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What do you think are your biggest mistakes with starting a business?

Anything related to matters of the mind

K1 Lambo

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My mistake was thinking that other people just "have" it inside of them or that other people are born world class athletes, great entrepreneurs etc(which 99.99% of people believe in that lie).

Which is bullshit and it's one of the biggest, if not the biggest lie about success that exists out there. Certain big name entrepreneurs like to say "If you don't have it sinces this age then you don't have it" which is nonsense.

You can develop, improve and become pretty much anything you want in life.

Tthere might be some small exceptions to it obviously like if you're not born 7 foot tall and you want to be the next Shaquille O'Neal and you're only 5 ft 3 as an adult, it's never going to happen.

Or also the word luck, or that someone is lucky. That's also one of the biggest lies that is out there. Luck is simply when preparation meets opportunity.

Imagine you have 3 people with the same skill level, connections, they're selling the same service or product etc. One person does 10 cold calls, the second person does 100 cold calls and the last person does 1000 cold calls. Who do you think is going to close more deals? I'll bet all my money on the last person. And guess what? The first person who only did 10 cold calls will label the last person as "lucky" because he didn't put in the work over a long time.

Another thing is to learn sales and marketing and become world class at those. Selling and marketing are skills that you will need for anything in life.

You want to get that hot blonde 10/10 chick to be your girlfriend? Guess what? You have to sell and market yourself so she picks you and sleeps with you instead of the other 50 dudes who are constantly messaging her on Insta.

You want that business to pick you as their main marketer instead of the other 20 social media agencies who have offered them their services? Guess what? You need to SELL and MARKET yourself as the best person for the job.

You want to get the leading role for that Hollywood action movie when the director got 300 other options? Guess what? You need to SELL and MARKET yourself!

There are so many people who are literally geniuses; they can sing fabulously, are great actors or have amazing talents in sports but they fail to make it because they don't know how to sell and market themselves properly so the world never gets exposed to their talents unfortunately.

Bonus: This is a video that I've recorded from my old phone as a constant remainder whenever I fell down. Might help some of you:

 

savefox

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My mistake was thinking that other people just "have" it inside of them or that other people are born world class athletes, great entrepreneurs etc(which 99.99% of people believe in that lie).

Which is bullshit and it's one of the biggest, if not the biggest lie about success that exists out there. Certain big name entrepreneurs like to say "If you don't have it sinces this age then you don't have it" which is nonsense.

You can develop, improve and become pretty much anything you want in life.

Tthere might be some small exceptions to it obviously like if you're not born 7 foot tall and you want to be the next Shaquille O'Neal and you're only 5 ft 3 as an adult, it's never going to happen.

Or also the word luck, or that someone is lucky. That's also one of the biggest lies that is out there. Luck is simply when preparation meets opportunity.

Imagine you have 3 people with the same skill level, connections, they're selling the same service or product etc. One person does 10 cold calls, the second person does 100 cold calls and the last person does 1000 cold calls. Who do you think is going to close more deals? I'll bet all my money on the last person. And guess what? The first person who only did 10 cold calls will label the last person as "lucky" because he didn't put in the work over a long time.

Another thing is to learn sales and marketing and become world class at those. Selling and marketing are skills that you will need for anything in life.

You want to get that hot blonde 10/10 chick to be your girlfriend? Guess what? You have to sell and market yourself so she picks you and sleeps with you instead of the other 50 dudes who are constantly messaging her on Insta.

You want that business to pick you as their main marketer instead of the other 20 social media agencies who have offered them their services? Guess what? You need to SELL and MARKET yourself as the best person for the job.

You want to get the leading role for that Hollywood action movie when the director got 300 other options? Guess what? You need to SELL and MARKET yourself!

There are so many people who are literally geniuses; they can sing fabulously, are great actors or have amazing talents in sports but they fail to make it because they don't know how to sell and market themselves properly so the world never gets exposed to their talents unfortunately.

Bonus: This is a video that I've recorded from my old phone as a constant remainder whenever I fell down. Might help some of you:

How do you learn sales and marketing?
 

Andy Black

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I started a few ventures with other people before I'd worked with them before.
 
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Kung Fu Steve

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Every business I've ever seen fail was because they didn't actually create a system of selling their actual product. Like a "if all I did was this today, money would come in the door" type of system.

There wasn't a repeatable "thing" ...

If all I did was get a few people to walk into my store... I'll make X dollars...

If all I did was make X number of calls today... Y people will say yes...

The businesses of mine that succeeded -- I had these. Didn't matter how I felt. It didn't matter what was going on in my personal life. If I just did the work, everything was OK. The days I felt better, I did more.

The karate school was simple. Shower, throw on the Gi, teach amazing classes, ask people to enroll.

Speaking was simple, too. Schedule talks. Do talks. Ask for referrals.

If I just did the system, I'd make money some days, and I'd flop others but overall I grew.

I rarely see anyone on the forum who thinks or talks this way. "If I just get X people to my website, some people will buy" and spend their days trying to drive traffic to that site.
 

Spenny

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You want to get that hot blonde 10/10 chick to be your girlfriend? Guess what? You have to sell and market yourself so she picks you and sleeps with you instead of the other 50 dudes who are constantly messaging her on Insta.
Very well illustrated. Far too many people just dont market themselves well. It's all about personal branding. People slouch, they look like their mum dressed them, they skip gym days, they deathscroll willingly.

Then people are going to say "oh but you're lucky".

Oh my life.

Thanks for the video, whoever the guy is he is dead right.
 

Dirtcheap

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People. Human Relations. Until I figured that out I had a lot of trouble. I wish I read "How to win friends and Influence People" long long ago. At least to get a baseline understanding.
 

Andy Black

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People. Human Relations. Until I figured that out I had a lot of trouble. I wish I read "How to win friends and Influence People" long long ago. At least to get a baseline understanding.
This is a big one and I see it a lot.

People often think it's enough to be skilled at something and don't understand the power of building relationships.

People also refer to other people as traffic, clicks, and conversions... which isn't a great recipe for understanding human relations.
 

Andy Black

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My mistake is that I am not starting a business
Maybe don't make it a big scary task like "starting a business" and instead think about helping or entertaining people and getting paid?
 
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Roli

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Didn't test the market properly, chose the wrong product.
 

Bohemi

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One of my biggest mistakes was to start my business believing that I should just do what I love (write) and then the money will follow. Ive seen The Secret too many times to believe otherwise, but in reality it pushed me more into a depressed state than in a state of excitement, simply because I couldnt make it work for me. I thought I did something wrong, that I was wrong. But no. I was just cought in another scripted truth and kept me a prisoner for a long time. Mostly because I am surrounded by highly spiritual friends who all have this big idea of changing the world with love as the only ingrediense.

Not one of my friends is near any type of financial freedom. None. I love them, but when it comes to building a sustainable business they are not the people to listen to. I have gotten really picky when it comes to who I take advise from now.

Another thing that hit me hard while reading UNSCRIPTED /TMF was the idea of easyfication. I love that word, but damn I have been spending most of my life in search of the right shortcut to happiness. One long pursuit of that one little thing I needed to be happy. Realizing that it is not one thing I need, but the idea of enjoying the process instead and my whole world changed in an instant.
 

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