Choose an industry/skillset and stick with it

[Mikkel]

I recently spoke with a forum member about a business they are trying to start. They recently switched business ideas, but the previous business had no similarities to his current business idea. Both businesses had large barriers to entry that required a lot of skills training and industry knowledge. To be successful, he should expect a minimum of one year of learning before making anything of substance due to its technical nature. This spurred the topic of choosing an industry and skillset.

I see many new entrepreneurs, I was one of them, that jump from one industry to the next, rarely bringing over transferable skills. Each time, they enter a market with little knowledge and months/years of learning ahead of them. At some point, every person will need to learn their field of choice. However, you shouldn't be repeating these months/years of learning each time you start a new business.

There will always be exceptions to the rule, however, most successful businesses have owners that have a deep understanding of their industry and can leverage their knowledge and skills to produce incredible value to their customers. It is hard to believe any person who jumps industry every few months or years will develop skills and a knowledge base worthy of starting a business.

This leads me to the point of this thread. I think it is beneficial for entrepreneurs to find the industry that interests them, learn a few skills, and stick to that for decades. The topic of what industry a person should pick is a different topic that is beyond the scope of this post.

My general rule of thumb is this. I only will spend time learning skills that I know I will use in the future. I am not willing to learn to code because none of my businesses will revolve around me knowing how to code. Now, I might need someone to code in the future, but my business will not rely on me being able to code. I would rather hire that out. That also means that all my business plans ensure they don't require coding early on in the business because I could not afford to hire someone.

Take me for an example. I am not successful in any traditional entrepreneurial sense at this time. However, I separate my entrepreneurial journey into two distinct phases. Pre-industry determination and post-industry determination. For approximately 7 or 8 years I aimlessly picked different businesses to attempt to start. Some of these businesses had hints of my future(I began inventing products) but I never decided on an industry or skillset. It wasn't until I decided I wanted to be involved with the import/export of products, that I started to hone in on what I would be doing. Today, my list of skillsets and industries are:
1. Physical Therapy (Core)
2. Import/Export (Core)
3. Inventing (Core)

4. E-commerce (Non-core)
5. Licensing (Non-core)

You can see that Physical Therapy, import/exports, and inventing are what I primarily focus on. That is what I want to know best. Right now I am working on learning both E-commerce as well as licensing. At some point, these might become core skills, but for now, it is not guaranteed that licensing or e-commerce will be my future. If my business fails, my core will stay the same, but my non-core skills may change. The benefit of this is that no matter what happens to my current business, I will ALWAYS have transferable skills when going to the next business. I don't start from scratch each time. My businesses always use some or all of my core skills. That is critical unless you are a first-time entrepreneurial success, which is unlikely but not impossible.

I have seen the most growth potential in my business with the clearest vision ever since I determined what my core industry and skills were, this was 2 years ago. If I figured this out at the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey nearly 10 years ago, imagine where I would be now. Imagine the skills and knowledge I would have had to work with.

Imagine where you will be in 10 years if you lock in a few core skills and leverage them in your business.

 

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[heavy_industry]

Skills that are transferable across any industry:

• Wisdom
• Discipline
• Planning and strategy
• Executive skills
• Language, communication, and leadership

Also highly transferrable:

• Money (to be used for hiring experts in a particular field)

---

My life and business experience is very limited, so please take this with a grain of salt:

Based on what I've seen thus far, 95%+ of all success (or lack thereof), in any industry or human endeavor, is determined by one thing and one thing only:

Discipline of mind.

This includes wisdom, focus, awareness, perception, mindset, decision-making process, etc.

Industry-specific knowledge is extremely important, but in my view, that's merely the tip of the iceberg. The true foundation of success is your ability to control your mind, and, by extension, your actions.

You can be a 180 IQ genius and a world-class mathematician, chemist, programmer, financial analyst, etc., and be a true master of a particular field or industry...

But if you do not have control over your mind, you will end up face-down in a ditch. There are plenty of homeless geniuses out there.

 

[Spenny]

I'm glad you've spoken about this. Shiny object syndrome is real; many people jump to and from ideas. I had multiple things 'running' at once, and it's not nearly as potent as keeping to one thing for a while. You find that all it does is satisfy the ego, telling yourself you're doing something when, in reality, you're spinning your wheels.

Pre-industry determination and post-industry determination

This can be summed as "getting sales from solving problems".

When you begin, you work towards solving a problem. After you solve that problem, you solve more problems. @Andy Black mentions a lot about people's "learning a skill" when they should be dialled in on "how do I solve the problem, and what skills do I need?".

Problem-focused>> Skill-focused.

School flips it the other way, but the real world doesn't care about how much you know but how you direct it.

But it's far better to say, "Hmm, I don't know how to do this. Let me ask Google/An expert/ChatGPT/A textbook" than to shoot in the dark about what you need to learn, taking ten Udemy courses. You don't see electricians, entrepreneurs, or coders learning everything all at once; they learn bits through solving a problem, one at a time. This is what you may call experience—directed problem-solving.

For those reading, you don't need to declare the event of "I'm going to have these three as my core". Solve a problem, and you'll fall into it.

I am not successful in any traditional entrepreneurial sense at this time.

...yet...

 

[heavy_industry]

For those reading, you don't need to declare the event of "I'm going to have these three as my core". Solve a problem, and you'll fall into it.

I beg to differ.

I understand @Andy Black's point of not falling into the rabbit hole of "learning", and the utility of having problem-solving as the overarching goal - especially for those who haven't started anything yet.

But once you're past the "starting" stage and you're already deep into the problem your company is trying to solve, that's when defining a clear set of skills to master becomes the decisive advantage for you and your team.

"Stop learning and start doing" is great if the company is cleaning toilets or selling coffee.

If, however, the operation is more complex than this, or is happening on a larger scale, you better start sharpening that axe.

Effectiveness, efficiency, and scale are the final gatekeepers that prevent a solopreneur from becoming a true business owner. And those can only be achieved through becoming hyper-competent.

 

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[Spenny]

I beg to differ.

I understand @Andy Black's point of not falling into the rabbit hole of "learning", and the utility of having problem-solving as the overarching goal - especially for those who haven't started anything yet.

But once you're past the "starting" stage and you're already deep into the problem your company is trying to solve, that's when defining a clear set of skills to master becomes the decisive advantage for you and your team.

"Stop learning and start doing" is great if the company is cleaning toilets or selling coffee.

If, however, the operation is more complex than this, or is happening on a larger scale, you better start sharpening that axe.

Effectiveness, efficiency, and scale are the final gatekeepers that prevent a solopreneur from becoming a true business owner. And those can only be achieved through becoming hyper-competent.

We don't disagree; most people on the forum don't even get to a one-figure valuation because they're too busy fighting phantom problems that don't exist.

Does a business owner need to know more than a simple Google search? Sure, but starting is as simple as solving a problem for someone. I think the best businesses are built by those with expertise in a field, hence the big skew of entrepreneurs being older.



My point is that people go around in circles learning excessively when they should go about doing first, and then they can learn what they need to.

 

[Oso]

I see many new entrepreneurs, I was one of them, that jump from one industry to the next, rarely bringing over transferable skills. Each time, they enter a market with little knowledge and months/years of learning ahead of them. At some point, every person will need to learn their field of choice. However, you shouldn't be repeating these months/years of learning each time you start a new business.

There will always be exceptions to the rule, however, most successful businesses have owners that have a deep understanding of their industry and can leverage their knowledge and skills to produce incredible value to their customers. It is hard to believe any person who jumps industry every few months or years will develop skills and a knowledge base worthy of starting a business.

This leads me to the point of this thread. I think it is beneficial for entrepreneurs to find the industry that interests them, learn a few skills, and stick to that for decades. The topic of what industry a person should pick is a different topic that is beyond the scope of this post.

My general rule of thumb is this. I only will spend time learning skills that I know I will use in the future. I am not willing to learn to code because none of my businesses will revolve around me knowing how to code. Now, I might need someone to code in the future, but my business will not rely on me being able to code. I would rather hire that out. That also means that all my business plans ensure they don't require coding early on in the business because I could not afford to hire someone.

Take me for an example. I am not successful in any traditional entrepreneurial sense at this time. However, I separate my entrepreneurial journey into two distinct phases. Pre-industry determination and post-industry determination. For approximately 7 or 8 years I aimlessly picked different businesses to attempt to start. Some of these businesses had hints of my future(I began inventing products) but I never decided on an industry or skillset. It wasn't until I decided I wanted to be involved with the import/export of products, that I started to hone in on what I would be doing. Today, my list of skillsets and industries are:
1. Physical Therapy (Core)
2. Import/Export (Core)
3. Inventing (Core)

4. E-commerce (Non-core)
5. Licensing (Non-core)

You can see that Physical Therapy, import/exports, and inventing are what I primarily focus on. That is what I want to know best. Right now I am working on learning both E-commerce as well as licensing. At some point, these might become core skills, but for now, it is not guaranteed that licensing or e-commerce will be my future. If my business fails, my core will stay the same, but my non-core skills may change. The benefit of this is that no matter what happens to my current business, I will ALWAYS have transferable skills when going to the next business. I don't start from scratch each time. My businesses always use some or all of my core skills. That is critical unless you are a first-time entrepreneurial success, which is unlikely but not impossible.

I have seen the most growth potential in my business with the clearest vision ever since I determined what my core industry and skills were, this was 2 years ago. If I figured this out at the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey nearly 10 years ago, imagine where I would be now. Imagine the skills and knowledge I would have had to work with.

Imagine where you will be in 10 years if you lock in a few core skills and leverage them in your business.

I love this thread. This is a fantastic topic to discuss.

I'm 3 exits in now and rounding my first 7 figure mark. When I joined this forum and purchased TMF , I was 29-30 years old with ~100$ to my name. I am now 35. I also jumped from industry to industry as I was beginning.

Initially, I thought I was still in the "money chasing" phase, but I quickly realized I simply lacked any type of skill, therefore I was industry hopping because I'd get into an industry, start telling myself I have nothing to offer them, and then hop to the next industry. Rinse & repeat.

And then when I did find an industry I thought I could provide value to, I'd begin questioning the potential of the market/what I was doing.

"Is this something that'll only have a cash flow for a year before I'm back to square 1?"
"Do I know enough to realistically keep it going beyond 1 year?"
Etc.

That doubt would inevitably make me back out of an idea, and resort to industry hopping once more. Recognizing that pattern is the very reason I encourage new entrepreneurs to learn legitimately transferable skills, even if it isn't something they want to do.

The goal upfront is cash flow. For whatever reason, most of these new entrepreneurs believe they're above temporarily working a job, which is cool and all, but that's also the reason they're going to remain broke, and their idea will probably never take off.

Anyway, back to the transferable skills: communication, marketing, sales, spreadsheets, some form of CRM (salesforce), etc. By learning these skills, if nothing else, it gives them a pathway to begin earning some form of cash flow for themselves, and gives them some form of leverage to use elsewhere.

In regards to coding... admittedly, this goes back to the fact I accept the statistics. The statistics say that even with having personal access to MJ himself, his content, this forum, all of you, etc. most of the people that come here won't escape the rat race. Therefore, if nothing else, I'd like them to leave this forum having gained something that'll help their future, even if they do nothing more than return to the aforementioned rat race.

For most that come here, coding/marketing is their number 1/only real way of going from "barely scraping by" to "holy shit, I can afford a decent car," especially in a short amount of time.

In regards to actually picking an industry, that's a toss-up in of itself. Personally, this came from FOMO. But not FOMO on money, but rather opportunity/learning/etc. For example, I'll pick on @Antifragile.

I'm in the TCG (trading card game) world. I have been for 20+ years. After getting my 2nd agency to the point of fully operating without me, I dove head-first into the industry I love the most. I am fully, 100% committed to this project and new company.

Having said that, if I were still doing this very same thing with my TCG company, but 3-4 years ago, and say @Antifragile reached out asking if I wanted to work for him, I'd probably immediately start panicking and abandon my TCG company. Why? Because @Antifragile is brilliant and is fantastic at what he does. So, while I may enjoy TCG stuff more than real estate, to pick working on my own company vs working with someone that has decades of experience (even if it's outside of my scope of experience/interest) would be foolish.

Furthermore, upon agreeing to take the offer, the experience/knowledge I do have are absolutely useless. This is how that would've played out:

@Antifragile would've given me a tour of the house, explaining how I'd sell said house. All I'd have to say back to him would've been "Hey man. I can tell you the value of a near mint Charizard pokemon card from 1996 off the top of my head." He would've then proceeded to laugh me out of the house, and send me back home.

Would that type of situation happen? Of course not. But when you're just starting out, one of the first things you begin realizing is how precious time really is, so you tunnel vision on "not wasting time." The irony to it, of course, is that that fear causes you to jump from industry to industry, inherently wasting time. And you of course begin thinking of all of these wild scenarios that could happen, but probably won't (like the above).

To summarize: it's probably just fear of the unknown, and lacking the knowledge/experience required to navigate entrepreneurship.

Here are some helpful hints for new entrepreneurs:

1. Be patient with yourself. As MJ says, you didn't reach your current situation in 2 days, so stop expecting to get out of it in 2 days.
2. Cash flow, time, and having a skill are all that matter during the beginning stages. Secure as much cash flow as you can, and make sure that money only goes to living necessities (1), into your savings (3), or back into your business (2).
3. Worry about dating later.
4. But networking/friendships are important. Still make time for both, but don't hang around people with 0 ambition. You will eventually become them.
5. Work on yourself above all else. Be who you want to be. If you envision yourself with abs, then get into the gym and start eating right. If you see yourself covered in tattoos, then start getting inked up. Regardless, do and be who you actually are. The confidence that comes from this alone is overwhelming. I promise.
6. Don't overspend to maintain an image. You don't have to impress anyone. Dress nice enough for business meetings, but don't put yourself in debt to buy some clown suit.
7. Time is your best friend or your worst enemy. Make it your best friend and it will serve you well until the day you die.
8. You haven't actually failed until you give up.
9. You aren't above temporarily working a shit job. We all have to pay our dues. The fact is, if you aren't willing to do the work you don't want to do, you probably don't have what it takes to "make it." Which leads me to the last one...
10. The person doing the work will inevitably be successful. The person making excuses will inevitably be left behind. Don't be left behind.

Skills that are transferable across any industry:

• Wisdom
• Discipline
• Planning and strategy
• Executive skills
• Language, communication, and leadership

Also highly transferrable:

• Money (to be used for hiring experts in a particular field)

---

My life and business experience is very limited, so please take this with a grain of salt:

Based on what I've seen thus far, 95%+ of all success (or lack thereof), in any industry or human endeavor, is determined by one thing and one thing only:

Discipline of mind.

This includes wisdom, focus, awareness, perception, mindset, decision-making process, etc.

Industry-specific knowledge is extremely important, but in my view, that's merely the tip of the iceberg. The true foundation of success is your ability to control your mind, and, by extension, your actions.

This x100, though I'd amend it to: discipline of self.

Be like Goku. Be like Bruce Lee. Be like Michael Jai White. Be like water. This means learning to control your mental/emotional/physical/spiritual. This means understanding who you are as an individual, as a man/woman/it. How you fit into what you're doing. This means understanding your strengths, acknowledging weak points, and actively working to improve them.

This means being able to adapt. This means being able to make decisions for yourself. This means accepting you control most of what happens to you. This means embracing fear, rejection, and failure as aspects of life and learning experiences. This means being independent.

It sounds dumb, but it truly works. Once you are who you see yourself as (or, at the very least, once you've started working towards being that person) the confidence required to legitimately unlock that person, will flow naturally.

You can be a 180 IQ genius and a world-class mathematician, chemist, programmer, financial analyst, etc., and be a true master of a particular field or industry...

But if you do not have control over your mind, you will end up face-down in a ditch. There are plenty of homeless geniuses out there.

This legitimately describes more people than I can account for. Some of the most intelligent people I've ever encountered were absolutely lost in life. A good portion of them were on the brink of imploding.

I've learned you can be the smartest in the room or the dumbest. What tends to matter more is your ability to play to your personal strengths, and create opportunity from said strengths.

Cheers.

 

[Strategery]

I have seen the most growth potential in my business with the clearest vision ever since I determined what my core industry and skills were, this was 2 years ago.

I have seen similar results in a round about way after finally focusing on the industry that I grew up with rather than trying to run away from it. I still have a "job" (family business that lets me do whatever), but since committing to it I've seen a ridiculous amount of opportunity that is related... I would never have seen that if I had been chasing all the nonsense that I did for the past few years. And they pay me more, which gives me way more options than I would have being broke.

3. Worry about dating later.

I don't think this is universal. My current girlfriend has supercharged my entrepreneurial quest/drive. She brings me back down to earth. For me, being secure in a relationship has quelled the desire to chase girls during my off time. So if the dating distracts you, sure do it later, but if you can find an awesome relationship it may have the same effect that mine had on me. I will say though @Oso , I usually always like your posts but the rest of that one is one of my favorites from you. Great read.

 

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[Oso]

I don't think this is universal. My current girlfriend has supercharged my entrepreneurial quest/drive. She brings me back down to earth. For me, being secure in a relationship has quelled the desire to chase girls during my off time. So if the dating distracts you, sure do it later, but if you can find an awesome relationship it may have the same effect that mine had on me. I will say though @Oso , I usually always like your posts but the rest of that one is one of my favorites from you. Great read.

Of course, friend, nothing in life is universal, sans death.

Most of my words come from pure statistical data, mixed with life experience. While you definitely are correct in saying relationships do work for some, the reality is, for the vast majority of people - especially young men - relationships tend to impede progress more than encourage it.

This primarily comes from young men lacking resources and life experience, the pressure that comes with just being young, and the new-age social/societal structure. Every generation says this and I now understand why. But I'd sincerely hate to be in my 20s right now. Not a single atom in my being envies 18-28 year olds, lol.

Anyway, to the point: I 100% agree with your ultimate point. If said person truly finds a partner that is encouraging, understands their life goals/aspirations, and the entrepreneur can manage to balance it all, then 100% embrace it. Unfortunately, that's simply not how it works out for the vast majority of people.

(P.S. I appreciate the shout out. Admittedly, I tend to view my responses to people on this forum as a bit extreme, and that's ultimately why I've taken a step back, for the most part. It's nice to know I'm doing *some* good here, haha.)

Cheers!

 

[Spenny]

Most of my words come from pure statistical data, mixed with life experience. While you definitely are correct in saying relationships do work for some, the reality is, for the vast majority of people - especially young men - relationships tend to impede progress more than encourage it.

Gracefully said, relationships can easily absorb progress into the late twenties. That said, I'm not against them, either—it's about understanding the boundaries of time. @Strategery, I'm glad to hear it's working out. A lot of people are in nasty dynamics - willingly!

 

[Mikkel]

Transferable skills are great. By definition they can be brought with your in many different businesses. In any industry, as a business owner you will be forced to wear many hats at different times of your businesses journey. During that time, you will learn many different skill sets. A lot of those general entrepreneurial skills will stay with you no matter the business.

My categorization of skill sets were meant to be more broad. A set of skills that make something happen. A lot of what @heavy_industry touched on:

• Wisdom
• Discipline
• Planning and strategy
• Executive skills
• Language, communication, and leadership

I would consider to be a core skill called "entrepreneurship." I never put this in my core(I should have), but I think every entrepreneur must have these skill sets.

Take for instance eCommerce as a skill set. There are many skills involved including:
- Web design
- Product selection
- Logistics
- Lead Gen
- etc.

These skills have crossover in other skill sets, but when you put them all together, you become better tuned within eCommerce and are more likely to succeed in this field.

Switch skill sets, and even if there are transferable skills, the process is different and you are less fine tuned within the new skill set.

In regards to industry. Staying within an industry has major benefits. Sure, self discipline and action taking is a must to become successful, but that should be the expected when talking about being successful in any industry.

The knowledge to navigate through regulations, processes, and systems can be critical. The time it takes to learn these can be time consuming. Once you understand your industry, you are more knowledgeable about how to navigate your industry. Also, you can expand your network and maintain those meaningful connections in an industry rather than starting over each time you switch.

Take the medical device industry(I enter into this with my inventions as a physical therapist). The industry is incredibly complex. You need to understand the incredibly complex nature of the FDA, how they classify medical devices, what is the process of getting a medical device through testing, what paperwork is needed, how to circumvent medical device classification if you want it as a Medical device, etc. I am a little over 2 years into this industry, everything is self taught for me. I still have a lot to learn. I'm building up my network of important people in the industry. My next phase will be to call businesses and start talking deals. Those contacts will be incredibly valuable in the future as well. I will also get to understand what companies are looking for in regards to medical devices and wellness devices.

If someone were to start on the same journey as I am going on, it may take them years or they may just fail if they don't understand the correct route to go within this industry. You can lose a lot of money not understanding how the process works(I still don't fully understand it yet either, but I'm learning).

I think most people would agree this is the case in a lot of industries. AI Tech, Commercial Real Estate Decelopment, Biotech, FinTech, etc.

 

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[Mikkel]

I have seen similar results in a round about way after finally focusing on the industry that I grew up with rather than trying to run away from it. I still have a "job" (family business that lets me do whatever), but since committing to it I've seen a ridiculous amount of opportunity that is related... I would never have seen that if I had been chasing all the nonsense that I did for the past few years. And they pay me more, which gives me way more options than I would have being broke.

This is exactly what happened to me. I had gone to college for physical therapy for 7 years but I had been trying to enter into every other industry EXCEPT Physical Therapy. Once I decided to stick with what I know(PT) I started to better identify real issues in the market that I had experience with solving.

That doubt would inevitably make me back out of an idea, and resort to industry hopping once more. Recognizing that pattern is the very reason I encourage new entrepreneurs to learn legitimately transferable skills, even if it isn't something they want to do.

My assumption is that new entrepreneurs will industry jump if they are young because they still don't know what intrests them. It is like high school students picking a college and a major before they have any life experience. Since each entrepreneur needs to learn these transferable skills, mine as well start them early. However, they should seriously consider trying to find a home in an industry. They might not get it on the first or second try, but be on the look out for it and have the intention to find your industry of choice.

We don't disagree; most people on the forum don't even get to a one-figure valuation because they're too busy fighting phantom problems that don't exist.

Does a business owner need to know more than a simple Google search? Sure, but starting is as simple as solving a problem for someone. I think the best businesses are built by those with expertise in a field, hence the big skew of entrepreneurs being older.

My point is that people go around in circles learning excessively when they should go about doing first, and then they can learn what they need to.

I agree. There needs to be a balance. If people get stuck in learning mode, they will never get off the ground. Action is one of the best teachers. However, if you take all that action and you learn a bunch in that industry, and then change industries you will have learned unnecessary information.

There is a hypothetical % of information that is unnecessarily learned if you then switch your industry. Whatever that percentage is and the time you spent on your business in the prior industry is equal to being inefficient with your time.

We say time is precious. To be effective, the quicker you find your industry, the more likely you can become more effective and efficient.

But once you're past the "starting" stage and you're already deep into the problem your company is trying to solve, that's when defining a clear set of skills to master becomes the decisive advantage for you and your team.

"Stop learning and start doing" is great if the company is cleaning toilets or selling coffee.

If, however, the operation is more complex than this, or is happening on a larger scale, you better start sharpening that axe.

Effectiveness, efficiency, and scale are the final gatekeepers that prevent a solopreneur from becoming a true business owner. And those can only be achieved through becoming hyper-competent.

Bingo. Well said

 

[Kevin88660]

I recently spoke with a forum member about a business they are trying to start. They recently switched business ideas, but the previous business had no similarities to his current business idea. Both businesses had large barriers to entry that required a lot of skills training and industry knowledge. To be successful, he should expect a minimum of one year of learning before making anything of substance due to its technical nature. This spurred the topic of choosing an industry and skillset.

I see many new entrepreneurs, I was one of them, that jump from one industry to the next, rarely bringing over transferable skills. Each time, they enter a market with little knowledge and months/years of learning ahead of them. At some point, every person will need to learn their field of choice. However, you shouldn't be repeating these months/years of learning each time you start a new business.

There will always be exceptions to the rule, however, most successful businesses have owners that have a deep understanding of their industry and can leverage their knowledge and skills to produce incredible value to their customers. It is hard to believe any person who jumps industry every few months or years will develop skills and a knowledge base worthy of starting a business.

This leads me to the point of this thread. I think it is beneficial for entrepreneurs to find the industry that interests them, learn a few skills, and stick to that for decades. The topic of what industry a person should pick is a different topic that is beyond the scope of this post.

My general rule of thumb is this. I only will spend time learning skills that I know I will use in the future. I am not willing to learn to code because none of my businesses will revolve around me knowing how to code. Now, I might need someone to code in the future, but my business will not rely on me being able to code. I would rather hire that out. That also means that all my business plans ensure they don't require coding early on in the business because I could not afford to hire someone.

Take me for an example. I am not successful in any traditional entrepreneurial sense at this time. However, I separate my entrepreneurial journey into two distinct phases. Pre-industry determination and post-industry determination. For approximately 7 or 8 years I aimlessly picked different businesses to attempt to start. Some of these businesses had hints of my future(I began inventing products) but I never decided on an industry or skillset. It wasn't until I decided I wanted to be involved with the import/export of products, that I started to hone in on what I would be doing. Today, my list of skillsets and industries are:
1. Physical Therapy (Core)
2. Import/Export (Core)
3. Inventing (Core)

4. E-commerce (Non-core)
5. Licensing (Non-core)

You can see that Physical Therapy, import/exports, and inventing are what I primarily focus on. That is what I want to know best. Right now I am working on learning both E-commerce as well as licensing. At some point, these might become core skills, but for now, it is not guaranteed that licensing or e-commerce will be my future. If my business fails, my core will stay the same, but my non-core skills may change. The benefit of this is that no matter what happens to my current business, I will ALWAYS have transferable skills when going to the next business. I don't start from scratch each time. My businesses always use some or all of my core skills. That is critical unless you are a first-time entrepreneurial success, which is unlikely but not impossible.

I have seen the most growth potential in my business with the clearest vision ever since I determined what my core industry and skills were, this was 2 years ago. If I figured this out at the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey nearly 10 years ago, imagine where I would be now. Imagine the skills and knowledge I would have had to work with.

Imagine where you will be in 10 years if you lock in a few core skills and leverage them in your business.

If you know what you are passionate about early in life, that is the best case. I am sure Taylor Swift knows nothing about E-commerce or SASS, at age 35 she already had two decades of experience in music entertainment.

Dabbling and trying gives you wonderful experience and skillsets, but I agree eventually you need to settle down in one field to earn the compounded growth of industry experience and clients base.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been in the hardware business grinding for three decades and lives through two decades when internet and software stole all the limelight. He started pivoting to accelerated learning as early as 2009-2010. Good luck trying to compete with him to tear down his moat. This castle wall is decades thick worth of materials.

In life you need to do the alternatives to gain the conviction in pursuing the right but hard things. Without job experience, dabbling in the multiple hustles (some not having entry or need) you just won’t come to come to the firm conclusion that all you need to do is to grind in a growing industry (at least not a sunset industry) with a recurring revenue business model.

People I myself included have to learn things the hard way because firm belief and conviction cannot be taught as a knowledge, unless personally experienced most other non-working alternatives. And without that conviction you will self doubt and quit when the first difficulty emerges.

 

[heavy_industry]

@Mikkel

There's one more thing I forgot to mention:

Becoming a true expert in a field is a double-edged sword, and can quickly become your biggest curse as a business owner.

How would this even be possible?

As we dive deep into a particular field and gain extensive knowledge, we tend to get lost in the intricate details of the industry.

With our newfound knowledge, we think that we understand everything clearer than ever, but what happens is that the big picture of what we're trying to do - paradoxically - becomes increasingly blurry.

We may forget to answer the fundamental question of business: What is the problem that we are solving for the customers?

---

I think that a good mental exercise we all need to do from time to time is this:

Close our eyes, take a deep breath, pretend that we know NOTHING about this business, and see things from the simplistic and completely uninformed perspective of the customer:

How will this product or service improve my life?

---

Sorry if we're getting into speculative philosophical territory here. This just crossed my mind.

My suspicion is that the most successful business owners are not experts in their field.

Instead, they are experts at leading their team of experts.

 

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[envykyro]

by the way , the same applies to your to do list for the week .

i noticed when i have something like :
1. fix website copy writing
2. make payment plan for team
3. update tiktok formula GPT

i literally used to spend 1 week on each of those tasks.

as soon as i started to dedicate 1 full day to each task heres what happened that you may not epect:
- work got done in 5-8 hours
- and most importantly , when i took a break from the different departments , i relized when i came back , i had improved creativity , and better output.

for example im designing the website banner right now , and on
day 1 i did 0-80% easily
day 2 , tried 80%-90% - got 0 work done
day 3 - didnt touch
day 4 - easily got the 90% ideas all sorted , ready to be made and website is that much better for launch.

 

[Mikkel]

With our newfound knowledge, we think that we understand everything clearer than ever, but what happens is that the big picture of what we're trying to do - paradoxically - becomes increasingly blurry.

My suspicion is that the most successful business owners are not experts in their field.

Yea, the Dunning-Kruger Effect. I've noticed this with Physical Therapy. When I got out of PT and was working for like 6 months, I felt quite confident. Then the more I practiced, I felt like a fraud.

You start to realize, at least in my profession, that people come to you because, even if you have some holes in your knowledge, it is still far more comprehensive that the average person.

Having incomplete knowledge still allows someone like myself to ID pain points that only someone in this niche would probably understand and know how to fix.

That is the benefit on staying in an Industry. If you keep your mind open you can succeed. If you defeat yourself mentally by learning with no action your whole life or assuming that everything that is done today cannot be improved on, then you will fail. Always question the way things are done.