Help Please: What are Your Biggest Challenges?

[AroundTheWorld]

Hello,

I wonder if you guys could help me with something....

What are your biggest challenges and / or obstacles in your quest for financial freedom and/or entrepreneurship? Maybe top 3.

Also... if you don't mind disclosing... How old are you and how long have you been on this (fastlane) journey?

Thanks

 

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[DeletedUser2]

the one I get the most, are business roadmaps.

 

[AroundTheWorld]

Thanks Z. Can you expand on that? How is that an obstacle?

 

[throttleforward]

Before a month ago I'd say having the proper mindset. Now it's finding the right partners to help me scale.

 

[AroundTheWorld]

Before a month ago I'd say having the proper mindset. Now it's finding the right partners to help me scale.

Throttleforward,

What specifically was it about your mindset that was an obstable for you? And, in what way is it difficult to find a partner?
Thanks

 

[karolizas]

1.Figuring out where I want to be(location-wise). London,England vs Lithuania vs "????" Even though London has way more opportunities I seem to find myself constantly getting frustrated about the weather and the atmosphere of the place(plus it feels kinda lonely even though I'm here with one of my best friends). Whereas Lithuania feels like home, though it's in the economical gutter and I'm afraid I just have nostalgia-goggles on. The US has always attracted me, but there is no way in, the other EU countries don't attract me at all.

2.Surrounding myself with like-minded people. This is the biggest one, my friend just wants an easy life and as much as I hate to say that, he only looks out for himself. The other people that surround me on a daily basis just don't share the same values (aka: discipline, hard-work, productivity, self-education, overcoming challenges, fitness).

3.Creating order in my life. With all the job-hopping, location changing I've lost track of where I am and what do I need to do to get ahead (what things to learn first,go to uni or not etc.)

 

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[Gale4rc]

Making the product market fit.

5years, 25/yr old

 

[Viral]

1. Remaining with authority and respect to other co-workers.

Besides giving entertainment and financial value to clients.In order for me to inspire and keep co-workers/friends/clients around working i must equally provide them with valuable experience, advice and make it worth their time to work for me and the cause.

When i was teamed up with a friend who i met on the net we made a 50/50 business ownership agreement.Now this is something that got to be hard on me and hem, learned a lesson as to why there must always someone be directly in charge of others.We could not often agree on the decisions, fought and quite a lot of power struggle emerged, which lead to hurting our business and clients.

2. Never enough of marketing

Which i wanted but did not end up doing was going to personally make videos with updates, news with motivating and funny content.Now this is something that i will do better next time.To show who is out there and that they can trust us, because we are not afraid to show ourselves and not afraid to be public.


3.Money management & networking.

We all want to grow a ton and often times i was very confused on where to invest revenue between options like affiliates, hiring someone and/or buying more marketing.The marketing aspect also split into many, many other options.

I realized that i was attracting people who were not generally interested, a lot energy and time got consumed in the wrong people, cause they did not add fire to our vision and basically just leeching, holding back our growth.Later on when i finally got a better source of traffic with interest i noticed that my methods were attracting a lot of poor people and this kept the richer folks away.
Sometimes it's better not to offer any money[sign-up bonus] than a low amount






Also... if you don't mind disclosing... How old are you and how long have you been on this (fastlane) journey?



22 years old.I spent a couple months building an gambling operation(poker room) and running it for 3-5 months to eventually face bankruptcy and shut down.A lot of mistakes, failure and stress, but i grew a lot as a person and a businessman.

 

[GravyBoat]

Biggest challenges?

1. Sticking to an idea. My head is constantly spinning with new ideas. I'll go great guns on them for 2 weeks, then they fizzle out. I probably have 6 or 7 "business ideas" in the works anywhere from contacting suppliers, making a website, marketing the current situation, etc.

2. Support. Sometimes it's hard. Family, friends, etc will either laugh at your idea (or close to it), or give you false hopes. It's been said here before (I think by Vigilante), but 1 failed attempt is worth the opinions of 1,000 friends and family members.

Those are the two biggest I can think of. Once you work through them, you are well on your way. Learn to tune-out the negativity, and focus.

That's all the advice I can give for now. Hopefully everything is going alright for you, and best of luck as always!

Gravy

EDIT: And yes, as Viral said, respecting co-worker's and bosses at the Slowlane job has become VERY different since joining the forum. There are so many 1 percent-ers here that are all like-minded. Interacting with the 99% on a daily basis becomes harder once you realize that you don't agree with their life decisions at all. No reason not to "respect" a person, but your opposing viewpoints could make for some interesting conversations to say the least!

 

[DeletedUser2]

business maps.

so how do you bring a product or service to market?
there are dozens, but most people go around trying to "reinvent" the maps. where as a road map is pretty much the same, depending on your model

1. an mlm model. get a product, or service, utilize a group of people to start, and grow it.
2. direct response sales, (online or offline) get minimum viable product, get it to market test. kill or scale
3. content rich "GURU" style models.
4. the Retail play.
5. The small to large retail play then franchise
6. the manufacturing play
7 the Middleman play (reactors brokers etc)
8. services play industrial level(provide a service to an industry that is larger, and you only need 2-5 larger customers)
9. services play consumer (get 10,000 customers and get them the service...)
10. the outlet model (buy in bulk, sell in bulk)
11. importing to whole sale
12, importing to retail.
13. long term asset play, (real estate, stocks, investing for capital gains, or cashflow)

so, after seeing hundreds of businesses, I found that they bread down into maybe about a dozen models.
when a new person approaches business, I find they dont even have the basic understanding of the different components. the "models" they spend alot of time "thinking up the business model"
when actually, they only need to take pieces, and stack them together like legos.

once that is done, its execution time.

they also dont understand the 4 fundamental parts of business.
1. product/service
2. Traffic
3. Conversion
4. Admin.

I see alot of entrepreneurs getting caught up in product/service or admin. rather than focusing on the most important part first. traffic.

so maybe a map development of that? (I really should write that one up)

I think if you were to identify a difficult starting point,
its the Business model map. they dont have a roadmap to diff models, and are just spending time redoing everything...

Make sense?

Z

 

[arcola]

what is a map development?

Is it actually an illustration or a list? or just written out?

 

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[AroundTheWorld]

I think if you were to identify a difficult starting point,
its the Business model map. they dont have a roadmap to diff models, and are just spending time redoing everything...

Make sense?

Z

So this would boil down to.... not knowing where to start? reinventing the wheel? Not understanding how to research / find information that is already out there? And maybe later turning into Analysis Paralysis...

Thanks Z - and all. I appreciate the comments. Keep them coming. Very helpful to me, and I appreciate you taking the time.

 

[throttleforward]

Throttleforward,

What specifically was it about your mindset that was an obstacle for you? And, in what way is it difficult to find a partner?
Thanks

Mindset:
1) I had serious doubts that I could actually achieve what I wanted to achieve (I recently made a thread titled something along the lines of I don't think I can make it)
2) I was chasing money as an end, as a finish line. I realized that I needed to self-identify as an entrepreneur, and do the things that entrepreneurs do not because I'm trying to reach a goal, but because it's who I am as a person. The money will follow, and when I achieve the money my desire to do what entrepreneurs do won't stop.

Partner:
I've made the decision to partner with someone who's smarter than me technically, as I've reached the end of my technical expertise and I want to scale quickly (I don't believe I'll have the time to learn along the way if I am going to compete with the big travel websites). I could be wrong, but that's the call I've made. Thus, I have to find the start up equivalent of a 10/10 model to "go out with me", which is pretty hard. The one guy I found so far would be great, but he's here on an H1B so technically he could get deported if he worked on a startup. The other tech people I've talked to don't have the mix of experience i need - they are too specialized or they are experts in things I don't need yet.

 

[harerace]

Gaining traffic to content generated sites.

 

[DeletedUser2]

So this would boil down to.... not knowing where to start? reinventing the wheel? Not understanding how to research / find information that is already out there? And maybe later turning into Analysis Paralysis...

KIND OF
so imagine a newbie saying I want to start a fastlane biz... well, not all businesses are fastlane. how can they tell?

they also, come in, and say, I have a product, and I want to sell it.... HOW.... they go around trying out different business models, and eventually they go away.

I think a flowchart, or a list, or some business model map could help.

Z

 

[Chris R]

Currently for me, even though I finally am finding a path as I just got my very first person interested in what I'm doing, my biggest challenge is computer technology. I don't understand the intricate details of how to get programs to cooperate. I don't care to understand it. My mind just doesn't focus like that.

This develops hate within me towards the company because it wastes time that needs to be spent elsewhere. It would be nice if this stuff was dumbed down to a ten year old level of comprehension, without some sly way to lock you into something. And even though I have the money, charging an arm and a leg for a possible solution also develops disdain. The reality though is I'm going to have to buy the solution if I want to move forward...

I will get this done, as I don't stop, but my life has not been spent learning technology. sigh

 

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[beatgoezon]

For me the biggest challenges I have to face are:

1) Dealing with living in this stupid country (Pakistan). It gets under my nerves, the culture irritated me a lot, but it's getting more bearable now, before I'd spend days at a time venting my anger instead of working on my own goals. It's gotten better now and I've become more focused. In the end, I just want to go back home (Dallas, TX) so I can live a life of peace. The challenge is to concentrate on business and my work, rather than stress myself out over the situation I'm in..

2) Finding a "voice" for my content site... I'm still not sure what my voice is, who exactly I want to target, and what value I want to provide... The challenge is to create that "voice" and authority presence. Also, I'm not sure how to direct this path into a Fastlane strategy complying with the CENTS guidelines. eBook, courses, publishing a physical book etc... Still not quite sure... It's something I'm still working on and closing in on daily, even if my isn't quite right yet...

3) Building a routine focused only around working on the business. I'm working on self-discipline, good habits, and overcoming fear so that I can make good progress, unfortunately I'm still not quite there yet, lol...

I'm 23 and I've been on this journey for a few months now. I've been "thinking" of becoming financially free since I was 20, started a few ventures but both failed. The problem was a lack of focus and a bad mindset. At 21 I got into personal development to tune myself up and changed my mindset.

About 8 months ago in April I finally started a site and stopped thinking. In August I found read the Millionaire Fastlane , it's basically what's gotten me driving on the right path now. Obviously I've still got a long way to go and I'll run into many more obstacles but I'm getting more and more focused and closer to the right thing.

 

[Allen]

Moving out of my six-figure corporate W2 comfort zone. It's easy to get motivated when your situation sucks, but when you're raising a family and thinking about their welfare, you tend to be more cautious. I have many ideas on how to help fill a need or eliminate pains, I just need to take more action. My motivation is freedom of time and freedom from being dependent on an employer. I would rather have 1000 customers than one boss. That's true job security!

 

[RogueInnovation]

When I started it was mostly me asking questions about why I felt so undeserving, and what business even was (I thought it was about spreadsheets annnnd more spreadsheets, when really that isn't really a very big part at all).
I then thought it was about business meetings and venture capital, and some magic way of convincing board members that xyz was amazing (because I needed them to validate it).
I then tried to reinvent the wheel like mentioned above.

I was really quite depressed at the start or even horrified at the unknown in front of me and was in a bad place financially.
Friends and family didn't want to help, and so I then tried to fund my own learning process and tried to gain the budgeting and "you can trust me with money" skills and integrity.

I then gained an ability to hustle and was looking for small ways to make cash here and there to cover gaps in pay checks and pay back small loans from friends etc.

Then I was looking for mindsets and ways to make my processes more efficient, as well as ways to get distribution relationships set up.
I then needed marketting, branding, conversions, customer service, modeling my services and products, design, sales.

After that it was about resourcefulness and talking to people in a socially acceptable way. Because at that time I didn't know how to naturally approach business and was struggling with it.

Then I worried about critics, reviews and value propositions. Viral marketting, social media, etc etc etc.

Then web setup, taxes, stats, admin, maintaining traffic, double checking things against trends and historical successes in that sector, setting the right pricing etc

 

[nicpascal]

Hi, Around The World…

I am so indecisive, sometimes I believe I have a multiple personality disorder. I will decide an idea is not worth pursuing in the morning and then in the afternoon I will believe it is a fantastic idea again. I suck at making money! I go through states of extreme highs and visions of success and then through lows where I feel like a vagabond cruising the streets.

Thoughts??

 

[AroundTheWorld]

I just need to take more action.

And you don't because....



Thanks

 

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[AroundTheWorld]

Hi, Around The World…

I am so indecisive, sometimes I believe I have a multiple personality disorder. I will decide an idea is not worth pursuing in the morning and then in the afternoon I will believe it is a fantastic idea again. I suck at making money! I go through states of extreme highs and visions of success and then through lows where I feel like a vagabond cruising the streets.

Thoughts??

Nicpascal,

Thanks for your reply.

When you think of an idea, what process do you go through to decide if it is a good one? Do you perform any sort of market research to help you see clearly if there might be a market for it?

 

[nicpascal]

Hi atw!!

Well, I live in Sydney Australia. It's not really that I don't want to undertake market research, I am quite happy to commit to any due diligence. However, I lose out when it comes to knowing what I am truly passionate about. I have a good work ethic and don't mind getting my hands dirty but I just don't want to make the stupid mistake of establishing something with a view to monetize but without the passion and the drive to see it through till the end. It's a catch 22. I am willing to work very hard to achieve what I want to, but I know that I will be miserable and won't be able to dedicate myself if I make the wrong choice!

Does this make sense??

Best Regards

Nic

 

[FreeMan]

What are your biggest challenges and / or obstacles in your quest for financial freedom and/or entrepreneurship? Maybe top 3.

1. Focussing too much on the details. I'm a detailed orientated person and can easily get distracted with research or an administrative task that may be interesting but not critical to building a business.

2. Trying to do it all myself. Especially for new ideas where I'm not sure about the viability of the project, to reduce my financial risk, I'll do whatever I can myself (e.g. building website, video/photo editing, desktop publishing). But this led to a project that should have taken a month or so to complete to taking nearly a year to do especially as I'm doing this part-time (I have a job and young family).

3. Slow execution and decision making. As a result of the other points above, it can sometimes take a long time to get things done and especially to the market validation stage. As @zend***phin suggests I'm learning to "kill bad ideas fast".

Also... if you don't mind disclosing... How old are you and how long have you been on this (fastlane) journey?

I just turned 40 and have been on and off this (not very fastlane) journey since late 2000.

 

[Determined2012]

I am 30. I just started to develop a mindset centered around entrepreneurship in June of 2012 when I found MJ's book by googling how to make $5,000 or something to that effect!

I am one of the people who believe in my heart and mind that this book changed the course and path of my life.

So anyway-

3 challenges for me:

1. Being balanced, disciplined, and consistent. One thing I remember verbatim is MJ saying you have to have a commitment bordering an obsession. I'm a super literal person and staying precisely and specifically obsessed and focused is a challenge for me because i try to incorporate and manage other techniques and helpful tips I get from books or the forum. So I need to create a solution for this.

2. Stop changing my path and just commit to what I say I'm going to work on. My mind races anytime I think of business and financial freedom. I get highly motivated and determined and then distracted with my idea- and I start to go in a circle of overwhelmness (not a word) which leads to sporadic action taking.

3. Fear to pursue a dream so big that it scares me. My vision seems insurmountable - yet I know and believe it's 1000% possible. Being persistent even when you don't have all the answers or don't have all the numbers to back it up or prove to family that what you are investing everything on is working it's just a slow process.


I thought I lost this post with out first being able to save or post it and lost my train of thought -
But these are the things for me.

Distractions- need to learn tips to isolate and eliminate distractions.

Any ideas or suggestions?!

 

[Lakeview]

What are your biggest challenges and / or obstacles in your quest for financial freedom and/or entrepreneurship? Maybe top 3.
Also... if you don't mind disclosing... How old are you and how long have you been on this (fastlane) journey?

1. Sticking with the basics/one idea.

• I have a service idea I know will build a good business. I get distracted by all the potential expanded service offerings I could include. This has delayed me getting the process running. I have a lot of directions to pivot with this idea if one part fails. Even though, I've learned, read and heard of keeping it simple and start. I fell into the trap. Perhaps it is the result of my #2 below (mindset) but I'll call it a diversion because of a fear of failure. I'm sticking with the basic model and moving forward.

2. I hear the word mindset, so I'll use that. To elaborate, shifting from the comfort of working and receiving a paycheck to accepting the risk and lack of immediate pay on building a business.

• This is far different than my 30+ years in a job. Both for me and my wife.

3. Distraction from to much research. Reading books, researching on the internet. Looking for the best tools to make my business work.

• Reality check - There is no best tool! Just start! I think research is good because it convinced me I should take the step. I think where the friction come from is when I was taking it to far by trying to learn as much as possible to overcome an uncertainty that my adventure has risks and the more I know would minimize those risks.

I am 57 years old, have been at the ceiling for my job and was laid off. Looked for a job for two months (while doing research) read the The Millionaire Fastlane and others. Started Fastlane journey last October. Thought I should do some consulting, witch was a diversion (see #2 above), so now I'm 100% on my fastlane path and going to see it through.

Thanks for asking!

For the benefit of others, I copied this from Mastery by Robert Greene and look at it every day. It helps me with my "mindset" if you will.

There are two kinds of failure. The first comes from never trying out your ideas because you are afraid, or because you are waiting for the perfect time. This kind of failure you can never learn from, and such timidity will destroy you. The second kind comes from a bold and venturesome spirit. If you fail in this way, the hit you take from your reputation is greatly outweighed by what you learn. Repeated failure will toughen your spirit and show you with absolute clarity how things must be done. In fact, it is a curse to have everything go right on your first attempt.

 

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