Most of us feel like we have done the studying and the learning to know our craft, and it feels like that should be enough. But the only thing by which others can judge is the work we produce. The art, the article, the extra time spent meeting with a friend...
Can you see the gaps in the things you care about and the what you've created?
Passionate idea people are beautiful. The dreams and the excitement are contagious. And most of those dreams and visions go nowhere.
We can see the big end goal, the helping of thousands of underserved people. There's an image of our firm with people all across the world, or our software platform linking thousands of buyers and sellers, or shipping 1,000 units per month of our new cool gadget.
But what stands between the grand vision and today's current reality? More often than not it's one customer that's not your mother or your friend.
Once one customer comes in the door and they are delighted, a second and third come along. Now you've started a real entity. Money is coming in, money is going out, and most importantly people are being served.
You may be losing money every month, and that's OK. When you know how to find people that want your thing and people to pay for it (those that pay and those that use are not always the same), you can work out the details later.
For any of this to happen requires a first revenue generating user. Then a second and a third until a sustainable financial model is developed.
All of this is to say that we need to walk before we can run. Our vision may be helping thousands per year. To help thousands, someone has to be first, and second, and third...
There is simply no getting around this paradigm. To have something big, you have to start with a first user. To become an adult, you have to start as a child.
Can you get one user for your thing? If you can, do it and put all the rest of the noise on hold. The other issues will be there when you get back.
Anger can be a great motivator. When anger turns into action, change happens.
When we organize a boycott, write an article, bring together a roundtable discussion, mentor someone, help a neighbor, participate in a business or non-profit that aligns with our mission, or any of the hundreds of other activities we can do; that is when we see the benefits of anger.
What does not help is getting angry and just complaining. Complaining is bad for the soul and repels the very people you want to engage.
Every action plants a seed in the forest of greater good. The more plants, the greater the size of the forest. Our systems encourage the planting of bad seeds. Fight the tide by planting more good seeds than bad and eventually the forest of greater good will overtake the forest of doing evil.
Anger can be a great motivator. But anger without action breeds discontent and ill health. When enough of us turn anger into greater good action is when the tide changes.
"It's easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than to think your way into a new way of acting." - credited to various sources
Imagine it's your funeral. Your watching from above.
Exercise 1: What are people saying and thinking about you?
Exercise 2: What would you like people to be saying and thinking?
Exercise 3: Plot a plan to create a life that allows the results of Exercise 2 to become reality.
For the first time in human history, at least in the western world, anyone can learn anything for free. There are three critical facets of learning: access to the knowledge, a community of learners, and practice.
Anyone with a computer and internet connection, that has enough resolve can tap into all three facets. It is truly a remarkable time in history.
When we stand for something, features (beyond the minimum requirements) become irrelevant.
The hardest part about selling is building trust. Stand for something; then you'll have the confidence of those in your camp. They'll buy from you because they like you and genuinely want to support your commitment.
When we stand for something in public, we speak for those that feel unheard and this builds engagement no advertising or PR can offer.
A client recently sought council on some very specific features and benefits of a product under design. Finally, after some prodding, she agreed that what she needed to do was speak directly with prospects instead of spending money on a consultant (sometimes we need to fire customers to help them).
But she was frightened to talk with target prospects and spent several more months making guesses at design and copy. Her product eventually launched but by the time she got to sales and profits she was burned out and hated the process. Her family life and career had suffered. All because she was scared to ask her prospects a few simple questions.
In the end, what makes your project or product successful is getting someone to pay for it and be happy they did so after use.
So before building something, talk to the people you plan on selling to and make sure it's something they want to buy.
In startup circles, this is called Customer Development, and it's critical to launching successfully.
Entrepreneurs and especially wantrapreneurs are addicted to learning. When classes and books are consumed because the knowledge will be valuable "someday," it's just-in-case learning.
Courses taken that we execute on and produce right away are just-in-time learning. We learn and do simultaneously.
The problem is just-in-case learning can become counter-productive.
There is nothing wrong with learning purely for the love of learning. It's a great gift.
However, if the idea is to start and grow something, every minute spent reading and taking in new information, if not used immediately, is a waste of the most precious resource, time. When starting out time needs to be spent producing.
Producing can be creating leads, setting up systems, creating content or otherwise doing work that gets us closer to revenue generating activities.
If you're about to start a new training ask yourself if this is something you can implement right away. If it's not, but you still want to do it because you'll enjoy the experience, then, by all means, do the training.
But know that when you're doing just-in-case learning, put it in the fun and entertainment bucket because listening to videos is leisure.
Doing exercises and sharing the results (just-in-time training) is work. And it's work that propels starting something great.
What if you had a million dollar race horse? Would you feed it mediocre food? Would you let it skip random exercise days? Would you let it oversleep and then get drunk a few times a week? Of course, you wouldn't.
Do you let yourself do these things?
Why do we treat ourselves so much worse than we treat pets or possessions?
For entrepreneurs and funders that want to make a difference.
Greater Good Entrepreneur is a video podcast where I interview entrepreneurs that are making a difference in the world.
Feel free to reach out to me with success stories or for help.
Jim Verzino
617-669-2125
jim@jimverzino.com
