollar yet. Focus on that. Then focus on scaling.

Read the book again. I don't think you understood the lessons (solving problems.)

Good luck.
Yeah, my bad I understand that they're extremely scalable; I have my concern with competing with these already big companies. I know that the book says to find your competition's weakness, but is it worth the difficulty when the competition already makes millions and is doing a lot of stuff right?

I am most likely over thinking this, and even as I type this, I realize that I'm going against many things the book says about competition and similar areas. I just have trouble understanding how I could compare to such established companies.

Edit: After seeing your edit, I now understand better. My only real concern is employment. Assuming I work too, how would I hire others to provide work? I'm at school for 8 hours a day on the weekdays and often have homework after. Many people want this stuff taken care of at an earlier time of day and I'm unsure of how to outsource this kind of thing and get trustworthy employees that don't steal and are ontime.
 
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Thiago Machado

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Yeah, my bad I understand that they're extremely scalable; I have my concern with competing with these already big companies. I know that the book says to find your competition's weakness, but is it worth the difficulty when the competition already makes millions and is doing a lot of stuff right?

I am most likely over thinking this, and even as I type this, I realize that I'm going against many things the book says about competition and similar areas. I just have trouble understanding how I could compare to such established companies.

dont-think-too-much-you-will-create-a-problem-that-wasnt-even-there-quote-1.jpg
 

Thiago Machado

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Yeah, my bad I understand that they're extremely scalable; I have my concern with competing with these already big companies. I know that the book says to find your competition's weakness, but is it worth the difficulty when the competition already makes millions and is doing a lot of stuff right?

That's like saying:

"I won't start a burger joint because Mcdonald's is humongous!"

"I won't write copy because there's advertising agencies on Madison Avenue that are worth Billions! Not only that, but there are guys like Dan Kennedy and Frank kern! OMG there are lots of copywriters on the forum too!!! How can I possibly compete with everyone?!"

If you think like that, you'll never do anything. There are always going to be people who are better than you, that have more money than you, etc.

You are operating from a scarcity and fixed mindset.
Figure out how to place yourself into an abundance and growth-driven mindset.

You also talked about how you have a job and do homework and bla bla bla. Everybody is busy. You're not the only one. Some guy's on this forum have had it much worse than homework and a part-time job.

To be straight-forward, you're making excuses. (Sorry.)
As soon as we give you a solution, you find another problem.

If you watched the video I posted, the guy only spent like 10 hours a week flipping shit.

You can make excuses or you can choose to take action.

You have been given the following:

ME:
1. Find a problem
2. Offer Solution
3. Repeat


@AndrewNC

Step 1 - Choose a market to serve:

Step 2 - surround yourself with that market.

Make real life connections with them, and make friends.

Step 3 - you will find your problem

Step 4 - think of a solution

The choice is yours.
 
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PrimeLF

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That's like saying:
You also talked about how you have a job and do homework and bla bla bla. Everybody is busy. You're not the only one. Some guy's on this forum have had it much worse than homework and a part-time job.

To be straight-forward, you're making excuses. (Sorry.)
As soon as we give you a solution, you find another problem.
I don't mean that I can't do anything while I'm busy! I just mean that when specifically talking about a cleaning/lawn care service; it's very unlikely for me to work personally because I don't get home until after 5 and at that time people are at their house (meaning they don't want the cleaning service to come at that time).

What I mean to ask is how is it possible to go through with a business of this type? Where does one go to hire employees?
I know that it sounds like I'm trying to make it easy, but I know that it's nearly impossible to have an easy road to wealth. I'm just trying to gather whatever information I can that you are able to provide to know what I need to do research for. I'm not just trying to have you spoon feed my all the details if that's what it seems like! :)
 
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Thiago Machado

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it's very unlikely for me to work personally because I don't get home until after 5 and at that time people are at their house (meaning they don't want the cleaning service to come at that time).

1. Commercial Cleaning.
2. Figure something else out.


Where does one go to hire employees?

Google it.

P.S. - Stop talking about employees. Go make your first dollar.

Sorry, but you make it sound like we are wasting our time by continuing the conversation like this.
We have given you the "ideas" you asked for.
Now pick one, execute, and report back.


 
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SteveO

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During the economic issues in ~2009, he was pretty much out of work for a year. During this time he sold his "dream house" and we moved into the basement of some new friends. And although we're financially stable now, during this period, I realized I never want to be in a situation like that again, and that I wish to do more than support myself, I want to live a luxurious life and be in the top 1%.
There are plenty of 1%'ers that have lost homes and businesses. Stability is a state of mind....
 

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