Developing skills: how to get started
How do I find my business idea?
1 Peter 4:12–16 says:
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
Let’s suffer shoulder to shoulder with the soldiers who have a purpose. Paid soldiers flee the battle. Soldiers fighting for a cause stay in the fight. What’s your vision? What is your cause? Once you know your cause, darn near any job will get you there.
I don’t do sexy or glamorous. I do meaningful, and something I believe in. You earn it in the dirt. Suffer the way Tiger Woods suffered: working day in and day out, giving up outside things to focus and become the best at what he found passion in.
Skateboarding
Skateboarding
Work, and be laser focused. Or you can be like a buddy of mine who’s 33, living with his mom and asking for gas money. He recently tried to start a business and quit a week later, because it’s hard and it sucks.
Quitting a business after a week is like this: I give you a skateboard, and a week later you call me crying that you suck and you aren’t Tony Hawk yet. I’m probably going to hang up on you.
No one is born a businessman. No one is a born skateboarder. You skate, you fall, you scrape yourself up, and you fail time and time and time again. Fight, and keep trying.
There’s a correlation between the difficulty of the task and the size of the reward. I’d rather suffer the loneliness and self-doubt of starting a business than suffer the sad existence of a career I don’t like.
Make it happen
Who is Tom Stapley?
When your framework is selfless, you don’t have to think about what you want to say. Accountability without shame, and positivity without delusion. That’s the sweet spot. Courage, vision, enthusiasm, a refusal to quit, adaptability.
Tommy’s story
He started a business, and it didn’t work. He started another, and the financial world fell to pieces. They had set up a foundation for one thing and pivoted it to another.
Business is moving from one setback to another with enthusiasm.
Nothing happened according to plan. But they got in motion, became experts through experience, and then one of the biggest investment firms in the world showed up. I dare you to try to get that meeting. Zero percent chance. Tommy went and made something happen, and out of nowhere they landed on his doorstep asking to do business.
If you are asleep, you’ll think Tommy’s story sounds like a lot of luck. It wasn’t. They had been grinding, building a platform that works, learning, studying, becoming experts. “Sure, no one’s ever done this. We’ll try.” That is the entrepreneurial spirit right there.
Your whole life matters
By the time someone needs you, it’s too late to show them who you are. Be a good person, always, to all people in all situations, and the world opens up. If you’re not, people will smell it on you.
Do you have the self-belief to bet on yourself and go make it happen? Are you a creator? I can’t build, but I can create businesses that work. That’s my art. What’s yours?
You can be a victim, or you can see opportunity. NFNR: nice for no reason.
Making money vs. creating value
Making money vs. making value
Use this one to help you fill out your business plan.
Workbook activities
- Interview a mentor (see the journal entry below).
- Create a business plan: look for a niche your community is missing, look at your talents, see where you can add value. Now go get a sale.
- Brainstorm a list of five businesses you could start.
- Approach 20 potential customers.
Goal for the month
Find something unsexy and unglamorous and take rigorous action toward it. Sell trash bags door to door. Offer to take people’s trash out for ten bucks a month, then hire your little brother to do it for five. Get in the arena, get roughed up, and see what you learn.
Small businesses you could start this week
- Mow lawns
- Clean pickleball courts
- Hang Christmas lights
- Clean gutters
- Trash can valet
- Trash can cleaning
Journal: Interview a mentor
Reach out to one successful person you admire. Ask if you could come by to ask a few questions, or take them to lunch.
Don’t give them assignments. Don’t ask them to rescue you. Don’t try to impress them, and don’t recruit them. Show up like someone who’s going to take over the world whether they help or not, with a few thoughtful questions about their journey and what you might take from it for yours.
Ask them: What principle or practice has shaped your life?