There’s no scripted way to become an entrepreneur, but there are certainly things you can do to make your journey easier. All the time, you hear people talking about their past, saying, “Boooyyy…if I only knew then what I know now……” Of course, when you’re sitting in their rotted out double-wide while they’re waxing nostalgic, this type of statement doesn’t have much of an effect. However, when it comes from me (as it’s about to), then it oughta mean more - you know, cause at least my double-wide is shiny and new.
Learn from my mistakes
In July of 2005, I walked away from my job without a plan. I had some money saved up, but I had no plan whatsoever and absolutely no idea what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. At the time, all I knew is that my situation blew goats, and I had to get out as fast as humanly possible because I was growing more miserable by the day.
Suffice it to say, it would have been really nice to have at least some idea where I was headed. Going from two years of steady income to no cash flow at all was really stressful, however, and I had a knee-jerk reaction to the whole thing. To make matters worse, I bought my first house just a month after quitting my job. Now, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this is not the recommended course of action, but then again, I’ve never really cared too much for pragmatic advice of the extremely obvious kind (read: I’m a hardheaded moron sometimes).
Dumb move #1
Worried about my income (or lack thereof), I immediately set up a “temporary” retail business that I thought would provide enough cash each month to make my house payment. In my old job, I was a sales maven, so to speak, and after my experiences there, I figured I could sell just about anything. I mean, if all I had to do to make my house payment was turn over a measley $30K per year, that was gonna be sooo easy. Right?
Expect the unexpected. The road to entrepreneurial freedom is rarely paved, and generally speaking, your tires aren’t ready for the rocky terrain, either. I was utilizing both eBay and an online store to hawk my crappy wares, and at first, it looked as though eBay alone was going to send me hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales annually. That is, until they began policing the categories under which I was listing my top moneymaking items. Within a week of setting up my business, my number one stream of income was completely shut down thanks to eBay’s VeRO system. Ouch baby, very ouch. Time for plan B…
Dammit, I knew I forgot something!
Dumb move #2
If you ask me, buying and selling in large quantities really isn’t much of an intellectual game. It can be, but typically, it’s just a fancy way of shuffling money around. Oh, and did I mention that it’s also a pain in the ass? Unless you have some kind of freakish sadomasochistic desire to handle product, keep paper trails 10 miles long, and worry your ass off about your inventory, this kind of business BLOWS. That’s right - it’s so bad that it blows in uppercase.
I didn’t enjoy what I was doing - I was only there for the money. There’s absolutely no point in being an entrepreneur if you’re not going to be doing something that you really enjoy! Unless you’re just a maniacal bulldog who’s totally ruled by cash, your mind and your body will let you know that you really have no interest in your current path.
Dumb move #3
When you’re putting out more cash than you’re taking in, it’s a real challenge not to worry about money. However, I would argue that it’s essential for finding the quickest path to building a successful, sustainable business.
Of course, I listed this as dumb move #3 because I worried about money, thus wasting valuable time that I could have spent learning about my craft or developing a tool for my business. Although I began pursuing web-related ventures with fervor in October of 2005, it took me until January of 2006 to finally rid myself of the other business distractions that were preventing me from being a full time entrepreneur.
I’ve already said that your terrain was going to be rocky and that your tires weren’t ready for that type of surface…so why on earth would you allow more obstacles to get in your way? If you’re going to traverse the road of an entrepreneur, you need to play it smart by avoiding distractions and obstacles.
A smart move! Take an overview
Taking the points that I’ve outlined above and combining them with what you already know, it should be pretty clear at this point what the most efficient, least-risky, and least-stressful route to entrepreneurial freedom really is. Still not sure?
Go through college the smart way by minimizing your risk and maximizing your learning! Discover an intellectual pursuit that drives you to learn, produce, and achieve; and then use that as the foundation for your journey.
Too old for college? Here’s my advice: take the risk and start your journey anyway. If you can put yourself in a frame of mind where you don’t worry about money (regardless of your circumstances - just don’t worry about it!), then you can pursue your true “career” free of meaningless distraction. Think about it for a second. If you really boil things down, money is nothing more than an absolutely worthless, meaningless, counter-productive distraction. The point of becoming an entrepreneur is to free yourself from the mockery that is a salary, and concerning yourself with money only subjects you to more of this anti-freedom environment.
The sooner you focus your efforts and maximize your learning, the sooner you will be free…Which means you’ll finally be able to read blogs all day, guilt-free!
28 Comments ↓
Hey Chris … now this is the writing I like from you - I only know you from your “the deuce” thing at joab … so it’s a pleasure to come here and read a thought-provoking look at entrepreneurship.
Keep it up, mate!
I agree. Like your take on things.
Yep, worrying kills. Not worrying is freedom. I haven’t drawn a paycheck in fifteen years. During that time, I have thought a little bit about how things got a lot better when I just laughed at the fear.
Thanks for a good story.
Very satisfyinf read. I’ve been contemplating setting something up and this has given me that boost. watch out for me, im in the game now. thanks.
You say: “Go through college the smart way by minimizing your risk and maximizing your learning! Discover an intellectual pursuit that drives you to learn, produce, and achieve; and then use that as the foundation for your journey.”
I must also say that you need to make this acquired knowledge yours and design your own systems (knowledge, values, goals, etc…)
For example from my College experience I design my own way of learn and make business. You can read more at:
http://www.moriones.com/3/what-is-assic-method/
Very nice article. I find this piece of information very good:
“There’s absolutely no point in being an entrepreneur if you’re not going to be doing something that you really enjoy!”
And now you just need to tell us HOW you handle this advice:
“If you’re going to traverse the road of an entrepreneur, you need to play it smart by avoiding distractions and obstacles.”
Nice post!
College The Smart Way
the link provided is not working.
Link hyperlinked with words:
Go through college the smart way by minimizing your …………….
Please update your link as I made me…search through your archives to look and read your post there:)
College The Smart Way
Correct link…
Abhinav,
Thanks for the heads-up. I’ve fixed it, so all is good in this hood once more.
Yep, Everything seems perfect now
Chris, I’m now in the same boat as you were!
On Nov 1st, 2006, I walked out of my job with few hundred dollars in savings and no plan.
I did not buy a house like you, but I had pledged to give $2000 to my church within the next 6 months.
To top it up, I had no sales experience. Bummer.
The only thing I know I want to do for the long term is Internet Marketing. So for the past 2 weeks, I’ve been learning the ropes.
But I’m so distracted because I worry about money! I’m dabbling in eBay, consignment sales, affiliate marketing, forex and the like.
Chris, you are right. You hit the nail when you said “…money is nothing more than an absolutely worthless, meaningless, counter-productive distraction. The point of becoming an entrepreneur is to free yourself from the mockery that is a salary, and concerning yourself with money only subjects you to more of this anti-freedom environment.”
Words of Enlightenment… it’s like they shone on my face.
I’ll now focus my efforts and maximize my learning.
I’m so glad to have landed in your blog. And to think that I can’t even remember how I landed here!
If possible, can we be friends? I stay in Singapore, a little island in South East Asia, but other than that, we share so many similarities, it’s freaking me out!
I’m born in 1981. I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering. I love details. And I love dogs!
Drop me a mail will ya?
Thanks!
FREEDOM !
I agree… because, it’s not all about the benjamins…
you have to rule out the
dollar to truly seek your passion(s).
I got a lot of pep out of this talk.
Thanks Chris.
Hmmm… a salty ol’ critter takes the bait & weighs in.
You can go to college and still be a brick shy of a full load. You need the fully monte, the full package.
In order of importance…
You got to have a keen nose for opportunity,
you need balls big enough to jump into the abyss and
a healthy dose of fear to keep you humble.
By far, the finest bit of advice I can offer an up and coming entrepreneur would be to follow your passion, then find the finest company that does what you love and then go work for them. You’ll receive an awesome education, get paid, learn from their mistakes and hone your business plan. This method comes with a bonus, you’ll get ‘nuf cash to rent some shelter.
This happened to me “back in the day”. I worked for free at a place of my dreams for weeks until mngt. realized I wasnt going away. I never asked for a job, I just hung out, ran errands, picked up messes and offered a hand when needed.
Fast forward, 10 yrs of employment passed, I had worked my way to the top. I had a vision, I laid a business plan on the owners desk. He made a mortal mistake, he refused it.
I left and took a small posse’ with me. In 4 years my new business had become the “goto” shop where supplier and consumer were pounding in my doors. We were ranked #1 in the Fast 100 in the local paper. My ex-boss had played every under handed trick in the book to crush us. He lost the battle and the war.
College has it’s place, but it’s not the only place to get an education.
thnx,
joe
Joe,
I actually think college is almost completely unnecessary. I guess I wrote the post with the idea that it’s becoming a well-accepted fact that most smart kids are going to end up going to college these days.
Once there, I think a lot of folks simply don’t get it, and I know I certainly fell into this trap.
By writing this, I had hoped to provide students with a perspective that isn’t nearly as evangelized as it ought to be.
Opps… My bad. I read your blog late and double crossed this line:
I’m really interested in web design. Chris, how did you get your start?
John,
I had built a couple of Web sites from like 1997–2001, so I knew a bit about how things were constructed going in.
In October of 2005, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do, and in the process, I built a blog using MovableType.
Shortly thereafter, I became engrossed with the idea of content management systems in general, and everything took off from there as I began to construct designs around these CMS frameworks.
On top of that, I have always paid attention to graphic arts and design, so it was a natural transition. I learned as much as I could about Photoshop, and I began to apply this knowledge to Web design.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Thanks for the quick response. I will certainly look into CMS.
Nice post there Chris and john try http://www.joomla.org .
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It’s THE THING! (minus the seo part
[...] A nice little read by Pearsonified.com on becoming an entrepreneur. Check it out. [...]
Love the look of your bogs/website - and your writing is great! You actually spell correctly - almost unheard of today on the web. I’m sitting at my J.O.B. reading, researching, researching so that I can make that leap outta here!
I’m just starting my first blog - have plans for several more linked somehow to a website - I don’t know what I need to know yet - but when I do I will want your help to pull it all together.
It’s true, it ain’t easy to be an entrepreneur. I personally just started to get a real flow of profit 5 months ago. Before that I was definitely struggling.
Definitely a great post.
hey man check out mysite i really enjoy your sites do you know of any ways i can used my site to make money really need some right now appreciate it.
I sometimes wonder how profitable internet entrepreunership really is. Can you really give up a salary to do it? Would you really want to…
Anyway great post links in for me with the whol four hour work week thing.
Great info.
Anybody that has tried to start their own business
and gave up after their first hurdle is weak on
the commitment side. You are truly a positive man
in all your ventures. True explanation of having your priorities in order to succeed.
http://www.finestdiets.com
SIR,ONE THING I HAVE EXPERINCED IN MY LIFE IS THAT,CHARATER ALWAYS PLAYS A GREAT ROLE IN ANY TYPE OF BUSINESS.LOYALITY,HARD WORKING,ENTHUSIASTIC,RELIGIOUS,WELL PLANNED,COOL MINDED AND ONE WHO MAINTAINS CONTINENCE IS LIKELY TO BE MORE
FIT FOR KING SIZE BUSINESS OCEAN.
I came across to this post by searching “become entrepreneur” Good points. And from the note you are not for hire, I guess you’ve been thriving as entrepreneur.
Best wishes,
Hey Chris:
I came across a wordpress blog called,” wildmoney.wordpress.com” and it was advertising a money making program called gmoneyflow. But, when i went to the site it said page cant be found I was wondering if you knew who the owner of that blog was and if the problems with his site can be fixed?
I found your name at the bottom of this person’s blog. Thats why I’m contacting you.
Please e-mail me back about this.
Thanks,Darrell Tippett
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