Quick question for you…..

Have you ever had an idea that you knew would be great, but never really got it off the ground? In your mind, you could see the beginning and the end but everything in between seemed to be missing?

Maybe this idea was an idea for a new business venture. You went as far as choosing the perfect business name, secured the domain name and started investing in a website, but didn’t get much further than that.

In my opinion, the easiest part of starting a successful business, online or offline, is coming up with the idea. Anybody and everybody has ideas. Great ideas! But success is located just on the other side of the “abyss of all that you don’t know.” Standing in your way of the end result that you can envision so clearly is……well….quite frankly, you don’t know!

How do you overcome something that doesn’t even exist yet. How does one go from point “A,” the idea, to point “Z,” the end result, being stuck on point “D” and not knowing the rest of the alphabet. It’s like listening to a two year old sing the ABC’s….”L-M-N-O-P” is more like a severely slurred, non existing word called “elimenope.” (If the kid is good!)

Point “Q” might be the cost of the product or service and point “F” might be all the details of what the product or service is. With “S” being the marketing details, there is a lot of ground to cover before “Y” and “Z” can be realized.

Now, if bringing your idea to fruition was as easy as assigning each step a letter, then there would be a lot more successful people in the world. The great abyss of all that you don’t know wouldn’t set claim on so many aspiring entrepreneurs.

So let’s have this conversation over the next few posts. Let’s see if we can somewhat erase the abyss…or at least build a suspension bridge to make crossing it a bit easier.

You know what I have come to realize? Well, to be completely honest…not a whole lot. But I have learned a few things and these few things are what I live my life by. I hold some of the most simple concepts at a very high value as they have been the iron rod in my journey as a father, a husband and an entrepreneur. Life is already way too complex to allow complex rules guide it. It’s the simple things in life that bring true happiness for me.

Now, when I write about the simple things in life, I don’t mean the average things in life. That’s a completely different concept. Average does not mean simple. Think about it….most people are average. Some people are below average and even a smaller few are above average. So wherever the most people are, the most complexity exists. Average, however, isn’t interesting to me. It’s common, everyday and always happening. To be above average is interesting. It’s different and sporadic.

In the world we live in….the here and now, most people wake up at 6 am, get ready for the day, get their cup of coffee, drive to work and do the same things they always do at work. They do this everyday and wish for a better life, a more interesting life, full of passion and abundance. Yet, they do the same things, day in and day out and wonder why their results are not changing. We all know what the definition of insanity is. It’s just that. No matter how many times you try it, and in every possible variance, than square block is not fitting into that round hole.

You must create it. That’s the only way to get where you want to be in life. If you want to do the same thing every single day, do that….if it makes you happy. But keep it interesting. Follow your dreams regardless of the consequence. Most of us only have around 75 years to make an impact on the world. We cannot and must not think someone else will make that difference.

As the quote says, “You are the difference you wish to see in the world!” If something is interesting to you, that means you are enjoy it. If your life is not interesting, you are not enjoying it, you are not learning and you are definitely not making as much of an impact as you are capable of. And what you are capable of is directly related to what you THINK you are capable of. Think about it! Are you really making the difference you wish to see in the world by the daily actions you duplicate day in and day out? When you wake up at 6 am, get ready for work, drive there and engage in your daily activities, do you think to yourself as you send that fax or sell that product that you are fulfilling your purpose?

If the answer is no…..at that very moment, your life becomes just a little more interesting!

 

Those of you who have visited this blog before will know of my conviction for entrepreneurship. It really is the only way to keep the soul alive and progressing. A life spent fulfilling and building someone’s dreams other than your own, no matter how passionate you are about them, is a life partially fulfilled. Think about it! How many people have you spoken to over the years who have at one point said the famous words, “You know what would be a good idea for a business?” I hear it over and over again, yet, there is no action to follow the idea. They remain in what I like to call, the Employee Rut!

Now in past posts here at CreateFinancialWealth I have really bagged on having a job as if it was the worst punishment anyone could have in this life….and I have to apologize for that. A job has its purpose, and there are some benefits to having one, versus being self employed. It’s a lifestyle choice. Without employees there would be no employers. It’s the circle of commerce and industry. There must be both and at times you might find yourself being one or the other, wishing you were the other, struggling day in and day out to find an opportunity to become such.

Yet, when you get home from work, it’s so easy to eat dinner and just sit down on that couch for a few hours as you plug away on the internet or watch TV. Between spending time with your wife and kids and visiting with friends and family, it’s extremely difficult to find the time your entrepreneurial ideas deserve. So you find yourself attempting to stay up late at night trying to figure things out to get things moving, but you tire yourself so quickly and nearly go into a coma the rest of the week when you attempt to stay up a few more hours.

At this point, the job starts to take priority in your life. It’s much easier just to wake up, go to work, come home and not have to worry about anything until the next day when you start that drill all over again. Life becomes very predictable….with a bi-weekly paycheck and your schedule mapped out, you get on a routine. This routine is so habitual that it becomes nearly impossible to fit anything else around it. You are now 12 inches deep in the mud and are spinning your wheels every time you attempt to get out of the rut you’re in.

This is what I mean by the Employee Rut. Not that it’s a bad thing. Some do prefer and enjoy being in this rut….but it rips the spirit out of others. At times in your life, you may find yourself in this rut, not because you want to be there, but because your past choices have landed you there. Don’t become content with your lot! Get out as soon as you have the opportunity to, or the entrepreneurial spirit within will begin to diminish. Plan to succeed. Act on those ideas you have or someone else will, I promise you that. How many times have your ideas been so called, “Stolen,” by someone who acted instead of speculated about “Good ideas for a business.”

The world is full of people who can fill the ruts on the road to success…..but lacking those who have the fortitude and the ambition to make their way around, through, in and out of these ruts until they reach their destination. If there is a single ounce of entrepreneur in you, join the minority and live a life fulfilling and building your dreams! If you don’t, enjoy what you are doing now…because you’ll probably be doing it for the rest of your life.

Let’s take a look at the normal anatomy of human beings. We all have a head, arms, legs, feet, toes and the list could go on and on. Every part of the body has it’s own purpose and functionality. The legs carry the body from place to place, the hands grip and pick things up with the help of the arms but when it all comes down to it, the head is what controls the body. If something happens to the head, the other parts won’t function right, if at all.

So what happens if the arm wants to take control and do something different than what the head wants it to do? No matter how hard that arm tries to influence the head, it’s still the head operating the arm. Slap the head too many times and the head doesn’t work right, thus, neither does the arm. Beat the head to death and the arm kills itself in the process. Kill the head….the arm dies along with it. A body without the head, the mind, is nothing but a skin covered bag of bones!

What I mean by the analogy, is during certain periods of my Entrepreneur life I thought I was the head. I thought I was the one in control of the arms and legs of my business. The truth was, I was just the arm trying to turn the head the way I wanted it to go. It doesn’t work that way. An arm is just an arm and is controlled by the head.

My point…..is to always be the head of your enterprise. As long as there is a franchise, an owner, a co-owner or something with equal or more authority than you in your enterprise, you will never be the head. You will never have complete control of your financial future. Because…..say it with me….what effects the head, effects the entire body. We all know that a healthy mind equals a healthy body. It filters down…not up.

Make sure you are the one influencing the arms and the legs of your enterprise, not the one being influenced. If you are to ever achieve success and TRUE independence, you must be the head and only the head. Don’t settle for anything less. But that means that you must stop thinking like the arm or the leg, and start thinking like the head. Once you reach that point, you’ll know….and you be much, much happier and all of this will simply be a reminder.

One of the things that prevents individuals from seeing success in business are the road blocks they encounter right from the beginning, point A, to the end, point B. For those of you who have ever started a business or attempted to start a business, you know that in doing so, every step of the way isn’t sure. There is no detailed list of steps to take numbered 1 – 100. Even a detailed business plan doesn’t really give the action steps you’ll need to take to accomplish your goal. Based on your research, it’s just an educated guess at what the end result could be. From there, it’s up to the entrepreneur to create that detailed list, one step at a time.

The important thing to realize is that entrepreneurs don’t know all the steps to take. In order to make it to point B, all they know how to do is to simply take the NEXT step. As an entrepreneur, you don’t have to know all the steps, you just have to be willing to take the first step…and then continue taking steps from there, one at a time. By taking the steps we can see today, those steps then create new steps which we can take tomorrow. It’s like going up a staircase that turns at a 90 degree angle. At some point, you can’t really see the top of the staircase until turn that corner and start up the stairs. Same concept. By taking one simple step at a time, they’ll eventually add up, and you’ll soon reach the top.

You see, entrepreneurship is the ability to create something out of nothing, to take an idea and create a reality with it. Entrepreneurs are the most creative, action taking people on the planet. All growth depends on the mind of the Entrepreneur. They create jobs. They create opportunity for those who have no idea how to create it for themselves or are scared to do so. So their course is always an uncharted one. There’s no road maps or connect the dots. The only thing that exists is an internal GPS unit embedded in the heart of every Entrepreneur….constantly pointing in the right direction.

It’s not the end result that makes success so rewarding….it’s all it took to get there. It’s the journey. Would the celebration at the end of the race be a celebration if someone else had to carry you the entire way?

The reward is the knowledge that you did this. No one else did it, you did. And you did it your way…..and because you did, you deserve success, because you literally created it!

I think I’m going to create my own clothing line and put a logo on it that says, “Entrepreneur for Life.” Not only will it give me a little boost in my step, it will educate people about who I am and help them to understand why I do the things I do. So the next time someone asks what I do for a living, I’ll tell them and possibly share a little of what I see for my future. Maybe, just maybe, if I am wearing my shirt that bears “Entrepreneur for Life,” they’ll get the big picture.

It’s actually pretty funny to see the look I get when I tell someone of an idea I am having. They look at me like I’m crazy and proceed to tell me that it won’t happen.You know, because they are an expert. I think the reasoning behind it is the fact that they just don’t understand why I can’t just be normal. Why can’t I just get a job like everyone else they know. I am so weird to them. To them, it takes too much energy to do what I do.

After the first few times of being lectured about how things can’t be done, I started to make a game out of telling people about my ideas, just to see what kind of a reaction I could get. It’s actually pretty fun. You should try it…often…and where possible, capture it on video. I’d like to watch it because chances are, you’ll get the same reaction I always do. Only a few people in my life actually get excited for me when I share my vision for my future.

I remember specifically, the other day I told someone about my future goals as an entrepreneur…dead silence. Not even an acknowledgment! And lately, whenever that happens, I know I am on the right course. It just motivates me and should do the same for you, knowing that you are definitely “outside the box” they are currently living in.

Now I don’t know about you, but it seems like when I am the most comfortable, the less control I have of my life. As entrepreneurs, we do the things that most people won’t, so that later, we can live a life that most people can’t.

I’m excited to be on this journey with all of you! Entrepreneur for life baby!