Brick walls

We were told that our business was a great idea. A super concept.

So we went for it.

Then we started work on the blue prints, and they looked great. Everyone said it was a sure thing.

   

So we built it.

 

Then once it was built everyone was in awe of how we took it from concept to reality. They told us we we’re sitting on a gold mine of potential, they starting asking us what life would be like when we made millions, if we’d still be their friends!

So we marketed it.

Then all new and potential customers loved it and told us how they’d buy it and tell everyone. sell it for us and keep coming back for more.

 

Then we realized there was a lot of brick walls between enthusiasm and reality. A lot of brick walls between a great idea, and that great idea becoming a great business.

There was a lot of brick walls. Walls which were hard to climb. Walls that almost ‘consumed us’ to the point of forgetting the easy, early days of enthusiasm.

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These walls are put here to test us. They are asking us if we really want it. They are in fact our best friend. They make climbing over hard, and keep the pretenders out. Those who don’t really want it (maybe competitors?)

We ought thank the walls.

Ideas are free

An excerpt from the blog of Seth Godin today. I had to post it:

“This isn’t about having a great idea (it almost never is). The great ideas are out there, for free, on your neighbourhood blog. Nope, this is about taking initiative and making things happen.”

Vicious circle

Do we…

Work in a job we don’t like

To buy things we don’t need

To impress people we don’t like

?

 

To be really happy we need to ensure one sub optimal arrangement doesn’t feed another. This holds true if we run our own business or hire our time out to a company (have a job).

Staying the course

The rock band – Red Hot Chlli Peppers know something about staying the course. And proof of that is the fact that everyone reading this knows who they are. They endured many a hardship and even the passing of guitarist Hillel Slovak. So here’s a little parable about their breakthrough album.

 

The Red Hot Chilli Peppers launched Blood Sex Sugar Magik in September 1991. The album was produced by Rick Ruben (a guru producer) who actually had refused to produce for them previously, but they weren’t perturbed and asked again and this time he said ‘yes’. It was their 4th album and 8th year of being in a band.

 

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They knew they had something special with the record. They didn’t define themselves, just did what they thought was right, played their type of music, which happened to be what they also did on their previous three albums. The fireworks were few when the album was released. Nothing happened. Well not exactly. They went on tour again, in their old blue Chevy van with their instruments and continued to play to converted ice skating rinks which were one two thirds empty.

To quote bass player flee “We we’re touring our asses off” and the band wasn’t getting any bigger. They soldiered on, as they had the past 8 years.

This continued for 6 months into the release of the album, then suddenly, lives were changed forever. In late 1991 the song ‘Give it away’ went into heavy rotation on MTV and radio. After the Chili’s had been ‘giving it away’ to hardcore fans for eight years, the masses were lining up overnight, for concert tickets. (a bit like the i-phone)

In early 1992 their song ‘Under the bridge’ also did a job on the mainstream and solidified their position in rock history forever. The album was selling more 100,000 copies a week and has now sold more than 12 million copies.

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Nothing really changed from 1984 until they hit the big time, the world caught up to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And more importantly, they stayed the course.

Grow some vegetables

Every entrepreneur should grow some vegetables. Sounds like a weird directive, but there some great real world lessons, real world ideas and real world benefits from doing so.

Firstly, it takes effort. Not a lot, but a consistent effort which will ultimately equal the reward. In this case there if no doubt in the following equation:

effort = reward

The effort need not be excessive, just consistent. We can grow an entire garden, or even a pumpkin in a pot will give the same benefit.

We’ll learn that anyone who puts in the effort can grow vegetables. There’s a definite learning curve. The more we do it, the better we’ll get at it. You can read a ‘how to’ book on growing them (which will surely help) but even after reading the book you’ll still discover that you learn infinitely more by doing it.

The process is a daily one.

We need to water, fertilize and nurture them. We can’t treat two vegetables the same, but we must apply the same principals.

Some will get more light, so more water. We need to manage their needs differently depending on their position in the market.

The market is a competitive one. We’ll need to fight off bugs, birds and insects, who want to feed on our efforts. This proves you’ve got a fertile market… one worth doing, one with yield.

 If you let these competitors run rampant, they’ll take it all. But we need to understand that competition is healthy. It’s no good killing our yield with pesticide (which is a bit like price discounting)… it can ruin everything for everyone and leave no yield at all. It’s better to outsmart the bugs, maybe with netting or organic means. They’ll still get some, but we’ll get the lions share.  

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We’ll realize that nature is very generous, so long as we nurture our crop. We will reap ‘real world’ benefits, many of which go beyond yield and enter our psyche.

We’ll realize we need to save some seeds for our plantation next season. We’ll learn that all vegetables are seasonal. We’ll learn that not all climates (markets) suit all vegetables. We’ll realize we get better results when we focus on a veggie we have expert knowledge with. The rewards will taste better than ‘bought’ vegetables, which is more like working for a wage.

Eventually we’ll realize that growing vegetables is exactly like starting a business and managing a business. It’s a very complex yet rewarding process.

If you won the lotto

Would you get up tomorrow and continue doing what you are doing today?

A question worth asking. It helps us understand if we’re truly passionate about our start up, projects or career.

When we can answer “Yes” – we know we’re on the right track.