Jan
16
Skip School and Learn What You Need to Know Instead
This is a guest post from Charlie Gilkey of Productive Flourishing. On the off chance that both my husband Jamie and Charlie’s wife Angela die in a tragic knitting accidents, Charlie and I will be running away to Spain. In the interim, we will just say nice things about each other on our blogs.
Somewhere along the line, someone convinced a lot of people that the way to learn about business was to go to school to learn about it. So when people start thinking about starting their business or start looking to solve problems in their existing business, the solution seems obvious: go to school.
Wrong. The best way to learn about business is to start your own business and learn on the go. Formal business education most often teaches you how to perform some role in an already existing business, not how to effectively be the CEO, COO, and CFO of your own ittybiz.
That’s not saying that you can’t be successful without knowing what you’re doing – although you probably could get by for a while. But rather than spending hundreds of dollars to endure the fun of hearing someone who loves to hear himself talk about business when he probably hasn’t actually worked in the business world or the awkwardness of being a “non-traditional student” for 15-18 weeks, enroll in the School of Seth and get what you need to know in 5 weeks for less about $65. Did I mention that you can learn in your underwear and there’s no graded homework or exams?
The School of Seth
What’s the School of Seth? It’s the ideas and applications of Seth Godin’s books. The curriculum is designed to help you understand the New Economy while at the same time immersing you in that economy. I’ve chosen the order that I think you should read the books, assuming you’re starting from the “I think I’d like to start a business” phase. Read one book a week to give yourself time to absorb and reflect on what you’ve read.
You may be asking: “What’s so different about the New Economy and why should I read Seth Godin’s books?” Fair enough: rather than trying to sell everything to everybody for as cheap as possible (think Walmart), New Economy principles suggest that you should provide something remarkable to a select audience that really wants or needs what you’re providing (think Amazon.com). In an online world, your ability to connect with those that need what you’re providing is easier than ever, but you have to learn a (perhaps) different approach to getting their attention. Seth Godin’s books are the quickest resource I’ve found at helping you learn these principles and learn how to reach those people who have the problems your solutions solve.
So, get your books, pens, and paper out, and let’s get to it:
Learning what makes something “remarkable” is the first step. The goal of this week is to think about what you’re passionate about and figuring out how you can provide a service or product based off of that and be remarkable at it.
- Homework: List a few ideas of what you actually like to do. What do you talk to your friends about? What do you know that you’d like to teach others? What would you like to make that solves a want or need one other person?
- Extra Credit: Start using Twitter. Find people you’re interested in and tweet with them. The catch: use your real name.
Starting and running a business is not easy – to be good at it, you’ll have to learn what to quit and what to stick with. There will be dips, or intensely difficult periods that cause most people to quit, and you have to know going into your endeavor whether you’re willing to push through or lean into those dips.
- Homework: Looking at your list from last week, what dips can you anticipate from if you were to pursue those ideas. Are you willing and able to push through those dips?
- Extra Credit: Look at your non-business related activities. Is there anything you’re doing that’s distracting you or that you’re doing but aren’t willing or able to be really good at it? Can you quit those activities? (This helps you get used to thinking in terms of be really good at what you’re doing if it’s worth doing).
- Week Three: Unleashing the Ideavirus
- Homework: Start a blog, but don’t write about what your cats eating. Write about your service or product – focus on helping people, not on selling. Your blog will serve as your vehicle for unleashing your ideas on the world.
- Extra Credit: Spend some time researching social media services (i.e. Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Delicious, etc.) Sign up for the ones that are the best vehicles for your service, product, and brand. Submit posts, websites, and ideas you like; make sure to help the people you’ve started making connections with. It’s far more effective (and feels better) to harness social media for others rather than yourself.
- Week Four: Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us
The strongest way to connect with your potential clients or buyers is to lead them. People are looking to services and products to help them change, but nothing beats a real live person leading people through their changes. Figure out how to lead people to change themselves and you write your ticket to success. Note: If you’re not sincere about helping people, you will fail at leading them – those are the breaks.
- Homework: List the pains you’re of others you’re trying to alleviate or the wants that they want fulfilled. Figure out ways to use your blog and online personas to help them help themselves – and start doing it.
- Extra Credit: Use your blog and Twitter to start connecting your readers and content to other people’s content and readers.
- Week Five: Small is the New Big
This book is a grab-bag of ideas related to making your business remarkable. It’s a great book to have by your desk for those odd moments where you have 10 minutes of “wait” time or when you’d like to have a little inspiration.
- Final Exam: What ideas stuck that you didn’t expect to? Which ideas did you think were great but didn’t get much traction? Which of the connections that you set up are the most valuable? What dips have you overcome?
Summary
You can learn the principles and techniques for being effective in 5 weeks, but applying, experimenting, and truly understanding these ideas may take far longer. But learning these ideas early help gives you a roadmap for success and the investment in yourself will pay dividends much quicker than any money that you may put into the coffers of your local college.
