|
I just read the book and I’m going to give Fastlane a try!
I’ve never been so motivated—I’m gonna take a stab at this!
I’m so excited to give this a shot!
Ahem. {clears throat} Uh, taking a stab? Giving it a shot?
Please.
Spare yourself the ride on the rainbow.
Fastlane
Entrepreneurship is not
something you “try.” Come to the game with that mentality, and sorry, failure is
guaranteed. You see, “trying” or “taking a stab” or “giving it a shot” does not take
advantage of expected value. Failing one web business and retreating back to
your job diminishes the positive expected value of CENTS, which requires
occurrences. “Taking a shot” is what you do when you play the Powerball.
In business, occurrences mean multiple swings at the plate: strikeouts, pop-
ups, foul outs, and other musings of fail. If you’re playing in big EV ventures, it
will take multiple failures before hitting something substantial. For me, I had
multiple occurrences banked before I struck something that gained traction.
Occurrences are just part of the game. Expect it. Occurrences have their benefits,
and that’s our aim. As you move through the trials, your network grows, as do
your skills and abilities, hence increasing your odds (and better expected values)
at your next shot. Get expected value working for you: drive those occurrences
higher.
Winning The Lottery: Grand Prize? $100
Starting a business is tough. Owning one is tougher.
And no matter what business you own, let’s be clear: It will work you silly. I
don’t care if you own a local landscaping company or a multinational software
service, the life choice to be an entrepreneur can be rip-your-hair-out
challenging. Obstacles and problems are all part of the process, requiring
unrelenting commitment.
So with the cost of entrepreneurship so high, why on earth would you cheat
your payoff?
Assuming everything goes your way—a little luck, great timing, and a
banging execution plan—what stands to be the outcome from your best-case
scenario? Will you be celebrating in a steakhouse, compliments of your great
month? Or on a beach, celebrating how your life will never be the same?
In early 1997, I had an opportunity to buy a limousine service in Chicago,
Illinois. Being the analytical type, I analyzed the opportunity and decided against
it. I still remember my decision metrics, two of them being the best-case scenario
and expected value (to be honest, I didn’t know about EV back then but had
empirical data as well as “industry averages” giving me a sense of EV). Both
metrics indicated: don’t do this! The average limousine-company profit was
unimpressive—even the best-case scenario sounded more like a worst-case
scenario: seven-day workweeks, long hours, weather issues,
etc.
Later that year, I opted to pursue an Internet company because it had better
best-case scenarios, including a higher expected value. The decision proved
correct, multiple times.
The point is this: You’re going to have to work your ass off, and if all the
cards flop your way, you want a big payoff. If you’re going to scale a mountain,
you want the jackpot at the top to be worthwhile, not a salad and breadsticks at
Olive Garden. Seriously, would you buy lottery tickets if the grand prize was
$250? You work crazy hours and your reward is a thirty-year mortgage in
suburbia that you can barely pay? Play small and you shortchange a strong effort
with weak rewards. Build a business that makes a difference in your customers’
lives but, more importantly, yours.
Playing Big Doesn’t Mean Forgetting Small
Scale, or playing big, is the forest among the trees. Playing small is the trees.
And if you’re not willing to plant one tree, you’ll never grow the forest—one of
the greatest scale misconceptions I’m responsible for. For years, I’ve been
praising a law called
The Law of Effection
. It states: The more lives you impact in
either scale or magnitude, the more money you will make. In other words,
impact millions to make millions
. If there ever was a “secret” to wealth, both
monetarily and spiritually, “impact millions” are the only two words needed. The
more you legitimately help in the value exchange, directly or indirectly, the more
fulfilled your soul and bank account become.
Nonetheless, impact millions (or billions) for personal wealth is pretty
straightforward, right? Not really. I’ve seen too many entrepreneurs corrupt this
commandment and take “impact millions” too literally. As a result, great ideas
get dismissed and the entrepreneur never starts.
Oh, that has no scale! That restaurant only serves my city! If I can’t start a
mobile app company, I ain’t doing nothing! Brick-and-mortar business? That
doesn’t scale easily! Remember, our scale definition begins with profitably
impacting one
, not hundreds or thousands. Every established productocracy
started with ONE SINGLE CUSTOMER!
Imagine if Steve Ells, the founder of Chipotle, interpreted “scale” as most
entrepreneurs and ruled out starting a restaurant. There's no scale and it only
serves the local neighborhood! MJ says that doesn’t impact millions!
Your scaling long-game is helping as many people as possible. However, the
short-game is like the Time Commandment: Forget about it. Impact one through
a productocracy. Scale will work its way through by design.
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
