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Let's Unleash the Fastlane Enterpreneur Within Together! What's Holding You Back?

Anything related to matters of the mind

FloppyDisque

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Aug 27, 2019
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Are you just browsing TFF endlessly, looking at other people's journeys and successes, wishing you can do the same?

It's okay. One day, you'll be one of those people.

Are you full of brilliant ideas, yet allowing all those to be nothing more than pipe dreams, wishing you have the courage to just start?

It's okay. You'll gain more experience with time and find even better ideas in the future.

Are you always buying more and more course, only to never stick with it until you've made your money back and become good at the craft?

It's okay. You just need to find something you really like.

Are you forever jumping from ideas to ideas, never sticking it out until the end, only to have to start again on something else?

It's okay. You're learning something new each time.

First off, let me start by saying it's okay to suck in the beginning.

That does not mean you should accept mediocrity for the rest of your life.
What I mean is that you must look at yourself with ruthless objectivity and know that you might suck right now so you can work towards becoming great.

I know, it's actually physically painful isn't it?

When you know you yourself is a wanterpreneur and you want to become the real entrepreneur you know you can be.

When you know every day you spend action faking is another day wasted, closer to your inevitable death.
When you have to wake up to the 9-5 rat race, building someone else's dream, under some shitty corporate boss.

So what? That is just a small problem and problems are meant to be fixed.

You can either choose to accept your flaws, however painful it might feel at first, and work towards creating a plan to solve those problems, OR, you can keep on walking blindly, pretend nothing is wrong, and fall into the same patterns over and over again.

For me, I realized that the main thing that prevents me from taking constructive action is fear and lack of accountability. I have an idea for an eCommerce product that seems to fit the parameters for success, but I just can't seem to pull through with contacting suppliers, and forking over the cash required to get started. How I plan on solving that problem is I'm going the freelance route to get more income so I can invest larger sums of money without as much fear of loss, and I've shared with people that are close to me what my plans are for the future and so now I feel a lot more compelled to stick with what I've originally planned and decided upon.

So, what is it that is holding you back?

Share your fears, insecurities, success barriers, negative mindsets, and anything else that might be holding you back, so we can break them down one by one and come up with a better plan together.
We are not here to judge, everyone has their own unique sets of circumstances that led to the point that they're in right now.

All we are here to do is reflect upon ourselves, our flaws, especially and set up a system to fix it permanently.

Why share?

Because it holds you accountable as you have a written record of it down somewhere, it is now real and concrete, you cannot do any more convoluted mental gymnastics to avoid looking at your own flaws.

Because writing things down frees up your memory and allow you to think and problem solve with more clarity.

Because things, when looked at at a very close distance can appear to be very big, when in fact, all you need is a little distance, to see it for what it really is. Some problems just require a little bit of outside objectivity.

Because when lots of people of a single purpose comes and work together, the group achieves more and goes further than the individual ever will. If you want to go fast, travel alone. If you want to go far, travel with others.

Because it's basically free and anonymous. I mean you're basically getting free outside opinions on your problems, by people who are focused on problem solving and giving value, you have nothing more to do but sit your a$$ down for 15-30 minutes, reflect on yourself and type. Honestly, if you cannot even do that, maybe you do deserve to fail miserably in life you lazy piece of turd.

So, share your problems so we can solve them together.

Why am I doing this?

Well, a few weeks after I started learning copywriting from Lex, I had an insight. I truly realized for the first time that people are completely ego-centric narcissists, and other people don't even exist in their reality as far as they are concerned. So, when people don't act as you would expect them to, don't be mad, pretend they're just something like a plant, doing it's own thing with no regards to you. I'm also a narcissist 90% of the time, but I'm trying to understand and help people more and more. I'm starting to really understand this thing called empathy. It's really hard for me as I've always been a very logical person, but I believe it's just a skill and practice makes perfect.

So there you have it, by helping you, I'm helping myself learn to understand people, it's a win-win value giving situation for everyone.

Stop reading and share your sticking points goddammit XD I can't be writing a ten page direct response sales letter. I'm also a human being and I've got other stuff to do too.

Much love

Floppy
 
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Deepak Mehandira

New Contributor
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Oct 30, 2019
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India
Hello dear, i am completely agree with you that because of fear of failure and loss of money and because of social pressure too (in india) many people like me are not taking action for fastlane.

After reading the book one idea came in my mind. To understand the depth of problem firstly I introduce myself.
My name is Deepak , i had 12 years of experience in automotive sales and was earning good money in town 300 km away from my family. After reading the so called gurus i started to run a business and i had taken franchise of my play school . I haf handover the business to My wife. I was working hard to get and save more money for my business. After saving the money and backup of 6 months, I quit the job and started working on stupid ideas those were based on need but due self motive. After 7 months all the money exhausted , my business was not running that good as i am enable to enfuse funds.
I was dying to get money and that i have to work as a delivery boy and then i started to work in automotive dealership. But after reading Some books on goal i thought of working in education line . So i started working in education institute in marketing.
Now the problem is again the same i am working 9-6 and 2 hours oneside traveling it means 7am to 8 pm . I am not able give time to my family neither i am earning that great which was earning few years back.

Currently i have an idea to open a web directory as most of businesses in my city are working offline , they spend huge amount in pasting banners , posters and all stuff. Many people those have much time could not able to find the business online to get the things done.

Now hurdle is that i do not know how many Website and all stuff. So i doubtful for my success. Some time i think to find new idea based upon need and skill both ..or just add a new skill in my portfolio.

Please suggest if you can from fast lane prospective.
 

FloppyDisque

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Aug 27, 2019
16
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@Deepak Mehandira
First of all, I would like to thank you for reaching out. Not many people can do that.

Now, I would like to ask a few more questions to get a clearer understanding of your skill set, and your situation.

With all the questions below please provide me with as much detail as possible so I can fully understand where you are coming from and help you better manage your time and routine.

1. You say you have experience in automotive sales, does that mean you are a salesperson, talking face to face with customers in order to get them to buy a car?

2. Since you say you have a family that depends on you, I am assuming that you do not want to change job or quit to work full time on your business ideas, is that correct?

3. How many days a week do you work, and on which days?

4. What is your schedule like on your days off?

5. Do you have time to do your own things at work or are you constantly busy or monitored?

6. Can you learn some new skill on your daily commute to work?

7. How much money are you willing to spend on your side business ideas?


Now, about your business idea of a web directory... It all hinges on the assumption that the local businesses in your city actually wants to have a website. If they don't want a website, then you won't be able to have a website directory.
So, the first logical step will be to test that assumption out. You will have to find the businesses and convince, then prove to them that having a website will increase their business. Since you are in India and the economical situation there is different, I do not know if a website will actually be a good investment or not, that's why you need to test it out.

So, this gives you 2 options:
A) learn to set up a website yourself - if you want to save money
B) pay someone else to do it - if you want to save on time

A) Learning to set up a website is pretty simple.
Here are the steps:
1. Learn basic code - freecodecamp.org
2. Buy and edit an HTML template - Canvas | The Multi-Purpose HTML5 Template
3. Get domain name - namecheap.com
4. Host it on a hosting service - siteground.com
5. Hand the site to your clients
Learn to add extra functions later, if the businesses demands it. Since they don't even have a website, just a simple website to show off their products and services should be enough.

B) Pay someone else to do it - go on sites like upwork.com and find people to do it for you.

Tell me which route you decide to go. Knowing that you have lots of experience in sales, I would personally suggest you go route B since all you have to do is find business owners and help them get more sales by getting them a website. You will simply be acting as the middle man/salesperson for the transaction between the web developer and the business owner

If you find that more and more businesses want a website, then you can start to try building a web directory as you originally planned, using the money you earned selling websites.
 

Deepak Mehandira

New Contributor
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Oct 30, 2019
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India
@FloppyDisque

Thanks for your reply. You anwers are really inline with my thinking so i am aslo replying you point by point.

1. Yes i had automotive experience where i was dealing with customer to buy a car prior to that i was working in bike company where i was distributed to buy our company products so that they sell to customers. I love to travel and interact with different people.

2. Yes my immediate family is dependent on Monday as school business is not earning that much. Moreover the current is good my seniors are supportive. I love the work profile too. So there no immediate need to quit the job.

3. We have 6 days working culture. Monday to Saturday.

4. Nothing Special spend qualitytime with family. Occasionally outside dinning or movie time. I also love to cook with my wife on Sundays.

5. Yes i have some time in my job like 1-2 hours . Sometime i read ebooks, articles , do some posting on fb for my school and even sometime also do some trading stocks.

6. Yes i can learn skill via reading, listening and watching. Currently i am reading books, reading articles and watch videos in this time.

7. I have checked the costing of this project.
I have check the various services to know how the charges for 2 years which includes domain name , hosting and word press business plan where i can get premium theme for web directory. It cost 20-25K in rupees for 2 years. I have some saving or i can accommodate within 4 months.

Yes you write that if they do not have website why the prefer to have web directory.

My model is simple as most of business like small shops, salons , coaching centres self employed like plumber, cobbler do not have website. But some of them are on digital platform especially on Facebook or some own googley business but it will targeted when customer know there shop name. That's why they do offline marketing which cost them more one shot 6k rupees with results atmost next to nill.

Now solution is to create a platform where they come in free . Customer can come to my site and contact them.
After some traffic i am planning to give location for paid banner for their events for month. Assure leads given to new business man's in premium listing.
Top listing as premium listing.
Currently Just dial is directory running in india they are focusing there product for 6000 per year with premium top listing and 360 photography and leadgiven. This platform is not popular in my city as they focusing mostly in metropolitan city.

My city population is very less i.e 0.10 million so option B will not be vailable. So i want to go to option A with making website myself.

I too think to validate the concept before launching but without website people will not understand. Here they want there benefit first.
I am planning to take there details by personally going to them ( they can not denied ) and then put details in website on Sunday or while working. Then i am planning to shoe to my freinds or neighbours that they can search plumbers, coblers and other stuff on this website.

My hurdle is that as my city population is less i can not scale it more. So should i work on this idea or search for some better idea.
Downside risk is 20K which i can also recover as i have the database i could market my school in that platform if it will give me 2-3 enrollment my cost will recover.
 
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FloppyDisque

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Aug 27, 2019
16
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Ok, I think I have a pretty good understanding of how your idea would work. I will try to explain it completely in my own words and correct me if I'm wrong.

You want to create a service that is similar to craigslist, but for business owners. The business owners, because they cannot afford the cost of a stand alone website, they only post on facebook and other social media, but most people don't search on social media when they want to find a service. So now, instead of creating a website, business owners will post their services on your platform. And you want people to go to your website to find the services they couldn't before.
The benefits should be very apparent for business owners as the are getting free advertising and customers.

About the scale problem, I don't think you need to worry too much since you can scale it to all smaller cities across India too, not just the whole of your city, but don't worry about that part for now.

I think the most important thing you need to verify first is if this is actually an unmet need or not. Are lots of people actually looking for services, and can't find it? If you know this is a real need, then proceed. Now, what I want you to do is find out exactly what the process is when people go to search for something. Remember, you are trying to help them find their desired service, so you have to know exactly what they are doing, what they like to use to search (do they use google, how do they actually search? How do they choose once they see all their options?), what they dislike about the process (do they find something frustrating or wish something was easier?). The more you know about their process the better, that way, you can help make it easier, and better for them.

If you decide to learn to code, I recommend you make a habit of it. What I mean is everyday, at a certain time, you HAVE TO learn code for a set amount of time (set a timer for ~30 mins, then increase very slowly over time). Coding is not a very fun activity, doing it this way ensures that you don't give up learning code in the middle. Doing it a small amount everyday will add up. When you get good enough, you can build your website and validate and refine your concept.

So, to recap, 1. find out everything you can about people searching for services
2. start learning code

Tell me what you decide to do, can't wait to see how it goes.
 

MJ DeMarco

I followed the science; all I found was money.
Staff member
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Jul 23, 2007
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I truly realized for the first time that people are completely ego-centric narcissists, and other people don't even exist in their reality as far as they are concerned.

Kinda explains why so few people are successful: They're too wrapped up in their own bubble to see what people want in theirs.
 

Justin H

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Aug 22, 2017
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Florence , AL
Hi @FloppyDisque ,

I appreciate you posting and being willing to offer help to others. I am definitely dealing with the fear of failure and lack of accountability. I am starting to looking for needs and finding ways to test them to see if people need what I offer. I am currently working as a pest control technician for my 9 to 5. I am definitely looking to create a productocracy and my starting point is look for what others need help with in their lives. I don't have much in savings to test ideas. However, I am applying for a second job to bring in more money for that. I have read Unscripted by MJ DeMarco and will apply his ideas for looking for needs in the marketplace. Hope all is going well with your ecommerce product and copywriting.
 
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FloppyDisque

Contributor
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Aug 27, 2019
16
52
@Justin H
Hey man if you ever need anyone to bounce ideas or talk to, I’m right here. It helps a lot to write your thoughts out in order to clear your thinking, if you need an accountability partner, just ask, i can check in every week or something and hound your a$$ to do stuff :)
 

Justin H

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Aug 22, 2017
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Florence , AL
@FloppyDisque
Thank you for the offer. I definitely accept and will look forward to helping you as well. Accountability is needed and you are right about it being good to write things out to clear out thoughts.
 

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