Many of the young entrepreneurs that I meet come to me excited about an opportunity to start a business and make a lot of money. They come back a month later with a brand new idea and are equally excited about it. The next month, it’s the same deal all over again. Why is it so hard for young entrepreneurs to stick with an idea and run with it?
The problem is all the enthusiasm and energy gets put into the business for a short amount of time and the entrepreneur does not leave enough time to let things develop. Sometimes you do not realize the benefits from the actions you put in until months later – and by that time your company is closed and you’ve moved on to try 5 different new ideas which are all failing.
I give presentations on starting businesses and tell people that if you have 24 hours to spend you will get more bang for your buck to put in one hour a day for 24 days than spend 24 hours straight working on your business and then quitting.
So how do you find your calling and get into something you stick with?
Fast Company wrote an article that can serve as an intro to the topic. The mentioned 3 important steps:
- Ask yourself 2 tough questions: What do I want? and How will I know when I get it?
- Write a master dream list: List all the things you dream of doing before you die. Let yourself go. Quantity is the key. List as many of your dreams as you can without heed to limitations.
- Talk with a partner: Dreaming and scheming can place stress upon your closest relationships. Practice this exercise along with a partner in order to share the experience and learn each other’s dreams.
Once you get focused and stay with your business you will greatly increase your chance of success. Nathan Waters, a budding young entrepreneur, recently realized this and posted in his blog:
Overall I think (hope) I’ve now moved past the typical stage of an aspiring young entrepreneurs’ life where they try all sorts of small, poorly-thought-out business ideas – mainly websites in my case. I’m now all about focusing on just a few big, but low-risk (at this stage) ideas and really putting a lot of effort into making them long-term successes.
Have you found your calling yet or are you still bouncing around from idea to idea?
Evan Carmichael.
Great post Evan!
I’ll add some more 2c pieces to the pile…
Something I still need to come to terms with is that for every idea you have there will be potentially hundreds or thousands of other people in the world with the same one. And out of those there may be a dozen people who are already working on bringing it to life.
So you can’t always be first to market.
See my problem now is that I have a bunch of innovative ideas that I’m very enthusiastic and passionate about, but there is now way I can work on them all simultaneously. I’ve thought about maybe establishing a team to pump out the businesses which could work well if I could find some people locally.
What I need to do, and what others need to do if they’re in a similar situation, is go through and assess your ideas. Firstly find the few that you are most passionate about. Then see which have the most potential. Then with your current obligations and financial situation (unless you plan on getting funding) determine which of the selected ideas will fit best.
And finally, show the remaining ideas to a couple of people (friends, family and especially someone outside of those circles). They can tell you which are best.
Another thing which I read about everywhere is to partner. I’m still not sure about this because I’ve found that most partnerships crumble for some reason or another (especially on the web). I can see why they suggest this, as a partner can bring new ideas, skills and even capital to the table. If you can find the right person it can be very good (especially if they are local). But often it’s difficult just finding someone interested in entrepreneurship on a local level!
Ah well… live and learn.
cheers
Nathan
Right on! I have been working in internet marketing for a year and half now. I completely made the mistakes you were talking about. I went through 6 businesses in a year. Now I have a website and the results are slower than I was hoping for, but I do see progress.
Thanks!
Becoming an entrepreneur has to be one of the best ways to make a living – with its ups and downs, this is the life os the sine-wave, but the alternative is a straight line no-job job! And we all know what a straight line means on ER!
One thing I would say is that it is vital to get really clear on what you love doing; matching your personal values in liufe against those oif the career/business you are embarking on.
Truth is – some folks are better off employed and wonderful though it is, self-employment isn’t for all. If you can’t get passionate about it when you’re thinking about it (the ‘master dream list’ Evan talks about), then when things aren’t going so well, it will only frustrate you even more.
To start up a business, you need to be passionate about your idea. Do not expect a miracle in the first year, take it easy and gradually, if you are consistent in improving on your idea, you will yeild good rewards in the future
Love the advice. Thank you.