LIFE LESSONS
Helpful Signs That You’re Being off the Track in Business And life
I saw the signs, mend my ways, and my life couldn’t be better.
I’d attempt to tell you the little I know about starting a business but then figured you must have read thousands of those already, not that you’ll ever outgrow learning new things in that aspect or elsewhere.
Starting a business will forever be a big deal, and that in no way being a discouragement, but because it is a great decision in one’s life.
Numerous books have been written and there are still drafts on the computer screens of so many successful entrepreneurs in that regard.
But then to date, there are still youngsters, like me, that try with utmost hard work and invest so much energy in the pursuit of a career only to end up with darkness at the end of a tunnel.
Reaching one thousand subscribers on your YouTube channel, getting the first order as a freelancer, or getting people to share your blog posts may seem like forever even after following every rule of the book.
It can be such a turn off because this is just an example. The reality can fuck up with someone’s entire mental peace. If you’ve been there then I don’t need to tell you that it is more devastating.
What am I doing wrong?
I recently asked myself the same question and when reality dawns on me, it shifted my entire perspective on a lot of things.
I believe it is the first step to rescuing my entire life and not just hustle from a “black hole”.
I figured that no one has a natural or magically repulsive personality. So if you figured something is going wrong, then it probably is.
To answer the question is very simple. Let’s cut to the chase.
1. Resisting change
If you ever find yourself in excessive love with your idea, then that is bound to create a problem.
I have a cousin who gave up on making money online. He didn’t think it was for him because of something that happened two years ago.
This gentleman bought a domain name on GoDaddy. He wasn’t planning on using it. He wanted to sell it. He believed that if he can buy a cool irresistible domain name, people will buy it. And he is right, people do that.
So he went to work. He has a little notebook where he wrote down all the cool names he could come up with. He kept narrowing the list until it came to one. He bought it and showcase it on Namecheap — he was in business.
A week passed, then two weeks, a month, six months, and then a complete year. No one even tries to contact him regarding the domain name whatsoever.
There was someone who has a compelling domain name, music to the ears of startups in that niche, but then all his hopes down the drain in a single swoop.
If only he tried something else, if only he tried affiliate marketing or writing or freelancing in video editing or the other limitless opportunities of making money online, but no, he resisted change.
We all have a similar story.
Persistence is a core ingredient to success, but sometimes, you know that it is not that you aren’t persisting enough, it simply isn’t working. That is a hard pill to swallow but then it is the truth.
Letting go is very hard not only in dating relationships but in business too. It is even exceptionally harder if one began with a spike on their graph.
You so much believe that it’ll work, having every least detail mapped out. If it didn’t, then pace yourself up and try another, it is not the end of the world.
Don’t get too glued to your love for your product blind you of the problems that crippled your pace to growth and the little push you need to get better.
Many people have tried launching products before, and times without number failed. That, however, didn’t prevent the same people from succeeding. Why? Because they embraced change.
“Change before you have to.” — Jack Welch
In many cases, the change doesn’t have to be that of the whole product. Depending on the product, a mere changing of the location, the online platform you’re using to reach your audience, or even how you portray the product to the market can be vital.
Never make the mistake of thinking that you know exactly what your customers need no matter how good you think you know them. People can be less predictable than you think they are and you should be ready to change accordingly.
Try embracing those changes that you kept ignoring and see how adventurous you become, but most importantly how it transform your business for the better.
2. Competing instead of dominating!
Competition is burned to the very conscious of most entrepreneurs. You must know your competitors but not just for competing’s sake.
Learn from your competitors not to be part of the competition game, but to devise a better way to dominate the niche. Never make it a burden of yours to compete, it is bad for you and your business.
Think like you’ve no scale to compare yourself to; and witness how unstoppable you become.
Stop comparing the number of views in your stories to others. We’re all on our different lanes and can reach the same destination at a different pace.
The earlier you start exerting efforts that are towards becoming the king rather than winning a silly toxic game, the greater the magnitude of the impact of those efforts.
The only competition that is good for you is with yourself.
As soon as your actions are in line with this, you’ll discover something new. You’ll stumble on the recipe to converting problems into opportunities. You’ll begin seeing outcomes differently.
If by any chance, you were barking up on the wrong tree, it will be the perfect time to realize that, with the competition out of the picture.
It was mentioned in the 48 Laws of Power that we’re all competitors. I don’t think that is the case. I am a firm believer that one can triple their productivity without having to want to surpass others.
There is enough for everyone. Nobody has to lose for you to win. There is plenty to go around.
This is good for you and your business.
3. Lacking patience
When I began Medium, I had zero followers and my first story got 90 views. I then got a few followers and my third story got only 11 views. Funny, right?
We’ve seen the same captions over and over again on how someone recorded a milestone “overnight”. We’ve believed as our potentials are limitless we can be just like them or even better.
The disappointment appears when we realized that we are in so many cases very different from these people we try to emulate, hence the likability of us being a bit late than they are.
Ever since I began to learn from my mistakes instead of giving up, I became a better person. I am not talking about just business. As a writer, I became in peace with the fact that it doesn’t matter how excellent you think your piece because it is left for your readers to judge.
It can take me forty minutes to write an article, three days to write another and the former can still outperform the later. That didn’t stop me from trying to pull up those three days ‘masterpieces’.
You read of how someone is living the life of your dream just a year after launching their very first blog. Not knowing that the same blogger studied creative writing for four years.
A lifetime of hard work and dedication can be turned into a compelling 5 mins read piece by a great storyteller.
Witty captions can be deceiving. Get the main idea straight but don’t let minor charming promises get to your head.
It takes time to get hundreds of people to subscribe to your newsletter. It takes time to reach a milestone! It takes time to make a presence!
People will be more than ready to pay you whatever price you put on, provided you can offer a service of equivalent value. Getting excellent at that can not be overnight.
