As I am going through business and product development and launching my site I am learning a lot not only about starting a business but also about myself and my circle of friends. I'm going to keep a log here so that you guys can see how things are progressing, avoid the mistakes I make, and maybe learn a thing or two.
I am learning that I am less organized than I thought but also far more adaptable than I thought. The entire launch process is happening almost entirely in the opposite order of how I expected and planned for it to turn out. It seems like the businesspeople who turn out on top are the ones who are the most adaptable and agile, and not necessarily the ones with the best plan.
"Every boxer has a plan until he gets punched in the face."
I've been metaphorically punched in the face several times in the last month.
It's like every time I plan out the next 2 weeks of my business development something else comes up that shifts my efforts in a totally different direction. Fortunately, all these distractions have been positive developments, but I will probably hit a wall at some point and I'm preparing myself mentally to be able to react flexibly when that happens.
I thought that time management would be a problem in that I would have to motivate myself to stay on track and keep working. The exact opposite is happening in that my brain never stops thinking about my product development, consultations, and video screencast interviews. It's become a bit overwhelming at times and I've been having to juggle multiple hats all the time. Motivation is strong and I've been hustling and moving forward, though.
The mentors whose biz dev structure I am following have a mantra to "fail forward", which I am finding to be entirely responsible for any progress I've made. So far I've been lucky and only succeeded forward but my initial staggering randomly forward into an intermediate phase of the business launch structure gave me the momentum I needed to calibrate and move forward.
I spent my first three months in "niche identification", trying to figure out a perfect golden niche that would work for me. Then, I finally just starting throwing out random ideas and concepts I had on this forum and others and some of them stuck - especially international career related stuff. I went with it. In the last month that I've been moving forward and gaining momentum, my progress has sped up exponentially.
I've also realized it is difficult and maybe impossible for me to do business with my friends. There are no professional boundaries and this has been causing problems with two of my friends in particular, who I've completely stopped consulting. It is incredibly aggravating to spend time trying to help people who don't execute the advice you give them and then later blame you for their failure.
Outsourcing is awesome.
I'll be updating this thread regularly and welcome comments, questions, and feedback from current and aspiring entrepreneurs as I go through my own journey.
I am learning that I am less organized than I thought but also far more adaptable than I thought. The entire launch process is happening almost entirely in the opposite order of how I expected and planned for it to turn out. It seems like the businesspeople who turn out on top are the ones who are the most adaptable and agile, and not necessarily the ones with the best plan.
"Every boxer has a plan until he gets punched in the face."
I've been metaphorically punched in the face several times in the last month.
It's like every time I plan out the next 2 weeks of my business development something else comes up that shifts my efforts in a totally different direction. Fortunately, all these distractions have been positive developments, but I will probably hit a wall at some point and I'm preparing myself mentally to be able to react flexibly when that happens.
I thought that time management would be a problem in that I would have to motivate myself to stay on track and keep working. The exact opposite is happening in that my brain never stops thinking about my product development, consultations, and video screencast interviews. It's become a bit overwhelming at times and I've been having to juggle multiple hats all the time. Motivation is strong and I've been hustling and moving forward, though.
The mentors whose biz dev structure I am following have a mantra to "fail forward", which I am finding to be entirely responsible for any progress I've made. So far I've been lucky and only succeeded forward but my initial staggering randomly forward into an intermediate phase of the business launch structure gave me the momentum I needed to calibrate and move forward.
I spent my first three months in "niche identification", trying to figure out a perfect golden niche that would work for me. Then, I finally just starting throwing out random ideas and concepts I had on this forum and others and some of them stuck - especially international career related stuff. I went with it. In the last month that I've been moving forward and gaining momentum, my progress has sped up exponentially.
I've also realized it is difficult and maybe impossible for me to do business with my friends. There are no professional boundaries and this has been causing problems with two of my friends in particular, who I've completely stopped consulting. It is incredibly aggravating to spend time trying to help people who don't execute the advice you give them and then later blame you for their failure.
Outsourcing is awesome.
I'll be updating this thread regularly and welcome comments, questions, and feedback from current and aspiring entrepreneurs as I go through my own journey.