I have never been so much in love as when I first started to work with my business idea. I know it sounds crazy and probably a little bit sad, but it’s very much true. I was totally obsessed, and all I was thinking of and dreaming of was how I was going to turn my idea into reality. It was so real to me I could see the office space I had created in my mind, smell the air outside the gigantic building of my headquarter by the ocean and most importantly feel the adrenalin rushing through my vanes as I lay my hands on the beige, leather steering wheel trying my best to maneuver my extremely fast car.
This might sound a little bit materialistic, but trust me it has never been about money. That has never been my focus. It never is because I know that the great things in life are not for sale. I learned that when my dad passed away 5 years ago.
So if its not about money what is it then? It is the will to succeed, and the slightly unhealthy relationship to competition. I play to win, not to participate. The feeling from winning or getting good results gives me a feeling that is indescribable, like no other feeling in the world. I can live on that feeling for days without eating or sleeping. When I win or do well I am invincible. It gives me extra ¨muscles¨ to deal with next challenge…but this is of course when I win. When I lose...ouch! If I fail my world falls apart. I’m a really bad loser, and unfortunately that has slowed me down a lot of times.
Luckily I have started to realize that it is ok to lose faith or fail as long as you keep going. Every entrepreneur will at some point lose faith and feel that their business idea is stupid and impossible to implement. It is perfectly natural. Just because you are having ¨one of those days¨ does not mean that you should give up. Entrepreneurs are probably more in the danger zone of feeling that than any other occupations because we normally have a thousand ideas that needs to be tested a million times. Get used to the feeling of having a door slammed in your face and get used to the word no, because every yes starts with a no. Some people might disagree with me, but set high goals…maybe even unrealistic goals. It is better to higher your goals and be everything you can be than to lower your goals and be almost all you can be. PS! I’m not talking to the crazy Idol contestants who don’t have a family that loves them enough to tell them that they cant sing.
When you have a good idea hold on to it. The harder you fell in love with the idea, the harder you shall hold on to it! DON’T STOP BELIEVING!!
Great post Yass!
ReplyDeleteI think young biz peeps should not focus on word 'fail' - if something went not as planned you just learn from it and test other strategy.
There are no failures - there are only lessons
Y, did you have any lessons that you would like to share? :)
T
I totally agree. There are no failures only lessons... however quitting lasts forever. I dont actually have any lessons on this specific business idea, but I did 5 years ago when I developed a TV show that really never happened. It was actually a good idea, but too little research, too little ¨believing¨, sort of gave up when we got the 4th NO.. but this was in Norway where the mentality is very much ¨Everything is impossible, and don't you dare to think big or commercial¨. I guess the lesson was that if you quit you never know what could have been a success.
ReplyDeleteAgreed!
ReplyDeleteI think another important thing for unexperienced business peeps like us is to TEST IDEA . It helps to be more realistic. If you have a product or service to sell, just prepare simple package/presentation/prototype go and try to sell it.
You might feel that it is brilliant idea... friends might say that you are fuckin' genius... others will say that they will definitely buy it... but when it comes to pay the money in your account - things change....
If you doing primary research by asking people if they would buy this or pay for that. Many times they say 'Yes' simply because they want you to piss off... Reality is different ... ( i'll tell you Sony example one day..)
TEST YOUR IDEA, before dreaming about red ferarris, holidays in maldives and $1m in account...GET YOUR first $50, $100, $500 for things that you offer and then move on - invest more time and money .... (you can't test it on all business ideas , but most of the times you can )
T
I concur. When it comes to the actual money it is different.
ReplyDeleteTesting the service for a real ¨audience¨ was something I did very early.
Doing surveys and research gives you a good clue, but like you said its not completely safe, however research and statistics are good for the financial plan of the business plan when presenting to investors. That way you show that you have done some work and that you are serious about it. It should be your own surveys as well as existing data.
In my case it was very easy testing the idea at an early stage because it is not a new idea and I did a lot of research before testing it. I did not invent it and I have great competitors, not too many luckily but I have some huuuuuge ones.
For some people who have a new idea it would be hard to test the idea first.
The obvious reasons is that you normally need cash to even develop it steady, and if it is a unique.. lets say a new invention you must have a patent before presenting it to the people. If you present it and make it available it is no longer possible to get a patent on it. Your idea is suddenly public domain.