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- Jan 8, 2014
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One terrific thing about the book is that it helps you rule out ideas that are unlikely to make you a millionaire. Sometimes, I think that's half the battle. Let's say you're smart and ambitious and willing to work hard. If you're working on the wrong things, you might be wasting your time. But when you turn that energy to a Fastlane venture, your odds of success skyrocket.
(Now, if I'd only read the book before that unfortunate coffee-shop venture...)
You'd think, but I still see *loads* of people on here launching businesses that are intimately tied to their time or individual talents, location dependent, or unlikely to scale. They're playing the game on hard mode. Why?
The Chinese restaurant near me (one of about 20 within a 15-minute drive), the same three guys and two girls work there ELEVEN HOURS A DAY, SEVEN DAYS A WEEK. There is rarely anyone in there. They look incredibly tired each time I go in there. I walk past there late at night in the summer when I'm jogging: They all pile in a 90's Mercury minivan with severe rust damage and a broken side window when they leave. That's what it looks like when you violate CENTS.
This whole idea that CENTS needs to be an initial requirement to start a business, as opposed to a vision for what a business should eventually become, is severely misguided in my opinion. It ends up being more of an excuse and keeps people from taking action.
That Chinese restaurant example you gave is because of the mindset of the entrepreneur/s running it, not because of the business model. There's this other little coffee shop I know about in Seattle, how did it eventually turn into Starbucks while other little coffee shops stayed little?
How did that little barbecue restaurant in San Bernardino turn into McDonald's while other little restaurants stayed mom and pop?
How did that little distributor/affiliate for some Japanese brand shoes eventually become Nike?
Instead of people looking for the new flavor-of-the-week magic-button business, I'm a strong believer that the right entrepreneur can take pretty much any business model out there, as slowlane as it may be at first, and knock some CENTS into it.
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