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NeoDialectic

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The Past Wasn't Easier

There is so much misguided sentiment about "the good old days being gone" or that "every good idea is done". It's not just on these forums, but with many aspiring entrepreneurs I meet in real life. Everyone seems to be under some kind of self-delusion that entrepreneurship and even more specifically ecommerce used to be easier in the past. Having the tools and knowledge you have NOW, maybe. But the point is that the tools you have now didn't exist, and no one yet knew the knowledge you take for granted today!

E-commerce wasn't easier, it was just solving for a different problem. As a paradigm shift (like e-commerce) starts to unfold, there is little competition but many unknowns. Your job is to learn everything there is to know about the field (which could be insanely technical) and then apply that knowledge to literally make the tools/knowledge that all of us take for granted 10 years later.

As lessons are learned, the field becomes easier for people that aren't trailblazers. But this comes at the cost of increasing competition. So over the next X years, the hardships don't get any easier, they just change. E-commerce is now extremely easy to get into on the technical and logistics side, but it is much harder on the marketing side.

There is usually a short time during this progression that can be described as a golden zone where it is relatively easy to get into with a little bit of grit and at the same time relatively uncrowded. This lasts for like 3 minutes out of the entire paradigms cycle. But dwelling on not getting in at that time is like dwelling on not picking the right lottery ticket numbers after you've seen the result. There are a 1000 other things going on right now that are relatively easy to get into and also uncrowded. How do you know which one's going to be the winning ticket? Dont forget that even with this winning ticket, all you've really won is the chance to do more work!



Example time

I could go back in the past and tell you eCommerce is the future and it would all be to naught. If I told you to build an eCommerce store before Amazon and Shopify existed to take care of all your problems, we all know what most of you would reply

"Uhhh, wait, how do I set up my domain? DNS? WTF is that? Wait Neo, how do I make a storefront. HTML by hand in a word processor?! Even if I knew how to code, how am I supposed to get people to pay me? I have to convince THE BANK to allow me to open a merchant account?! What! OK OK OK. But if I do all that I'll start rolling in the big bucks? I'll be the only one advertising, right? Wait, people don't even know it's an option that they can find goods by search? I've got a life and job man, I'll just wait till someone makes it realistic for me to do this."

Do you know how I know that? It's simple. Everyone knows some form of AI is going to be a staple of the future. Whether that's today or 20 years from now. It's happening. For all intents and purposes, AI is still in its infancy. It may destroy a lot of jobs as it gets better, but it will make 10x the opportunity for entrepreneurs as they apply it to the 100000s of fields and as new fields are born to service it. What are you doing about it? Why aren't you getting in when there is no competition and it's easy?

"Uhhhh, wait, how do I code AI? Neural Network? WTF is that? Wait Neo, I don't have the resources to make a powerful network. Open source? API? What is that? I'm not a programmer. How would I monetize this thing anyways? Is there a Youtube telling me how best to monetize? Uhhhh, this is too intellectual for me. I'll just wait till the tools are easy enough for me to use"

AI is just one example of endless other "new" opportunities and golden tickets.



My Journey through the "easy" times

I can't believe I ever thought making a webpage 100% made out of Macromedia Flash would work well. It was the new technology and looked so cool. Who could have known that it was a failure? Now "everyone knows your page should be simple and intuitive". is taken for granted, but it was hard-earned knowledge by those that came before you. Luckily learning HTML was only a book away and we adapted.

I can't believe I had to call a bank and prove my worth to open a merchant account just for the privilege of being able to accept payments. Why do you need to know more than my EIN?! (That I can now make in 2 minutes on the government website) Anyways, people BETTER NOT use AMEX. I don't want to pay the higher fees! Plus I heard they are so hard to win chargebacks against.

I can't believe that @fastlane_dad and I had to stuff boxes and supplies into every available cranny in our apartments. It would bleed into our living spaces and somehow our wives (GF's at the time) were cool living like that. Forget about trying to explain to rental management why every day we have 30 boxes outside the door waiting to be picked up by the mailman. No it's not an eye sore. It's an upsell to new tenants to know they can start their own businesses and you will support them. I promise!



Your Turn

There are more new millionaires being minted today than at any other time in history. The more complicated the world becomes, the more niches are created.

So what's your excuse?
 
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Spenny

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Not sure if its rhetorical, but my excuse is that I don't think I'm capable of doing loads of technical programmy stuff, even though I'm more than capable. I didn't believe in myself, now I tell myself not to be so quick on cutting stuff off.

I see the same sort of thing with bio-sustainable stuff in the chemical sector. So many things popping up which are revolutionary.
 
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heavy_industry

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Dont forget that even with this winning ticket, all you've really won is the chance to do more work!
#gold

We all have the natural tendency to believe that the past was better. It's called rosy retrospection and it's not necessarily a bad thing.

The problem is when people become victims of their past and use this delusional view as an excuse for not taking action and moving forward in life. I've done this plenty of times before and it only led to even more wasted time.

No matter what your brain is trying to trick you into believing, doing the work has been and will always be hard - and that's how it's supposed to be: having a high level of difficulty is mandated by CENTS.

So if you truly regret not working hard in the past, don't bother with your words, don't lie to yourself. Prove it with your actions:

Do the hard work today.
 

NeoDialectic

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Not sure if its rhetorical, but my excuse is that I don't think I'm capable of doing loads of technical programmy stuff, even though I'm more than capable. I didn't believe in myself, now I tell myself not to be so quick on cutting stuff off.

I see the same sort of thing with bio-sustainable stuff in the chemical sector. So many things popping up which are revolutionary.
There are likely some fields that are best left to people that are already experts. For example, I don't expect someone to learn how to be a biomedical engineer through youtube.

But when there is unlimited opportunity out there, plenty of things don't need years of study to become an expert. With every new fad in the tech bro field, you could likely learn all you need to know within a week or two of focused reading. You don't even need to be the trailblazer that is making the field with their bare hands. You can learn a field while the knowledge is plenty developed, but on places like forums... the key is to learn it before it hits mainstream and has 1000 youtube videos on it.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Awesome take, upgraded to Gold.

I can't believe I had to call a bank and prove my worth to open a merchant account just for the privilege of being able to accept payments.

OMG, in the mid-90's it was nearly impossible to acquire the ability to accept credit cards. You couldn't just apply and get that ability and boom, get it like today. You literally had to submit to audits, have great credit, and have ample resources.

My first several business failures were due to my inability to acquire the ability to accept credit cards due to low capitalization / translation: starting with no money.
 
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Kevin88660

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Do you know how I know that? It's simple. Everyone knows some form of AI is going to be a staple of the future. Whether that's today or 20 years from now. It's happening. For all intents and purposes, AI is still in its infancy. It may destroy a lot of jobs as it gets better, but it will make 10x the opportunity for entrepreneurs as they apply it to the 100000s of fields and as new fields are born to service it. What are you doing about it? Why aren't you getting in when there is no competition and it's easy?

"Uhhhh, wait, how do I code AI? Neural Network? WTF is that? Wait Neo, I don't have the resources to make a powerful network. Open source? API? What is that? I'm not a programmer. How would I monetize this thing anyways? Is there a Youtube telling me how best to monetize? Uhhhh, this is too intellectual for me. I'll just wait till the tools are easy enough for me to use"

AI is just one example of endless other "new" opportunities and golden tickets.
The beauty of AI is that when you have questions and doubts you can ask the AI and learn from it.

There are many purported possible product market fit for AI and chatgpt. Even the AI will suggest them. Automated customer service, content generation for instance.
 

Antifragile

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From LinkedIn post by https://www.linkedin.com/company/historic-moments/ account.
Screenshot 2023-01-10 at 5.41.20 AM.png

Imagine you were born in 1900.

When you are 14, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday with 22 million people killed.
Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until you are 20.
Fifty million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million.

When you're 29, the Great Depression begins.
Unemployment hits 25%, global GDP drops 27%.
That runs until you are 33.
The country nearly collapses along with the world economy.

When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren’t even over the hill yet.
When you're 41, the United States is fully pulled into WWII.
Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war and the Holocaust kills six million.

At 52, the Korean War starts and five million perish.

At 64 the Vietnam War begins, and it doesn’t end for many years.
Four million people die in that conflict.

Approaching your 62nd birthday you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, could well have ended. Great leaders prevented that from happening.

As you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends.

Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900.

How do you survive all of that?

A kid in 1985 didn’t think their 85 year old grandparent understood how hard school was. Yet those grandparents (and now great grandparents) survived through everything listed above.

Perspective is an amazing art. Let’s try and keep things in perspective.

Let’s be smart, help each other out, and we will get through all of this.

In the history of the world, there has *never* been a storm that lasted.

This too, shall pass."


Credit to HistoryCoolKids via Joe Rogan.

Photo by Lewis Hine
 

MJ DeMarco

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From LinkedIn post by https://www.linkedin.com/company/historic-moments/ account.
View attachment 46697

Imagine you were born in 1900.

When you are 14, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday with 22 million people killed.
Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until you are 20.
Fifty million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million.

When you're 29, the Great Depression begins.
Unemployment hits 25%, global GDP drops 27%.
That runs until you are 33.
The country nearly collapses along with the world economy.

When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren’t even over the hill yet.
When you're 41, the United States is fully pulled into WWII.
Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war and the Holocaust kills six million.

At 52, the Korean War starts and five million perish.

At 64 the Vietnam War begins, and it doesn’t end for many years.
Four million people die in that conflict.

Approaching your 62nd birthday you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, could well have ended. Great leaders prevented that from happening.

As you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends.

Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900.

How do you survive all of that?

A kid in 1985 didn’t think their 85 year old grandparent understood how hard school was. Yet those grandparents (and now great grandparents) survived through everything listed above.

Perspective is an amazing art. Let’s try and keep things in perspective.

Let’s be smart, help each other out, and we will get through all of this.

In the history of the world, there has *never* been a storm that lasted.

This too, shall pass."


Credit to HistoryCoolKids via Joe Rogan.

Photo by Lewis Hine

I copied this to this thread because it is relevant to the past and all those young people who think today is (say in whiny voice) "so hard".
 
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kendamakid

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The Past Wasn't Easier

There is so much misguided sentiment about "the good old days being gone" or that "every good idea is done". It's not just on these forums, but with many aspiring entrepreneurs I meet in real life. Everyone seems to be under some kind of self-delusion that entrepreneurship and even more specifically ecommerce used to be easier in the past. Having the tools and knowledge you have NOW, maybe. But the point is that the tools you have now didn't exist, and no one yet knew the knowledge you take for granted today!
@NeoDialectic thank you for this post. Everything is always easier through a retroscope. How times were better in the past.

You mentioned that outside of being an expert as an engineer, many technical things can be learned in a week or two. Today there is so much information out there and distilling it is not easy. But who said entrepreneurship was easy. So it just might take some fumbling through and being blind to what you should know helps to get you where you need to be. Solving problems and moving forward.
 

NeoDialectic

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OMG, in the mid-90's it was nearly impossible to acquire the ability to accept credit cards. You couldn't just apply and get that ability and boom, get it like today. You literally had to submit to audits, have great credit, and have ample resources.


My first several business failures were due to my inability to acquire the ability to accept credit cards due to low capitalization / translation: starting with no money.
It's incredible how easy it is today. I wonder if it has caused much more fraud on the merchant end or if CCs have figured out how to keep it at bay.
From LinkedIn post by https://www.linkedin.com/company/historic-moments/ account.


Imagine you were born in 1900.

When you are 14, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday with 22 million people killed.
Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until you are 20.
Fifty million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million.

When you're 29, the Great Depression begins.
Unemployment hits 25%, global GDP drops 27%.
That runs until you are 33.
The country nearly collapses along with the world economy.

When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren’t even over the hill yet.
When you're 41, the United States is fully pulled into WWII.
Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war and the Holocaust kills six million.

At 52, the Korean War starts and five million perish.

At 64 the Vietnam War begins, and it doesn’t end for many years.
Four million people die in that conflict.

Approaching your 62nd birthday you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, could well have ended. Great leaders prevented that from happening.

As you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends.

Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900.

How do you survive all of that?

A kid in 1985 didn’t think their 85 year old grandparent understood how hard school was. Yet those grandparents (and now great grandparents) survived through everything listed above.

Perspective is an amazing art. Let’s try and keep things in perspective.

Let’s be smart, help each other out, and we will get through all of this.

In the history of the world, there has *never* been a storm that lasted.

This too, shall pass."


Credit to HistoryCoolKids via Joe Rogan.

Photo by Lewis Hine
I'm not sure how to properly instill this lesson. There is always some plausible excuse that comes right back. If you look for faults in any system, you will always find them.

I think it's a combination of a few things. What we feels right now is always feels more visceral, more urgent and more real than conceptualizing the past. The other thing is that the worst thing that has happened to someone will always be the worst thing that has happened to them! It may not be relatively bad, but we don't feel the gravity of situations based on some objective reality. It's usually based on our own subjective reality. I don't think telling someone that there are much worse situations has ever cured anyone of their negativity. They will always selectively center the facts that uphold their negativity, while ignoring the whole picture. So it may just be one of those things that you have to gain through personal experience and boots on the ground.
 

MykeG

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Thanks for an awesome post, Neo. This thread made me think about how these days there are so many (mostly free) resources out there to master whatever it is that you want. At the same time, there are so many distractions preventing so many of us from focusing on mastery. Fighting that urge of distraction and being disciplined enough to research and learn new skills, topics, industries can put us so far ahead of the masses.
 
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Two Dog

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Not sure if its rhetorical, but my excuse is that I don't think I'm capable of doing loads of technical programmy stuff, even though I'm more than capable.
@Spenny I feel the same way way on far too many days.

When you have any kind of tech skills, it's *REALLY* difficult to remember that legions of successful entrepreneurs have little to none and got along perfectly well without ever learning them. All those "dumb" people don't waste any time in even trying to figure s**t out. They find someone who already knows it and figures out how to hire and pay them.

Over the years, I've come to think that having strong tech skills is actually a major DISADVANTAGE for an entrepreneur because you're probably going to think and act like a technician. It's so easy to fall back to "Ah, whatever. I'll just do it myself since it's easier." That mindset keeps you from developing the far more valuable skills of outsourcing, hiring, training, managing, all of it. Those are timeless skills vs. tech skills which are constantly getting outdated.

It took an embarrassingly long time to figure that out yet I STILL find myself falling back into "Ah, whatever." ;-)
 

Two Dog

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The Past Wasn't Easier
@NeoDialectic Great post!

My wife keeps reminding me to "Stop wishing for a better past" whenever I start talking about having done things wrong back in the day. So difficult at times to just stay focused on GSD today and ignore the imaginary past and even more imaginary future.
 

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"The more complicated the world becomes, the more niches are created."
This line somehow stuck with me. Thanks for the post, good sir.
 
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TheWalker

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Thank you very much for taking the time and writing this all up.

You are absolutely right and on the spot about this.
I think that especially the tools and possibilities that are smashed into our faces every single day are part of the issue why we don't move forward and sometimes deem things harder today than in the past. You see back and it all makes sense, had I only invented that messaging app back in 2009 or started Amazon FBA when it opened up. Todays tools open up so many possibilities and options we haven't had before which makes it easier to go through at the specific venture, when comparing to an earlier time, however we now have the fortune to decide between soo many routs which are all possibilities and are looking for the one with the least resistance, constantly looking for the new easy thing that gets us there within the next 90 days. If we don't get there in this time period then the venture is deemed failed.

At least that's what I also found myself in from time to time and always have to remind me to think otherwise.
 

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