Sep
23
Would You Fight and Rage Until the Gods Gave in
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Work Happy Now‘s Karl Staib.
So you are thinking about starting your own business? Wouldn’t it be grand…you can earn as much money as you want as long as you put in the hard work. You can create the life that fits your style.
I see these grand dreams floating in my head and I know they aren’t as perfect as I imagine them. I’m lying to myself (in a good way). A business owner’s stress is higher. (I have put myself through it and seen many friends and family take on more stress than the average job.)
The simple fact is that business owners are more invested in the outcome. When you care about success you care more about failure. The upside is that a business owner may create more risk, but they also reap larger rewards.
They are fulfilling their needs by chasing their passion – while making money doing it.
We all know the positives and negatives to starting and running a business, but most new business owners lack an important skill. I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve lacked this core building block.
Aim
What are you aiming to accomplish? And why are you trying to accomplish these goals? The two most important questions for any entrepreneur. It’s better than any business plan. Because screw the business plan. You need a plan to make money, but you don’t need twenty pages of crap that is only trying to sell yourself on the fact that you are making a wise choice.
Naomi said it best in her recent post, Things, Chains, and Changing the Fucking World.
“And I have the change the fucking world thing.”
Damn that’s a huge goal, but it makes Naomi work like crazy. She is on a mission to help that lady in a studio apartment make her homemade scarves a thriving business, the massage therapist separate from the crowd, so he can do what he loves, and help me figure out a way to sell my work happiness message to businesses.
You need to know what you want to accomplish, otherwise you’re just floating in the breeze.
Set an Aim
You must hold yourself accountable for your desires. You can wish that your business takes off in the near future, but wishing won’t bring in those buyers.
So really think about what it is you want to do to help people because that’s what a business is all about. It’s not easy and it’s taken me 12 years to figure it out. Right now it’s past my bed time, but I’m on a mission to be a guest blogger on Ittybiz, so it sends some traffic to my blog. I’ll be up at 5am, trying to do it all over again.
Not Sure What Will Keep that Fire Burning?
Test the Waters
If you aren’t quite sure what you want to do then take baby steps that will bring in small amounts of revenue and see what happens. Does your desire pick up? Does it make you want to start a business even more? Naomi over at IttyBiz has a fantastic program Online Business School that might help you make the decision. I think it will be worth the money to help you decide.
Your Passion
My belief is that if you are passionate enough then good things will come, but the problem is that not enough good things will come if you don’t have an aim of what you want your business to look like in six months, one year, and five years. All entrepreneurs must be clear in their thinking, otherwise the idea will flounder. You have to know what you want to do and how you want to accomplish this dream or you won’t thrive.
You have to want it so bad that if someone dared to deny you your dream, you would rage and fight until the Gods gave in and granted your wish.
It may take 1 year, 5 years, or ten, but the only thing that matters is you are building on your passion. The world will eventually see it and reward you.
Karl Staib writes about unlocking and kicking open the door to working happy at his own blog: Work Happy Now! If you enjoyed this article, you may like to subscribe to his feed, follow him on Twitter or read one of his most popular articles, How Does Google Create a Great Atmosphere?
Beginning with the end in mind works in life, and it works in business. It works in not only envisioning your long-term ‘save the world’ passion coming true and what that would look and feel like, but also in smaller term goals.
Taking the why you’re doing what you’re doing and combining that with a clear vision of where you want to be in 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 5 years lets you know what you need to be thinking, feeling, and doing today.
Great post, Karl!
Thanks for reminding us to connect to why we do what we do!
All the best!
deb
I caution against going with the “end in mind” approach. I have seen it stifle a lot of creativity and real passion. The key is to remain flexible and alert.
I started my latest adventure with the knowledge that my audience may be too small to sustain a business. I started knowing it will likely be a long building process. And that’s fine, because I believe in what I’m doing.
Worst case, it will be valuable experience if I have to do something else, and hopefully I’ve contributed something worthwhile in the meantime.
“…the world will eventually reward you.” Thanks for the inspiration, Karl. Um. can I hold you (and the world) to that?
Hi Deb, as long as you have a clear idea of how you want to deliver value to others it makes life so much easier.
Hi Lydia, good point. Too rigid of an approach can leave you curled up in a ball, waiting for a better week. That’s why awareness is such a powerful strength for an Ittybiz owner. Without it she is like the fly bashing her head against the window, trying to break free.
Hi Stacey, yes you can hold the world and me to that statement. I promise that when you align your needs with the value that you put out into the world – good stuff will keep raining down upon you (in an enjoyable way).
Naomi, thank you for posting my article. I always love to see the reaction of readers from a different blog than my own.
I think that always keeping the What and the Why in mind is a good thing. It helps you stay aligned with your intention and it often helps when you get sidetracked by some cool idea that has nothing to do with the What and the Why….but is distracting anyway.
I also find that staying connected to the What and the Why makes discovering the how a whole lot easier!
Rock on!
Leah