Gonna do what I love, mistakes and failures be damned!

[memenode]

I'd like to share some of my recent thinking about the process of success, mostly because I'm interested in what others think about it and because some of my current conclusions might go against some advice I've gotten here.

First of all, how does one define "fastlane"? I think it is different for each person. For some it could be something as modest as making a living doing what he loves and having enough money for all of the pleasures he usually wants to enjoy. He may not drive a lambo, have a big house etc., but he doesn't really want one. If he has everything he REALLY wants, then he is a success and if he accomplished that by his middle ages, who is to say he's not on the fastlane either?

That said, I do have very big dreams, but at the same time at this point I realize that I simply do not know how to create enough value to make even $5K a month, let alone $100K or something huge like that. So what use is it to dream of a step 10 steps away when I still didn't learn how to make the first or second one.

And that's where I come to the doing what I love vs doing what others need dilemma, combined with the dilemma of focusing on a single thing vs. experimenting with multiple. Advice I heard here is that solely doing what I love and experimenting with multiple things at once isn't a good idea, yet from what I understand most of the successful people here went through exactly that stage! I suppose they in retrospect see something that was a key part in the development of their success as a mistake that others should learn not to make.

But what if everyone DOES need to make a similar kind of mistake because it is what they learn upon making such a mistake that is crucial to advancing them forward? In that sense then there really are no mistakes just as there are no failures. There is just a path. And you can either go forward (viewing everything that happens as useful information that helps you move forward) or backward (viewing everything as proof that you're worth nothing and incapable of success).

So I will DARE to do what I love even when I'm not *entirely* sure that the product will be what people truly need. And I will even DARE to adjust my focus management to include side projects where I experiment with other ideas just to gain experience and perhaps find something that could in the future displace the current primary project. I have a gut feeling that the project I'm about to embark on, a project I've been postponing for a whole year because I thought it's not gonna have enough demand or isn't "fastlane enough", is actually something that my whole being lives for.

So if I'm to be disappointed after doing it, so be it, at least I would've had no doubts about it anymore. Either it's gonna be a success or failure, and both is great.

Just do it, I guess that's the REALLY important thing. Everything else is secondary. If you want to do something, just freaking do it. No better way to know. Even if everybody in the world tells you it's gonna be a failure, if you aren't sure about that in your gut, and you'd really love to try, nobody's opinion should stop you.

Ain't that right?

 

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[CoMp1eX]

I've come to learn that life is full of "experiences".

Even if we make mistakes or failures, it brings us one step closer to success than if we never tried (even if we are now in a worse position).

 

[SaraK]

That said, I do have very big dreams, but at the same time at this point I realize that I simply do not know how to create enough value to make even $5K a month, let alone $100K or something huge like that. So what use is it to dream of a step 10 steps away when I still didn't learn how to make the first or second one.

I think you can still dream of step 10, and just know that you need to start with step 1 first. But this begs the question: do you know what all the steps are? I'm not sure about this myself, I am struggling with the same question: Do I start with my big dream or trying something smaller first? If I start small and work my way up, what is the exact progression I should go through. I'm not sure this is easy to answer as it is hard to know how things will go until you do it.

I think it is great that you have decided to take action. I took a similar leap about a year and a half ago and though I would do things differently in retrospect, I wouldn't trade the experience because I learned so much.

Something I have started to realize just this past week: I need to build a team to support and advise me and not try to tackle my dreams alone. One of your lines stood out to me:

I simply do not know how...

You may not know, but I bet there are others who could give you some good advice if you asked for it. You could ask people on this forum who may have done something similar to what you have in mind, or you could seek out local organizations like SCORE that give free advice to budding entrepreneurs.

My advice: at least do a down-and-dirty business plan (just 1-3 pages, nothing fancy) that covers the major things like what is your USP, competitors, how you will make money, how many sales you need to break even, etc. You can find questions to address with a simple web search on business plans. This step will help you catch major problems you may not yet see so that you can plan for and work around them. You can then take this document to SCORE or a mentor and they can give you valuable feedback to help you refine your plan.

If your product/service is geared towards a small niche, I highly recommend any book by Seth Godin, his marketing approach is really refreshing and great advice for those starting small with big dreams.

Sorry if I've been too long-winded. Congratulations and good luck!

 

[TaxGuy]

First of all, how does one define "fastlane"?

My definition is inline with yours- while I would love to own multiple exotic cars and vacation homes throughout the world, I understand that there is a lot of time/money/hassle in "owning" such luxuries and experiencing them is just as good IMO. i.e. doing one of the track days with multiple exotics which costs $5-10k/session beats the up-front/on-going costs as well as hassle of ownership of just one exotic. Along those lines, maintaining a "dream home" in a remote location costs a pretty penny and I'd rather rent several in multiple locations than be stuck to one spot.

So long story short- time and freedom is my definition of fastlane, having fancy toys and luxuries is a bonus :smxB:

Advice I heard here is that solely doing what I love and experimenting with multiple things at once isn't a good idea, yet from what I understand most of the successful people here went through exactly that stage!

This is a concept that I have had trouble grasping and I'd be a hypocrite if I said that it has not been one of the, if not THE biggest obstacle in the way of my own success.

As far as doing what you love, by all means do it, but make sure you have the right intentions, MJ's example of the karate studio owner opening a dojo in a town just because he loves teaching martial arts, but the town has no demand for it basically shows that it was not successful in that instance and as long as the sensei learned from his mistake and did this method differently in the future then that initial "failure" was not really a failure.

For not experimenting, it's also easy to confuse, by all means experiment, but don't spread yourself too thin, finding that "one-trick pony" can take years and several attempts to find, but once you find it, you need to stick with it.

What it comes down to is ACTION! If you don't succeed, as long as you learn something that is what is most important. Three basic questions to ask(which I've seen in quite a few success books) are:

1) What's the best that can happen?
2) What's the worst that can happen?
3) What's most likely to happen?

 

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[Luke12321]

As long as you are doing something that will help you get to your goals and where you want to be....that is the main thing. We all have our down times but the good will come with the bad.

 

[memenode]

Thanks for replies.

I think you can still dream of step 10, and just know that you need to start with step 1 first. But this begs the question: do you know what all the steps are? I'm not sure about this myself, I am struggling with the same question: Do I start with my big dream or trying something smaller first? If I start small and work my way up, what is the exact progression I should go through. I'm not sure this is easy to answer as it is hard to know how things will go until you do it.

True, I think I should have said what use is acting like I have to achieve the 10th step right now when I don't even know how to do the first, but still keeping the dream alive is indeed good. It's kinda how I was thinking.. I wanted to find the project which is most efficient at making some profits fastest. Aside from being an easy way to fall into the trap of hunting for money instead of actually wishing to create value for other people, it's also an easy way to lose touch with my core competencies and interests, which is what defines what I love to do and would probably therefore do best.

That said I don't really know all of the steps. I only have a fair idea of what the first step should be, just not the specifics. Given that all of my skills and talents are in the field of making web sites and writing (especially philosophy and certain areas of technology or both intertwined) and this also happens to be what I love to do, it must be clear that the first step is to create a web site of some sort.

And also given I don't have a lot of funds to invest, I need to build something from scratch. I don't have programming skills nor money to hire programmers, and besides I like writing anyway, so content creation is gonna have to be my forte. Now.. I just need to find a way to make the best of that, and I think the project I have in mind might be a very good candidate, at least probably best so far.

You may not know, but I bet there are others who could give you some good advice if you asked for it. You could ask people on this forum who may have done something similar to what you have in mind, or you could seek out local organizations like SCORE that give free advice to budding entrepreneurs.

Right, I'm actually already making a small living online for years, but recently had some big changes in the way I think and that's ruffled a lot of my feathers so to speak. I'm sort of undergoing a personal revolution here and discovering who I really am and where I really want to go. Just few days ago I had some significant breakthroughs in that sense which is also when I realized what project I want to do.

I might ask more about the kind of project I'm doing here, just to see if anyone has done anything similar. It's basically a web site with information and infotainment videos about on the topic of self improvement, personal freedom and empowerment which draws ideas from a rather unique combination of people; Stefan Molyneux (a modern philosopher who still isn't quite famous, and is likely otherwise controversial), Napoleon Hill (everyone should know that one!) and Raymond Kurzweil. To explain how these people fit together in my vision I'd need to build you a web site, which is what I'm doing.

But basically, it's gonna offer ideas, theories, practical advice and commentary on popular events from a rather unique perspective. This unique perspective combined with my aesthetics (design, videos) should be the selling point. Example: everybody wants to know about swine flu and whether it's a real threat or not. I have a perspective on it which isn't often heard (and trust me it has nothing to do with conspiracy theories). Thus I would attract people to my site on the basis of what is currently sought for, and then offer them something they wont get anywhere else. Chances of that are like 1 in a million.

My advice: at least do a down-and-dirty business plan (just 1-3 pages, nothing fancy) that covers the major things like what is your USP, competitors, how you will make money, how many sales you need to break even, etc.

Already working on the USP, and the dirty biz plan sounds cool too.

If your product/service is geared towards a small niche, I highly recommend any book by Seth Godin, his marketing approach is really refreshing and great advice for those starting small with big dreams.

Thanks, gonna see about checking it out.

Sorry if I've been too long-winded. Congratulations and good luck!

Not at all, compared to me at least.

 

[memenode]

So long story short- time and freedom is my definition of fastlane, having fancy toys and luxuries is a bonus

That's exactly it.

As far as doing what you love, by all means do it, but make sure you have the right intentions, MJ's example of the karate studio owner opening a dojo in a town just because he loves teaching martial arts, but the town has no demand for it basically shows that it was not successful in that instance and as long as the sensei learned from his mistake and did this method differently in the future then that initial "failure" was not really a failure.

Yeah I think you're on to something. Perhaps the advice which is seemingly against doing solely what you love to do is not so much against doing what you love as much as it is against doing it while blind to the desires and wants of other people or the possible multiplicity of methods or approaches you can use to do what you love. Yeah that could be that..

The book which helped me solidify my knowledge of what I love to do, "How to finally find what you love to do and get paid doing it" by Brian Kim (yeah, long name but great practical book) basically puts the formula this way: What you'll love to do most is gonna be equal to that which you can do that takes advantage of your core talents and biggest interests to serve the needs of others. So it's got everything covered, like drawing the dots in each realm and then drawing a straight line that connects them and leads you to final success. Talents + interests make sure you love it and are good at it (and wanting to get better) while recognizing ways in which doing it to fill someone's needs is a way to use those to actually create value and get paid.

Theoretically everyone can be an utter success this way.

For not experimenting, it's also easy to confuse, by all means experiment, but don't spread yourself too thin, finding that "one-trick pony" can take years and several attempts to find, but once you find it, you need to stick with it.

I think I stroke a good balance. I basically divided my work time between a single primary project and the rest as secondary and gave secondary projects only weekend time and maximum one hour per day optional which leaves great majority of time to focus on the primary project while leaving just enough for "tinkering" with other things.

Also, just to make it even better I'm trying to make even those secondary projects such to be in line with what I love to do and with the overarching purpose I am here for, so in a sense they aren't then even necessarily as much of a distraction as they'd otherwise be, and could even be complementary to the main project.

I think maybe the key thing about focus isn't always necessarily focusing fervently on one thing if you're not absolutely sure in a burn-the-bridges kind of way about it, but on smart focus management that assures that you've got priorities straight and are confident that it can work for you.

What it comes down to is ACTION! If you don't succeed, as long as you learn something that is what is most important. Three basic questions to ask(which I've seen in quite a few success books) are:

1) What's the best that can happen?
2) What's the worst that can happen?
3) What's most likely to happen?

Awesome, gonna have to note that down.

Thanks

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

First, understand that in the Fastlane, TIME is your greatest asset, not MONEY. Therefore, if you have abundant free time and life a lifestyle of comfort, to me, that is rich. If you are really, truly "doing what you love" then suddenly there is no work -- it is canceled out.

Everyone is different .... not everyone wants the big house and the fast cars. Understandable. However, the commonality for most people is simple: FREEDOM. Freedom to control your destiny. Freedom is defined by waking up and doing what you want to do -- not doing what your company (or your business) demands.

"Do what you love" can work -- you just have to be good at it, make money doing it, and hope that you don't destroy your love for it. Once you trade money for that love, things can change ... just ask any artist forced to paint to pay the mortgage versus painting by inspiration..

 

[memenode]

First, understand that in the Fastlane, TIME is your greatest asset, not MONEY. Therefore, if you have abundant free time and life a lifestyle of comfort, to me, that is rich. If you are really, truly "doing what you love" then suddenly there is no work -- it is canceled out.

Everyone is different .... not everyone wants the big house and the fast cars. Understandable. However, the commonality for most people is simple: FREEDOM. Freedom to control your destiny. Freedom is defined by waking up and doing what you want to do -- not doing what your company (or your business) demands.

Then I am almost there. I don't have a standard job, didn't have it in years, and when I did it was in a few relatively short bursts. I finished high school and went on with doing stuff on the web right away.. eventually I started making a basic living. But since then 100% of my time is my own. I can barely even imagine working for someone else right now..

Since these are still quite insubstantial earnings though I still do have some constraints of course as there is the need to increase that to be really comfortable for instance taking chunks of time off for something non-work related (like pursuing romance., travel etc. ), but I think I'll get there.

"Do what you love" can work -- you just have to be good at it, make money doing it, and hope that you don't destroy your love for it. Once you trade money for that love, things can change ... just ask any artist forced to paint to pay the mortgage versus painting by inspiration..

What I love to do is making web sites, especially about philosophy and technology, and write for them, produce content for it on my own (at least at the start to form the basis, later I can hire trusted people and similar thinkers to do it for me) with special emphasis on aesthetics and business aspects (translation: I LOVE making it look good, better than the competition and even going as far as using culture like music or movies to promote it and create a whole experience, not just information delivery, and from the get go envision ways in which it'll be monetized, beyond just advertising).

What would kill my motivation would be to do a web design for hire business. I already considered that and I just don't feel motivated at all. I am not excited about making web sites according to somebody elses vision.

So I'm gonna do it my way, and if I managed to make a living with the two previous bigger projects I did, perhaps I will make far more with this next one.

And then I'll move to even bigger things and so on until I reach my dreams... I don't see those intermediary steps but something will come up. I could almost see it. When it's something I'm passionate about I almost know somewhere at some point I'll encounter some opportunity that will allow my project to not only grow itself, but open the doors to something much much bigger.

Thanks for the clarifications and inspiration!

(Oh and btw, the site in my signature isn't my new main project. )

 

[zauberer]

This is a great thread... you know all too often people are afraid of making mistakes and they live a life of "what if" and giving up their dreams... I am learning to to welcome failures and mistakes....and many of them...the more failures you make the closer you get to winning. Plus there is always room for those little victories that tend to build up and give momentum.

 

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