Are you fooling yourself? I know I was.

[Krzysztof]

I'd like to share with you my experience of 9 months spent on the fastlane. Or perhaps it's better to say that I fooled myself I was on the fastlane... I'm writing this both as a wake up call, self-examination for myself, motivation to radically change what I am doing, as well as hopefully help some of you not make the same mistakes.

What made me write this post is self-examination that I started yesterday and a quote from Mind Your Business Facebook page posted two hours ago - "no matter where you are in life, you can start from today and build yourself a brighter tomorrow". Thanks for that @Vigilante, that's exactly what I needed today in order to stop fooling myself and get to work.

I quit my job 9 months ago. Everything was looking great at that time. As feeling of safety is important for me, I was waiting with the decision until I was sure everything is on the right track. However, something went wrong along the way and even though it looked like everything has already "clicked" before I quit my job, my business started falling apart.

At last it is time to deal with the demons of the past! So here are the results of my self-examination, don't make the same mistakes I made, learn from mine instead of trying them out for yourself:

• I was counting more on others and luck than on myself. When I quit my job, I had one big client A (my business is b2b) responsible for most of my income (rare but big deals), another big client B giving a feeling of stability (many small deals) and a few occasional ones. I tried to get more clients, but I didn't try hard enough. I kind of tried. It made me feel ok - I mean I try, I am not able to get more, but I try, so I should be excused, shouldn't I? Unfortunately the excuse didn't bring me any money - strange, isn't it?
• In the meantime my competition undermined my cooperation with client B. They had been working together for 10 years and were able to convince the client to transfer "our" part of the budget to them. I was mad at them, but at least I had someone to blame for the setback. And instead of working my a$$ off to get new clients, I preferred to focus on "it's their fault, I couldn't do anything about it".
• Client A is still working with us, but the amount of work is 10x less than last year. Again, a great excuse - "if they gave us as much work as last year, we would make the ends meet". What is worse, 90% of work from them is coming before Christmas, on December. Isn't that a great opportunity to wait whole year for that single month that will pay for the whole year? I mean a month of hard work for a year worth of living, isn't that great? It is, unless it turns out that the client decides to put money somewhere else...
• In the meantime I started in parallel a second venture. Again, I was waiting for the "perfect December", so I had time for other things, right? The second business is failing even worse than the first one. But I had a few months of hard work thanks to it, so again I'm excused - I worked hard! Should've spent that time on getting new clients for the main business though, that would be much more productive.
• The best part is... I've come up with a few more business ideas to pursue. Why have 1-2 propering companies, when you can have 5-10 failing badly? Isn't the latter more fun?
• Honestly, what are my main issues, why do I fail? Here they are:
  • I am a poor salesman. I have either to hire someone to do it for me or really focus on learning this art (taking into account current financial situation, probably the latter). And I have to stop looking for other things to do instead of selling.
  • My main business - I don't believe in my product anymore. I built the business around a product, because I liked it, not because someone needed it.
  • I work hard, not smart and I kid myself. I am a poor salesman? Ok, let's spend a month on building a great website! That should solve the issue, right?
  • I am good at finding new business ideas, much worse on the execution to the end side. I need to be self-disciplined here and minimise number of things that I'm doing in parallel.

I have a few more months to fight for my life. If I won't make it, I will have to get back to a 9-8 job (that is more a reality than 9-5). Few months of total focus and dedication, of being honest with myself, of focusing on what is important to move the business forward, of working smarter, of learning what I need to learn in order to succeed.

So what's my plan for the following months in terms of developing my business ventures?

• Main business - focus on sales, really fight for new clients, redesign it to provide greater value (I've got some ideas already). I don't believe this business will be great someday, but it can earn me a living without taking very much time.
• Second business - cut the losses.
• I've been wanting for some time to start a SaaS business. I know, ANOTHER venture to work on, this cannot bring anything good to me. However, I have a strong belief that this is the way in which I can provide value to the market. By creating products that are confirmed to be needed by others, not doing it the other way around. Moreover, many of the skills that I will be learning in the process, will help me in my main business. Idea etraction, selling, these will help me sell also in my current business. Finally, I am a computer science major and I just feel it much better than what I am doing currently.

I hope my post provides value to some of you, I hope it will be a wake up call to those that are as good as I was with kidding myself that I am on the right track. Take an honest look at your path and if you're out of track, get the hell back there! Don't waste another day! You might feel good about it today, but you will surely regret it in the future!

 

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[Vigilante]

OK. You still have a little room to breathe, and recognizing what you do means you don't have to completely bottom out.

You correctly identified the largest issue, and that is the value of the product. You don't have to be a great salesman if you have a great product. The best web site in the world can't make a moderate product great. The product is still the same.

In my opinion, you have also correctly self diagnosed the survival strategy. It sounds so simple, but it is easy to lose sight of.

Step 1. Focus on the things that are making money, and do more of those
Step 2. Eliminate the things that are not

Even in our now maturing business, we had a discussion over the last few days about something Sam Walton said that I come back to time and time again. "Anything I am working on that does not directly benefit the customer is a waste of my time." What this means for us today is retrenching. We're #1 marketshare in our business, but we're redoing our whole marketing and distribution strategy because we've discovered there's a whole different way to scale larger, faster. We're not afraid now to stop doing things that made sense along the way, but that don't directly benefit the customers. We're recalibrating.

And... let me say this. If you take everything you have learned, and to keep your head above water you find it necessary to take a job, that's not the end of the world because it's not your end game. Some times in life, you need enough room to breathe.

I am glad you found life in the Facebook post this morning. You are not going to reach the depths that I did, that you can listen to on Saturday. You've already turned the corner on your bell shaped curve. Some of your wounds are self inflicted (I guess they all are... for all of us... we all make choices that put us where we are) but your self realization is what is going to help you refocus.

Hang in there. Give yourself a break from self flagellation. What happened in the past doesn't matter as much as what you do today, and what you do tomorrow. Shake the dust off. You don't have to live drowning in your mistakes. Mine were likely bigger than yours. However, it only matters really what you do today forward. You're not dead yet, and what you are facing isn't going to kill you. So retrench, refocus, and relaunch. Cut the shit that is dragging you down.

You have a chance. You have a lifetime in front of you. You're at the beginning, not at the end. You're not there yet, but neither was I. Neither was ANYONE on the front side of their success. Think about it. Everyone goes through a process. Some curves are shorter than others. But everyone struggles, everyone doubts, and everyone has moments that MJ has described as being in the desert of desertion. It's what you do to pick yourself up off the ground, climbing back up using the ringside ropes if necessary to stabliize yourself, and go another round. And another. And another.

And some day... you'll make it. It's a grind. It's an education. And you can make it. Don't give up. You have an entire lifetime in front of you. Start again today.

 

[Krzysztof]

Thanks a lot @Vigilante for taking the time to provide valuable feedback. I must keep in mind the quote by Sam Walton! Can't wait for your next podcast, sounds like I will be able to learn a lot from it.

BTW this world is strange. A few minutes after submitting my post, we've received a call from our main Client. There is a chance that tomorrow we'll get a significant order. Not as big as last year, however still definitely a highlight of 2014. I don't deserve it taking into account how I've been working this year, but I treat it as gift of fate to help reclaim my faith in the business and to start working my a$$ off smarter.

Wish you success in redoing your business!

 

[Iammelissamoore]

A few items stood out well from your post.

- You have woken up to the fact that you were keeping yourself behind.

- Though you were doing, you recognised you weren't doing enough and that you could have pushed yourself harder.

- You have the opportunity to learn from your mistakes : That which you are sharing with us now.

- Process : The word we've grown to respect in TMF , sometimes, it brings some really distasteful challenges, business heartbreaks, wake up calls, changes of direction (what's working from what's not); however, all of this is what creates the success stories, it is the struggle a human faces that shows their true strength.

Most people read the success stories of others and glamorise the "made it" part of their lives, the mansion they now live in, the beautiful cars they drive now etc., when I once read the stories, I read about the challenging moments, the businesses that failed and the ethic behind their solutions to rise.

While knowing about the possibility of owning beautiful things exist, until I get there, it's not a major focus. I love how MJ's book wakes us up, he tells us we're playing the fool and isn't afraid of telling us why, and THAT is the type of mentorship to invest in.

So, cheers to you, though you failed, you saw where you fell short and you're still in the game, at least you didn't give up and decide to go back to the Slowlane as a means of living a comforting vs a fulfilling life. I tell you, we can easily suffer at the hands of our own comfort.

OR - Comfort now, Misery later. Let's put up with the misery now, so we can be way beyond comfortable later.

 

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