One of the biggest issues I see with aspiring Fastlaners

[snowbank]

I've posted about this a number of times here before. A lot of times I've gotten PMs asking to expand further. I haven't really been able to since it's not a subject I feel can be explained in a sentence or few. I wrote this blog post today that I feel like will help a lot of Fastlaners:

Entrepreneurial Diworsification | Forever Jobless

MJ lays out really clearly what a lot of people here need to be focused on. However, if you scan through the forums, you still see a lot of the same people posting their 'idea of the week/month'. Because of their lack of attention to their best idea, and people's misapplication of 'diversification', they are KILLING their chance at being successful.

If you're applying what MJ teaches in his book, but scattering it across 74 new ideas, your chance of real success goes pretty close to 0.

Hope this is helpful.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[FreeMan]

Nice post snowbank. And for including good counter arguments to the popular reasons people go for diworsification.

 

[DennisD]

Great stuff. Just headed to your blog on my own a few minutes ago and was surprised to find this! Literally 10 minutes after talking to somebody about me having this very issue.

Just what I needed to hear, thanks for this.

 

[dknise]

As I tell a lot of wantrapreneurs in the local Seattle scene... If it takes 210% to get your company running, and you're putting 60% in each to 3 different projects, you're going to fall 150% short on each project. Find one and stop wanting to preneu.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[The-J]

Looks like I've made my decision. Thanks for the post.

 

[ramblindawg]

Concise,convincing and powerful blog post. I especially liked this thought:
"Google should not be the determining factor on whether you make money or not. Your business abilities should."

I need to constantly remind myself to put most of my energies in my highest-income-generating tasks...your blog post is a great reminder.

 

[danf]

I couldn't agree more that focus is critical. My problem is a bit different. I have a full time job at a very good company making very good money. If I don't focus on it completely, I'll be left behind. On the other hand, despite it being in a hot high-tech area, someday the gravy train will end unless I hit it big at a startup. Obviously hoping to "hit it big" is not exactly under my control even if I'm the best in my field.

My choices seem to be:
a) Keep working and hoping that I will join the next IPO startup. This is my current default choice except I will need to join a startup..
b) Keep working at 80% effort and put 20% in my own side business. (I can't quit my job... family)
c) Figure out how to get VC investment and start a serious startup business I can focus on completely.

(a) above is killing me because it feels like I'm sticking my head in the sand. I know it's not going to last forever and when it ends it's going to hurt.
(b) seems like the diversification that will make me crappy in all areas. Sure, I can run some mediocre website with 20% of my time, but what will that accomplish?
(c) sounds OK and as a founder I could get a big payoff. But control of course goes to the VC's who will be the real owners of the company.

Help? What would you do? I've been struggling with this for a long time and pretending everything is OK. But there is an oncoming train...

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[CEBenz]

Excellent point Snowbank! I think people need to prioritize. Nothing will keep them from those other ideas but focus on one to start. I know I'm guilty of this at times. I'm just now getting to a point of "daisy chaining" my ideas and approaching them with : this plan first leading to this plan second.....etc. my original plan hit a snag so I've put it on a back burner for now (there was also a slight technology shift that I was to stubborn to pay attention to, much like RIMM). I'm working on 4 plans presently but I'm giving them a timeline and they're pretty much interconnected. The idea is I'll use the momentum from one to roll into the other rather than attempting the shotgun blast approach, I.e. everything everywhere, which is what you're addressing I believe.

I also think people are afraid if running with the wrong idea. Sort of the same fear as marrying the wrong person so they keep looking for the better option. Also sort of like stock picking, they read an article and run with the new hot stock.

 

[ubiquitous]

Just think about how long it takes to become an expert in anything...

I've been full-time/self-employed in IM since 2005 and I think that 2011 was the year that I started learning so much I realized I don't know anything about the industry. That's also the last time I stopped doing any freelance work...

I recommend that people stick to one project at a time until they have the systems in place that fast-track the lead-time of future product releases. Most people are generally clueless and think that every idea is worth chasing.

Pick one, get good at it... then when you feel there's room for you to do the exact same thing elsewhere go for it.

Otherwise, you're just playing the business success guessing game with multiple things in the oven.

 

[nzerinto]

Brilliant post Snowbank, its a great reminder and wake up call....

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[mayana]

I couldn't agree more that focus is critical. My problem is a bit different. I have a full time job at a very good company making very good money. If I don't focus on it completely, I'll be left behind. On the other hand, despite it being in a hot high-tech area, someday the gravy train will end unless I hit it big at a startup. Obviously hoping to "hit it big" is not exactly under my control even if I'm the best in my field.

My choices seem to be:
a) Keep working and hoping that I will join the next IPO startup. This is my current default choice except I will need to join a startup..
b) Keep working at 80% effort and put 20% in my own side business. (I can't quit my job... family)
c) Figure out how to get VC investment and start a serious startup business I can focus on completely.

(a) above is killing me because it feels like I'm sticking my head in the sand. I know it's not going to last forever and when it ends it's going to hurt.
(b) seems like the diversification that will make me crappy in all areas. Sure, I can run some mediocre website with 20% of my time, but what will that accomplish?
(c) sounds OK and as a founder I could get a big payoff. But control of course goes to the VC's who will be the real owners of the company.

Help? What would you do? I've been struggling with this for a long time and pretending everything is OK. But there is an oncoming train...

Your situation isn't different at all - in fact, it's probably the exact same that most people on this forum face. Have a job, make o.k. money, have to work because of family responsibilities - but you know that there is something better out there for you.

You said you can put 80% into your job and 20% into your business. Something that dknise said on this thread made a lot of sense. You've got to put 210% into your business (or at least a number higher than 100%).

If you can only work on it a little at a time, it doesn't mean that it will never work - just that it will take a lot longer. Let's just assume that it usually takes 2 years to really see a business start making a profit when working it full time. Doing it part time might take 5 years, but it doesn't mean that it's not worth doing.

 

[ubiquitous]

If you can only work on it a little at a time, it doesn't mean that it will never work - just that it will take a lot longer. Let's just assume that it usually takes 2 years to really see a business start making a profit when working it full time. Doing it part time might take 5 years, but it doesn't mean that it's not worth doing.

Even though it may feel good to think that way that's not how things typically work.

Keyword: Momentum.

 

[mayana]

Even though it may feel good to think that way that's not how things typically work.

Keyword: Momentum.

Actually, it sucks to think this is the way it works... lol.

You gotta do what you gotta do. If someone has to have a job to pay the bills, that's what they've got to do. Thousands of really successful business have been started while the founders have been working other jobs. It's the way things go. Just off the top of my head, I think the original founder of Longhorn's restaurant was a bartender at another place while he got his restaurant off the ground. And I think of Sara Blakely of Spanx... jeez, that's a success story if I've ever heard one.

I'm sure there are people on this forum who have worked full time and started a successful business. And what about those mom's who have kids and have launched businesses?

Of course, I'm not saying that momentum isn't important, but you can have it even if you don't have quite as much time to devote to the business as you'd like.

Let's not use a full time job as an excuse for not taking action.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[TK1]

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/ge...ideos-links-etc-ebay-thread-4.html#post261189

 

[CEBenz]

I finally read the blog post. I got a bit of a wrong idea just reading your post here. I think you nailed it Snowbank. I have a friend with a small e commerce biz that profits about $80k a year and he us number one in google for his keywords but, only a fraction of his traffic comes from google. His traffic mainly comes from various enthusiast sites where people have linked to him. Some even from industry websites when he's been mentioned in national publications. And guess what. No google update hits.

 

[snowbank]

Help? What would you do? I've been struggling with this for a long time and pretending everything is OK. But there is an oncoming train...

It doesn't really seem like there's much of a struggle. It seems like you're just waiting. No one else can do it for you.(no one wants to hear it, but you've gotta just grind once in a while)

My choices seem to be:
a) Keep working and hoping that I will join the next IPO startup. This is my current default choice except I will need to join a startup..
b) Keep working at 80% effort and put 20% in my own side business. (I can't quit my job... family)
c) Figure out how to get VC investment and start a serious startup business I can focus on completely.

a. hoping you'll join the next ipo? don't hope for things, make them happen.
b. it's not that you "can't" quit your job, it's that right now you're refusing to look for a way that you could, since it seems hard.
c. if you have a great business, you don't need to "figure out" much for how to raise money. just figure out a great business- the rest gets really easy after that. probably won't even need money anymore.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[anthonycSPA]

Great post snowbank.

I was wondering if you think it's ok for a start up on a low budget to try a couple if low cost ventures simultaneously to generate some funds so later you can concentrate on bigger projects.

All the best

 

[snowbank]

I was wondering if you think it's ok for a start up on a low budget to try a couple if low cost ventures simultaneously to generate some funds so later you can concentrate on bigger projects

Cash generating projects are different than starting/running a company. It's fine if it's a good use of your time. Cash is extremely helpful when starting up.

However, I don't know many people who start up a bunch of random things to generate cash, that they couldn't have done better generating cash by spending their time doing only what generates them the most cash.

 

[~Phil]

I've posted about this a number of times here before. A lot of times I've gotten PMs asking to expand further. I haven't really been able to since it's not a subject I feel can be explained in a sentence or few. I wrote this blog post today that I feel like will help a lot of Fastlaners:

Entrepreneurial Diworsification | Forever Jobless

MJ lays out really clearly what a lot of people here need to be focused on. However, if you scan through the forums, you still see a lot of the same people posting their 'idea of the week/month'. Because of their lack of attention to their best idea, and people's misapplication of 'diversification', they are KILLING their chance at being successful.

If you're applying what MJ teaches in his book, but scattering it across 74 new ideas, your chance of real success goes pretty close to 0.

Hope this is helpful.

I realize this thread started some time ago but its timely for anyone who's spread themselves to thin.

Great stuff @snowbank ++

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Willsonjohn90]

Great post snowbank.

I was wondering if you think it's OK for a start up on a low budget to try a couple if low cost ventures simultaneously to generate some funds so later you can concentrate on bigger projects.

 

[Journey2Million$]

That's not me. I've stayed with the same business field for a while and I've kept my focus mainly on what I'm good at, outsourcing the other stuff. I also recently took some time to learn more about business strategy and created a new strategy which I'll be using from now on. Right now I'm striving to be the best I can be at my specialty and become one of the very top people in the world at it, maybe even the very best. You're right, jumping from one thing to another sucks and doesn't work, because the world doesn't reward you for mediocrity.