Is THIS the reason why young entrepreneurs are destined to fail? The problem I'm having with Fastlane...

[theguy22]

Hi all,

I'm 25 years of age and only finished reading TMF a few months ago. Since then, I've made it my goal to become a multi-millionaire within the next 5-7 years, give or take.

Committed to this goal, I thought it was a sensible idea for me to research the average age of a successful/high-growth start-up founder (now when I say research, I mean just running some Google searches and reading the results on the first page).

From where I'm from, the UK, it seems like the age is 36. (source)
The consensus based on the first page seems to be either 34 or 45 (see pic at end of this post).
(Note: these are the ages in which they found the company, the exits probably came between 5-10 years after)

Be it 34 or 45, these are relatively big ages. Now I'm no expert but I would make the argument that the reason why a start-up at this age is more likely to be successful is because of domain expertise.

Domain expertise simply put just means having in-depth knowledge about a particular field/industry, typically acquired through working in that industry for many years (7+ realistically). If you have domain expertise, you'll know how the industry is shaping up, what its trends are, whether it's growing or declining and what its biggest problems are. It's this last one that puts you at the most ripe position for starting a business in that market. Interestingly, one of the top reasons why start-ups fail is because of no market need. And it makes sense... If you don't know what the pain points of a customer in a particular market are, how can you design a product/service that will solve their problems?

When you're creating a product for a market that you don't have knowledge about, it's very easy to fall victim to the Dunning-Kruger effect — this is when you overestimate your ability in something that you have limited knowledge/competence in. You think you've spotted a problem but you haven't, because you don't understand the needs of the customers in that market well enough to know whether that problem is actually a problem or not.

The problem I'm having with Fastlane is that I'm not sure how I can become a multi-millionaire while I'm young (which is the point of fastlane) when domain expertise realistically takes at least 7+ years to build. How do I know that if I launch a product, it's actually solving a problem in its market? Even if I take an existing product, how do I make it 10x better when I don't know what the objective criteria is? I'm not trying to have or promote a defeatist attitude, I'm specifically curious to know what this forum's thoughts are on the issue of domain expertise especially given that many of the aspiring entrepreneurs here are early twenty-somethings wanting to become multi-millionaires before 30.

I just feel as though if you're a young entrepreneur (<27), you're inevitably going to lack sufficient domain expertise to create something that can scale to the point that it gets acquired for a large exit sum. Thus, you're more constrained to starting low barrier to entry businesses which would violate CENTS. So my question really is if you're a young entrepreneur how should you approach fastlane entrepreneurship and how do you address lack of domain expertise?

I would appreciate if the responses are pragmatic rather than the generic 'change your mindset', 'you can put anything you put your mind to' kind of stuff.

------

 

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[Velo]

Hi all,

I'm 25 years of age and only finished reading TMF a few months ago. Since then, I've made it my goal to become a multi-millionaire within the next 5-7 years, give or take.

Committed to this goal, I thought it was a sensible idea for me to research the average age of a successful/high-growth start-up founder (now when I say research, I mean just running some Google searches and reading the results on the first page).

From where I'm from, the UK, it seems like the age is 36. (source)
The consensus based on the first page seems to be either 34 or 45 (see pic at end of this post).
(Note: these are the ages in which they found the company, the exits probably came between 5-10 years after)

Be it 34 or 45, these are relatively big ages. Now I'm no expert but I would make the argument that the reason why a start-up at this age is more likely to be successful is because of domain expertise.

Domain expertise simply put just means having in-depth knowledge about a particular field/industry, typically acquired through working in that industry for many years (7+ realistically). If you have domain expertise, you'll know how the industry is shaping up, what its trends are, whether it's growing or declining and what its biggest problems are. It's this last one that puts you at the most ripe position for starting a business in that market. Interestingly, one of the top reasons why start-ups fail is because of no market need. And it makes sense... If you don't know what the pain points of a customer in a particular market are, how can you design a product/service that will solve their problems?

When you're creating a product for a market that you don't have knowledge about, it's very easy to fall victim to the Dunning-Kruger effect — this is when you overestimate your ability in something that you have limited knowledge/competence in. You think you've spotted a problem but you haven't, because you don't understand the needs of the customers in that market well enough to know whether that problem is actually a problem or not.

The problem I'm having with Fastlane is that I'm not sure how I can become a multi-millionaire while I'm young (which is the point of fastlane) when domain expertise realistically takes at least 7+ years to build. How do I know that if I launch a product, it's actually solving a problem in its market? Even if I take an existing product, how do I make it 10x better when I don't know what the objective criteria is? I'm not trying to have or promote a defeatist attitude, I'm specifically curious to know what this forum's thoughts are on the issue of domain expertise especially given that many of the aspiring entrepreneurs here are early twenty-somethings wanting to become multi-millionaires before 30.

I just feel as though if you're a young entrepreneur (<27), you're inevitably going to lack sufficient domain expertise to create something that can scale to the point that it gets acquired for a large exit sum. Thus, you're more constrained to starting low barrier to entry businesses which would violate CENTS. So my question really is if you're a young entrepreneur how should you approach fastlane entrepreneurship and how do you address lack of domain expertise?

I would appreciate if the responses are pragmatic rather than the generic 'change your mindset', 'you can put anything you put your mind to' kind of stuff.

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View attachment 42846

People are more likely to fail if

1) They don't really believe what they are doing is valuable (unless you are a sociopath willing to rip people off, you will essentially be "fighting against yourself" the entire time)

2) They don't have a true "end goal" in mind (traveling the world and having lambos is great, but I find I am not a very materialistic person so those, while good to have, are not going to motivate me to do the grind)

3) They do not understand or apply properly concepts like market supply/demand, marketing, financing a business, timing, etc.

 

[BizyDad]

Hi all,

I'm 25 years of age and only finished reading TMF a few months ago. Since then, I've made it my goal to become a multi-millionaire within the next 5-7 years, give or take.

Committed to this goal, I thought it was a sensible idea for me to research the average age of a successful/high-growth start-up founder (now when I say research, I mean just running some Google searches and reading the results on the first page).

From where I'm from, the UK, it seems like the age is 36. (source)
The consensus based on the first page seems to be either 34 or 45 (see pic at end of this post).
(Note: these are the ages in which they found the company, the exits probably came between 5-10 years after)

Be it 34 or 45, these are relatively big ages. Now I'm no expert but I would make the argument that the reason why a start-up at this age is more likely to be successful is because of domain expertise.

Domain expertise simply put just means having in-depth knowledge about a particular field/industry, typically acquired through working in that industry for many years (7+ realistically). If you have domain expertise, you'll know how the industry is shaping up, what its trends are, whether it's growing or declining and what its biggest problems are. It's this last one that puts you at the most ripe position for starting a business in that market. Interestingly, one of the top reasons why start-ups fail is because of no market need. And it makes sense... If you don't know what the pain points of a customer in a particular market are, how can you design a product/service that will solve their problems?

When you're creating a product for a market that you don't have knowledge about, it's very easy to fall victim to the Dunning-Kruger effect — this is when you overestimate your ability in something that you have limited knowledge/competence in. You think you've spotted a problem but you haven't, because you don't understand the needs of the customers in that market well enough to know whether that problem is actually a problem or not.

The problem I'm having with Fastlane is that I'm not sure how I can become a multi-millionaire while I'm young (which is the point of fastlane) when domain expertise realistically takes at least 7+ years to build. How do I know that if I launch a product, it's actually solving a problem in its market? Even if I take an existing product, how do I make it 10x better when I don't know what the objective criteria is? I'm not trying to have or promote a defeatist attitude, I'm specifically curious to know what this forum's thoughts are on the issue of domain expertise especially given that many of the aspiring entrepreneurs here are early twenty-somethings wanting to become multi-millionaires before 30.

I just feel as though if you're a young entrepreneur (<27), you're inevitably going to lack sufficient domain expertise to create something that can scale to the point that it gets acquired for a large exit sum. Thus, you're more constrained to starting low barrier to entry businesses which would violate CENTS. So my question really is if you're a young entrepreneur how should you approach fastlane entrepreneurship and how do you address lack of domain expertise?

I would appreciate if the responses are pragmatic rather than the generic 'change your mindset', 'you can put anything you put your mind to' kind of stuff.

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View attachment 42846

Domain experience can be built up after you found the company...

Just because people are young doesn't mean they're destined to fail...

People fail because they either don't have a good enough idea, or don't have good enough execution.

 

[biophase]

Be it 34 or 45, these are relatively big ages. Now I'm no expert but I would make the argument that the reason why a start-up at this age is more likely to be successful is because of domain expertise.

Domain expertise simply put just means having in-depth knowledge about a particular field/industry, typically acquired through working in that industry for many years (7+ realistically). If you have domain expertise, you'll know how the industry is shaping up, what its trends are, whether it's growing or declining and what its biggest problems are. It's this last one that puts you at the most ripe position for starting a business in that market. Interestingly, one of the top reasons why start-ups fail is because of no market need. And it makes sense... If you don't know what the pain points of a customer in a particular market are, how can you design a product/service that will solve their problems?

I am 50 now. I was 36 when I started into ecommerce. I had no domain experience. It's not like between 25-36 I was studying online businesses and kept failing. In fact, there was no ecommerce when I was 25.

I think the main reason the people are older is because many don't start businesses until they are much older. Many are working jobs, enjoying life or in college at 25, and even 30.

Also, people at 20-25 don't have alot of money. They don't have capital to start a business and sadly, people won't lend money to them either. So many will save and save to start their business later.

And you get people who never thought they wanted to start a business when they were 20-25. But life sucked, jobs sucked and they had an FTE that made them jump into business. I never thought I would be starting a business when I was 25-30. I was always looking for jobs.

But being older does give you life experience. By just being alive longer means that you have amassed more knowledge and memories. These may or may not give you an edge depending on how you interpret them.

 

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[WJK]

Hi all,

I'm 25 years of age and only finished reading TMF a few months ago. Since then, I've made it my goal to become a multi-millionaire within the next 5-7 years, give or take.

Committed to this goal, I thought it was a sensible idea for me to research the average age of a successful/high-growth start-up founder (now when I say research, I mean just running some Google searches and reading the results on the first page).

From where I'm from, the UK, it seems like the age is 36. (source)
The consensus based on the first page seems to be either 34 or 45 (see pic at end of this post).
(Note: these are the ages in which they found the company, the exits probably came between 5-10 years after)

Be it 34 or 45, these are relatively big ages. Now I'm no expert but I would make the argument that the reason why a start-up at this age is more likely to be successful is because of domain expertise.

Domain expertise simply put just means having in-depth knowledge about a particular field/industry, typically acquired through working in that industry for many years (7+ realistically). If you have domain expertise, you'll know how the industry is shaping up, what its trends are, whether it's growing or declining and what its biggest problems are. It's this last one that puts you at the most ripe position for starting a business in that market. Interestingly, one of the top reasons why start-ups fail is because of no market need. And it makes sense... If you don't know what the pain points of a customer in a particular market are, how can you design a product/service that will solve their problems?

When you're creating a product for a market that you don't have knowledge about, it's very easy to fall victim to the Dunning-Kruger effect — this is when you overestimate your ability in something that you have limited knowledge/competence in. You think you've spotted a problem but you haven't, because you don't understand the needs of the customers in that market well enough to know whether that problem is actually a problem or not.

The problem I'm having with Fastlane is that I'm not sure how I can become a multi-millionaire while I'm young (which is the point of fastlane) when domain expertise realistically takes at least 7+ years to build. How do I know that if I launch a product, it's actually solving a problem in its market? Even if I take an existing product, how do I make it 10x better when I don't know what the objective criteria is? I'm not trying to have or promote a defeatist attitude, I'm specifically curious to know what this forum's thoughts are on the issue of domain expertise especially given that many of the aspiring entrepreneurs here are early twenty-somethings wanting to become multi-millionaires before 30.

I just feel as though if you're a young entrepreneur (<27), you're inevitably going to lack sufficient domain expertise to create something that can scale to the point that it gets acquired for a large exit sum. Thus, you're more constrained to starting low barrier to entry businesses which would violate CENTS. So my question really is if you're a young entrepreneur how should you approach fastlane entrepreneurship and how do you address lack of domain expertise?

I would appreciate if the responses are pragmatic rather than the generic 'change your mindset', 'you can put anything you put your mind to' kind of stuff.

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View attachment 42846

1. Your first task is to learn to make money. That takes listening to your customers to really understand them. You must find that niche or pain point that can be leveraged, You're right about acquiring knowledge about that segment of the market and your customer. It's only a jumping-off point.

2. Your next step is to create a start-up business that works or buy an existing business that is doing what you want to do.

If you do a start-up, you have high odds of failing within the first 5 years. The most common failure point for start-ups is a lack of capitalization -- they simply run out of working capital. before they can achieve profitability. The second biggest reason is a lack of experience in execution. There are a lot of daily decisions to make and then act on as you go along.

If you buy an existing business, the hunt for that business averages at least a year of unpaid concentrated work. It also takes big bucks to make the buy, so you can expect to qualify for acquisition heavy financing. You'll probably also need a money partner for part of the financing -- like the down payment, blue sky, and inventory.

3. Next you must manage that business and make it grow. That takes a totally different skill set than the start-up phase. That's the day-to-day grind. It's often not an exciting routine for a guy who loves the start-up phase. And again, spurts of growth usually take a whole new capital infusion. This is another point where many fail.

4. While you are doing steps 1 - 3, you must learn to manage yourself and your cash flows. Otherwise, you will quickly destroy everything that you have built so far.

5. You then must learn to invest your profits to create passive cash flow. That takes a whole new set of skills. I have a rule on this phase. You can make all the money in the world. It only matters how much you have left over to invest after you pay your bills. In my mind, this is the real game in all of this.

 

[Andy Black]

high-growth start-up

Are you talking about creating a unicorn? There’s lots of successful young entrepreneurs who didn’t build a high-growth start-up.

I personally think your goal is wrong. Why not just get started (helping people!), earn money, scale, and get more freedom along the way? Why not get paid to acquire domain expertise, build your business, and grow as an entrepreneur?

Because you made your goal to become a millionaire by 30 by creating a high-growth start-up you’ve then researched just that scenario. I think you’ve then severely limited your options and thinking.

I say this having worked for a high-growth start-up, one that failed because (imo) their goal was to build a high-growth start-up and not to help people, get paid, and help more people.

Business is that simple: help people, get paid, help more people. The only reason it’s not simple is because we complicate it.

Check out MJ’s video:

• GOLD! - From Flat-Broke to Financial Freedom: How to Get Started When You Have No Money

 

[Black_Dragon43]

Rome wasn’t built in a day. If you’re young, you’ve got to start with the first brick. When I first started out (like 12 years ago) I had NO domain experience, never held a job, and my only “achievements” were academic. Yet I started freelancing which later morphed into an agency business, which is now slowly morphing into a consulting business.

I would never have gained the domain experience though if I didn’t go out there and do stuff. So the game isn’t stacked against young people, rather it’s that young people start at zero, which is normal, how could it be otherwise?

Imagine a baby just born complaining that he can’t walk, and doesn’t know how to talk, or write or even basic stuff like arithmetic… the game is so stacked against him. And yet, YOU sir are that baby and what you’re forgetting is that patience is key to ambition and success, because it rids of you of one of the toughest enemies on this path, which is one of the only enemies that can really make you quit, called FRUSTRATION!

 

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[Jobless]

If it takes 7 years to gain this domain expertise for the average person, a fast learner that puts in more time / effort, will learn this expertise in 3 years.

 

[thehighlander]

Hi all,

I'm 25 years of age and only finished reading TMF a few months ago. Since then, I've made it my goal to become a multi-millionaire within the next 5-7 years, give or take.

Committed to this goal, I thought it was a sensible idea for me to research the average age of a successful/high-growth start-up founder (now when I say research, I mean just running some Google searches and reading the results on the first page).

From where I'm from, the UK, it seems like the age is 36. (source)
The consensus based on the first page seems to be either 34 or 45 (see pic at end of this post).
(Note: these are the ages in which they found the company, the exits probably came between 5-10 years after)

Be it 34 or 45, these are relatively big ages. Now I'm no expert but I would make the argument that the reason why a start-up at this age is more likely to be successful is because of domain expertise.

Domain expertise simply put just means having in-depth knowledge about a particular field/industry, typically acquired through working in that industry for many years (7+ realistically). If you have domain expertise, you'll know how the industry is shaping up, what its trends are, whether it's growing or declining and what its biggest problems are. It's this last one that puts you at the most ripe position for starting a business in that market. Interestingly, one of the top reasons why start-ups fail is because of no market need. And it makes sense... If you don't know what the pain points of a customer in a particular market are, how can you design a product/service that will solve their problems?

When you're creating a product for a market that you don't have knowledge about, it's very easy to fall victim to the Dunning-Kruger effect — this is when you overestimate your ability in something that you have limited knowledge/competence in. You think you've spotted a problem but you haven't, because you don't understand the needs of the customers in that market well enough to know whether that problem is actually a problem or not.

The problem I'm having with Fastlane is that I'm not sure how I can become a multi-millionaire while I'm young (which is the point of fastlane) when domain expertise realistically takes at least 7+ years to build. How do I know that if I launch a product, it's actually solving a problem in its market? Even if I take an existing product, how do I make it 10x better when I don't know what the objective criteria is? I'm not trying to have or promote a defeatist attitude, I'm specifically curious to know what this forum's thoughts are on the issue of domain expertise especially given that many of the aspiring entrepreneurs here are early twenty-somethings wanting to become multi-millionaires before 30.

I just feel as though if you're a young entrepreneur (<27), you're inevitably going to lack sufficient domain expertise to create something that can scale to the point that it gets acquired for a large exit sum. Thus, you're more constrained to starting low barrier to entry businesses which would violate CENTS. So my question really is if you're a young entrepreneur how should you approach fastlane entrepreneurship and how do you address lack of domain expertise?

I would appreciate if the responses are pragmatic rather than the generic 'change your mindset', 'you can put anything you put your mind to' kind of stuff.

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View attachment 42846

You must know if you are adding value. Being an expert in the industry will give you an understanding. So will proactively talking to customers. Sometimes a business opp becomes apparent because you work in the industry but you can do quality research to help validate an idea without having to toil for years. Definitely try to validate an idea before putting much work in, definitely no more than the MVP. Better to know the value long before MVP.

 

[loop101]

Failure is part of the process, saying "destined to fail" is like saying "destined to work hard". The "Sifl and Olly" creator wrote a hit song "The United States of Whatever" and described the process of making a hit song, "I wrote 1500 songs that were not hits, before I wrote one that was a hit."

View: https://youtu.be/e1zvhJRIM7M

 

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[Bekit]

I just feel as though if you're a young entrepreneur (<27), you're inevitably going to lack sufficient domain expertise to create something that can scale to the point that it gets acquired for a large exit sum. Thus, you're more constrained to starting low barrier to entry businesses which would violate CENTS. So my question really is if you're a young entrepreneur how should you approach fastlane entrepreneurship and how do you address lack of domain expertise?

I would appreciate if the responses are pragmatic rather than the generic 'change your mindset', 'you can put anything you put your mind to' kind of stuff.

Let me challenge some of your assumptions.

Your Google search was "Average age of a successful startup founder."
- Who says you have to wait to be successful at the "average" age?
- What defines "successful"?

You're working with the hypothesis that "domain expertise" is the ticket. It's good to work with a hypothesis, but it's also good to realize that it's JUST a hypothesis. So take a methodological approach to challenging that hypothesis.

• Does domain expertise equal success? No, obviously not. Look at all the people who have boatloads of domain expertise and they're working for someone else.
• Does lack of domain expertise prevent success? No, just check out all the counter-examples of people who succeeded in an area despite lack of domain expertise. Here's one example - a list of 40 people who became millionaires before they were 20:

40 Young People Who Became Millionaires Before They Were 20

It is often awe-inspiring to think about how early some of the world's most famous entrepreneurs got their start. Many of them simply had a fantastic idea and then just worked their butts off to make it reality.

www.inc.com

So it's probably going to be more productive to shift your focus from, "I have no domain expertise and the only way to accumulate it is through years of experience, so I'm probably destined to fail," and look instead at questions that will unlock productive forward motion.

For instance:

1. What are the common factors or the patterns that exist when someone with little to no domain expertise makes it big-time? (Hint: Most of these people solved a big problem with leadership, not with pure, comprehensive domain expertise.)
2. How can I do effective enough research to truly determine need and product-market fit?
3. What items can I delegate to others who DO have domain expertise?
4. How can I make up for a lack of domain expertise by exercising strengths in other areas?
5. Who who already has the domain expertise, and what would it take to interview them about the real problems in their industry?

It's probably also worth acknowledging... you're up against a hard problem! If it was easy, everyone would do it. If all it took to become a multi-millionaire in the next 5-7 years was to set the goal and then work at it, there would be a lot more people who succeed.

Whenever you're up against a hard problem, it's worth noticing that. It's not exactly like falling off a log to map out a viable plan to become a multi-millionaire in 5-7 years, much less execute it. However, I think the CENTS principles put you way ahead of the curve in terms of identifying good ideas and discarding bad ones.

Here's a good forum post with an approach to solving hard problems:

GOLD! - MINDSET - A physicist's guide to learning hard things (and using the scientific method)

So I was responding to a thread, and realized that one problem I see with some folks, newbies in particular, is that they lack a systematic methodology for teaching oneself. This isn’t surprising, as it’s not really a skill that we’re taught early in life. Realizing this, I figured I would share...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

Hope this helps!

 

[The WolfPreneur]

Hi all,

I'm 25 years of age and only finished reading TMF a few months ago. Since then, I've made it my goal to become a multi-millionaire within the next 5-7 years, give or take.

Committed to this goal, I thought it was a sensible idea for me to research the average age of a successful/high-growth start-up founder (now when I say research, I mean just running some Google searches and reading the results on the first page).

From where I'm from, the UK, it seems like the age is 36. (source)
The consensus based on the first page seems to be either 34 or 45 (see pic at end of this post).
(Note: these are the ages in which they found the company, the exits probably came between 5-10 years after)

Be it 34 or 45, these are relatively big ages. Now I'm no expert but I would make the argument that the reason why a start-up at this age is more likely to be successful is because of domain expertise.

Domain expertise simply put just means having in-depth knowledge about a particular field/industry, typically acquired through working in that industry for many years (7+ realistically). If you have domain expertise, you'll know how the industry is shaping up, what its trends are, whether it's growing or declining and what its biggest problems are. It's this last one that puts you at the most ripe position for starting a business in that market. Interestingly, one of the top reasons why start-ups fail is because of no market need. And it makes sense... If you don't know what the pain points of a customer in a particular market are, how can you design a product/service that will solve their problems?

When you're creating a product for a market that you don't have knowledge about, it's very easy to fall victim to the Dunning-Kruger effect — this is when you overestimate your ability in something that you have limited knowledge/competence in. You think you've spotted a problem but you haven't, because you don't understand the needs of the customers in that market well enough to know whether that problem is actually a problem or not.

The problem I'm having with Fastlane is that I'm not sure how I can become a multi-millionaire while I'm young (which is the point of fastlane) when domain expertise realistically takes at least 7+ years to build. How do I know that if I launch a product, it's actually solving a problem in its market? Even if I take an existing product, how do I make it 10x better when I don't know what the objective criteria is? I'm not trying to have or promote a defeatist attitude, I'm specifically curious to know what this forum's thoughts are on the issue of domain expertise especially given that many of the aspiring entrepreneurs here are early twenty-somethings wanting to become multi-millionaires before 30.

I just feel as though if you're a young entrepreneur (<27), you're inevitably going to lack sufficient domain expertise to create something that can scale to the point that it gets acquired for a large exit sum. Thus, you're more constrained to starting low barrier to entry businesses which would violate CENTS. So my question really is if you're a young entrepreneur how should you approach fastlane entrepreneurship and how do you address lack of domain expertise?

I would appreciate if the responses are pragmatic rather than the generic 'change your mindset', 'you can put anything you put your mind to' kind of stuff.

------

View attachment 42846

Harsh Reality is most people start late. They found what they really want to do and how they really want to live later in their life. But if you ask any successful people who started late that if they have the choice to change one thing in their past life, they'll immediately pick starting early.

As Warren Buffett says...
"One of the biggest factor that determine success is the at age you started"

And you can also take more risk as you're young. Elon Musk said the same thing.

And if you're taking about expertise, I want you do something...

Go and search on Google "People who became millionaire in their 20's". And you won't be having a proper list of people who became millionaire in their 20's because there now there so many people who become millionaire in their 20's that it' super-hard to count them.

It's easier to become a millionaire than it used to be 50 years ago.

And nearly 95% of millionaire in 20's who reached this goal weren't having an expertise, what they did is took action, overcome failures and then victory. And if you're scared of failure or think you're doomed to fail, then you shouldn't be doing this.

 

[Ing]

Im 56 now and didn’t succeed in a business the last 3 decades. And far more away of a fastlane business.
But I had some businesses while my study time. Sadly I stopped, when I got a job, which was my dream job.

So start now. Anyting. And don’t stop your entrepreneur al journey, because any job!
Today is the second best point of time to start. The best one you missed years ago.

 

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[theguy22]

For instance:

1. What are the common factors or the patterns that exist when someone with little to no domain expertise makes it big-time? (Hint: Most of these people solved a big problem with leadership, not with pure, comprehensive domain expertise.)

I would love to learn more about this, do you have any resources to read about these stories in more detail?

I mostly agree with the rest of your response tbh

 

[Bekit]

I would love to learn more about this, do you have any resources to read about these stories in more detail?

I mostly agree with the rest of your response tbh

Great question! This is an idea that @Kak explores pretty frequently on his radio show. (@Kak any particular episodes you'd recommend for this?)

NOTABLE! - HOT! - EXECUTION - Kyle Keegan Radio Show

With over 300 episodes, the Kyle Keegan Radio Show broadcasts the virtue of meaningful entrepreneurial and mutual exchange. This is a contrarian radio show that embraces producing entrepreneurs and challenges the status quo. KKRS is not the onepreneur show. It doesn’t embrace a "4-Hour...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

Another good starting point for that idea is this thread:

GOLD! - Think Big, and Then Think Bigger Than That.

About Texas Central This got me going today (my poor wife ;)) I think it’s interesting. The facts are... -The project will cost upwards of $15 billion. -It is a private Texas based company and it has never built a high speed railroad before. -They have the finances to complete the project...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

[Two Dog]

I just feel as though if you're a young entrepreneur (<27), you're inevitably going to lack sufficient domain expertise to create something that can scale to the point that it gets acquired for a large exit sum. Thus, you're more constrained to starting low barrier to entry businesses which would violate CENTS. So my question really is if you're a young entrepreneur how should you approach fastlane entrepreneurship and how do you address lack of domain expertise?

The question you're asking is valid. The underlying assumptions really aren't.

"successful/high-growth start-up founder" is so squishy, it can't be answered by anyone. It's just so biased and the search results are going to reflect that. What does high growth mean? What does successful mean?" Please don't set your goals based on a statistical analysis of voodoo Google results.

Domain expertise is easier. You either learn it yourself or you find someone else. Mentor, partner, wife, work colleague, employee, consultant, whatever. You only need enough domain expertise to identify a problem and validate it with people who knows more about it than you. Then you launch a business selling a solution to the problem.

 

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[Two Dog]

It's probably also worth acknowledging... you're up against a hard problem! If it was easy, everyone would do it. If all it took to become a multi-millionaire in the next 5-7 years was to set the goal and then work at it, there would be a lot more people who succeed.

I feel like that's exactly what's happening. There are a lot more people succeeding ($1m) at an early age (under 30). Social media amplifies it, but there's definitely far more young self-made millionaires now than fifty years ago outside of the usual entertainment and sports industries.

That's the best possible evidence that being successful is a learned skill.

 

[WJK]

I feel like that's exactly what's happening. There are a lot more people succeeding ($1m) at an early age (under 30). Social media amplifies it, but there's definitely far more young self-made millionaires now than fifty years ago outside of the usual entertainment and sports industries.

That's the best possible evidence that being successful is a learned skill.

Being successful is mastering several sets of skills -- not just one. And the necessary skill set is different at the various steps in the process. One question is IF those young minted millionaires are able to keep that nest egg and grow it over time. Start-up success is totally different than running that business day-to-day and ramping it up to the next level. It's like comparing a sprinter versus a marathon runner.

One million dollars today is a diluted achievement compared to 50 years ago. The minimum wage in 1972 was $1.85 per hour. A new muscle car costs $3.500. There were a lot more business barriers then. Almost all retail commerce was bricks and mortar stores or catalog orders that we picked up at their store. We had a lot smaller reach -- it was mostly just local. Everything was done on paper, through the mail, and by typewriters. We didn't have TV until I was almost out of high school since we lived in rural areas. When I took the California Real Estate Salesman exam in 1976, we weren't allowed to use calculators -- they were used by scientists. It's a different world now.

 

[Two Dog]

One million dollars today is a diluted achievement compared to 50 years ago.

Sure.

What if it's rephrased as "financial independent people under 30 years old?"

You end up in the same place, no?

 

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[WJK]

Sure.

What if it's rephrased as "financial independent people under 30 years old?"

You end up in the same place, no?

No, not necessarily. It doesn't matter how much they have in their first and second nest egg. By the time they get to their third, they are usually smarter about keeping it. My message is the same. I've seen people make piles of money and lose it just as fast -- sequentially.

But, a million just ain't what it used to be. It's not the same benchmark.

 

[LiveEntrepreneur]

This is a tough one mate, I've got well over 5 years of trying to become a 'millionaire before 30' so I know how tough it can be. You pretty much have the same mindset that I did a few years back and I think I still have it to some degree.

Everyone is different in the sense that because our brains work differently, some people will achieve success faster than others. In my case, I'm 5+ years into the journey with no successful business yet, but I have learned a lot along the way and have had a lot of failures. If you are a slower learner, there is a really good chance that you might spend those 5 years making similar mistakes to what I did, then things might start to kicking off after those 5+ years if not more. You can think of those 5-7 years more as building your foundation, making mistakes, going in circles and ruts, etc, until finally things become clear to you and you start to make better decisions, and using the past as lessons on what not to do.

All the questions you ask about are completely valid and good questions, but unfortunately I can't give you an answer because I haven't figured it out myself yet. I'd be able to give you a proper answer once I have an established business, or I might not even end up owning my own business so I'd be unable to give you advice.

The thing is, if I had my own established business that was running well, "AND" I was very happy with the decision I made and the life that I'm living, I'd be confident in myself that I made the right decision and, I could say you to you along the lines of, "I finally figured out business / entrepreneurship for myself and here is what I think I think you should do based on my experience and your current circumstances and what you want....." if that makes any sense.

As I'm getting older I think I've stopped caring about the goal of becoming a millionaire before 30, I want to do something with purpose and meaning, and the great thing is I could probably get rich in the process depending on what I'm doing. Reason I'm mentioning this is because you might struggle to work on a business for a long time because you are "trying to get rich" and you are using that as your motivation. This reason might not be motivating enough for you, and you might keep giving up as a result.

In my journey I've failed to make a product or service successful and based on the experience I have now, I'd probably be doing something similar to what @Andy Black mentioned above, and instead of focusing on having a product because that's what I wanted, instead use my skillset to help other people. It's better for me to do this in the meantime until I find something that I want to work on.

I really want to wish you best of luck man, it's a very difficult journey.

 

[LiveEntrepreneur]

People are more likely to fail if

1) They don't really believe what they are doing is valuable (unless you are a sociopath willing to rip people off, you will essentially be "fighting against yourself" the entire time)

2) They don't have a true "end goal" in mind (traveling the world and having lambos is great, but I find I am not a very materialistic person so those, while good to have, are not going to motivate me to do the grind)

3) They do not understand or apply properly concepts like market supply/demand, marketing, financing a business, timing, etc.

This is gold!

 

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[Black_Mamba_427]

OP - I made more of a takeaway in Fastlane book that it was to make exponential income in a short period of time, not necessarily when you are young. If you start later on, you can still make it. Perhaps it would arguably be easier, as you have matured, built up some cash reserves, easier to get credit, more connections - and so forth.

I started my business officially when I was 25, although I had experience with it (and the surrounding areas) that was useful since around 18-19.

I would say, you shouldn't overwhelm yourself by thinking about Step 20, when you should be focusing on Step 1 first. Think of what you want to do, or an industry where you think you can add value to/interests you. Then setup a business, find customers, make your first sales etc. I'd be totally overwhelmed if someone told me when I was working for my last job what I'm doing right now. I'd think I wasn't capable of doing it, or lacked the knowledge - but you pick up and learn a LOT through trial and error. You try some new things, they work. You try other new things, they don't work. It's all part of the journey.

I think the most important things are learning the skills of selling, how you will find your customers and how they will find you, brand identity, and getting a good accountant that will take care of the stress of your figures and limiting your tax liability. I had some REAL headache issues with taxation in my first couple of years and it took me 2 accountants until I found one that was a dream!

I'd also suggest not focusing so much on the Event of wealth, but the process. Workout how much YOU want to make for your lifestyle, then add on an extra 50% or so for lifestyle costs + taxes + buffer zone. Then break down how long it will roughly take you to make that / if it is even possible, then just rolling with Step 1, then 2, then 3 and enjoying it.

 

[Two Dog]

Committed to this goal, I thought it was a sensible idea for me to research the average age of a successful/high-growth start-up founder (now when I say research, I mean just running some Google searches and reading the results on the first page).

From where I'm from, the UK, it seems like the age is 36. (source)
The consensus based on the first page seems to be either 34 or 45 (see pic at end of this post).
(Note: these are the ages in which they found the company, the exits probably came between 5-10 years after)

Skimming through this thread again made me curious what those numbers are based on. The only possible ways of determining "high-growth" is either self-reported or from outside investors. The former is pretty rare. The latter is commonplace because of how investment money is tracked nowadays and for bragging rights.

Funded companies represent a *tiny* portion of overall startups. For example, the Scotland bit of that source link states 3,020 high-growth companies (as they care to define them) received £2.4B of funding. In comparison, Scotland's population is 5.4 million people with about 350,000 small businesses. It's almost certainly much higher when including single people with P/T gigs.

The real lesson is you won't reach your goal doing what the above groups are doing. Don't follow their example.

p.s. The most exciting thing about today's post was learning how to insert the £ symbol. £ £ £ £ £ ;-)

 

[WJK]

Funded companies represent a *tiny* portion of overall startups. For example, the Scotland bit of that source link states 3,020 high-growth companies (as they care to define them) received £2.4B of funding. In comparison, Scotland's population is 5.4 million people with about 350,000 small businesses. It's almost certainly much higher when including single people with P/T gigs.

Most start-ups quickly fail because they lack funding. They simply run out of operating money and must quit. That lack of business operating funds is complicated by the owner's need for personal living expenses during the start-up process. It's hard to be an effective business owner when you are homeless and hungry!

 

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[AristotlesPupil]

Most start-ups quickly fail because they lack funding. They simply run out of operating money and must quit. That lack of business operating funds is complicated by the owner's need for personal living expenses during the start-up process. It's hard to be an effective business owner when you are homeless and hungry!

Which is why many people here recommend to keep your job and work on your business on the side. Even if it takes longer to scale initially, you protect yourself against the biggest threat, apart from absence of market need --> lack of funds.

Why Startups Fail: Top 12 Reasons l CB Insights

Discover the top 12 reasons for startup failure — from lack of product-market fit to disharmony on the team to a flawed business model.

www.cbinsights.com

Although that does reduce you scaling velocity, which could hinder your potential. It's a risk both ways, but you reduce odds of complete failure by keeping your job.