If You Could Only Read One More Blog Post... (Read This Post, Then Unsubscribe Kind of Thing)
I was looking at this site’s RSS stats today. It says that 1575 souls have decided to receive the feed. Thanks! That’s how I read stuff too. If you don’t yet use Google Reader to read blogs, here’s a quick explanation of how it works. It takes about 2 minutes to set up, and it’s worth it.
A lot of those 1575 people send me emails, which is a good thing. Here’s one I received a few days ago:
… people have mentioned picking one method and sticking with just that method until success or failure… they were talking about going on an information diet at some point…. unsubscribing to emails and such… [can you write] a post titled, “Read This Post; Then Unsubscribe” …
I suffer from the same problem most people looking to get started are suffering from: we are having a hard time making decisions. Well, this fine emailer made a decision for me. I like him for it. The idea here is that you can read this post on Friday afternoon, ditch my RSS feed, and hopefully be off and running on your own business by Monday morning.
This question mirrors some common blog-o-wisdom: “stop reading blogs and start implementing stuff.”
Stephen King, who is famous for getting a lot done (among other things), suggests that writers read more. Mark Cuban, who is famous for making a billion bucks, said the same for entrepreneurs. I’m with these guys.
We don’t need to stop consuming information. We need to compliment it with a robust set of entrepreneurial practices.
You could start by cutting the shit. A lot of bloggers are bullshit artists. Sometimes I’ll write a post and then somebody will write me “hey Dan I saw right through that bullshit you were weaving!” I’ll generally be laughing too: “we’ve got an entrepreneur on our hands!”
If you are gonna go on an information diet, you are probably better off reading some really healthy stuff rather stopping reading entirely.
If you are on a bunch of newsletters that are like “my shit is launching in like 3 weeks and I’m so pumped!” Ok, well, it’s up to you. Why not get a Kindle and buy a bunch of books? You might start with this one. It’s the story of how somebody produced a great number of books. Successful entrepreneurs will need to create a lot of stuff. Emails, deals, phone calls, blog posts– you name it.
You know who feeds us more shit than bloggers? Our own damn selves.
Business is an ego killer. Your customers, vendors, competitors, et al., are busy telling you whats wrong, complaining, and generally wanting more. To survive, you’ve gotta sit through daily “why you suck” sessions. If you don’t get good at hearing about how you suck, your business won’t improve.
Whenever people get offended at feedback regarding their business, I always think the same thing: rookie!
Having a business puts you in a position where hearing what’s wrong is better than the alterative– failing.
Don’t do anything that takes longer than 24 hours to do.
Don’t waste your time defining all this bullshit (ahem) that you won’t do. That’s what bloggers do! Instead, define something that you can go do. That’s ballin.
Take walks everyday. Walks are what thinking people do. Nietzsche did it. Steve Jobs did it. I’m sure you can find examples of more sociable people who did it.
While you are on that walk, think about the “eye of the tiger.”
Somebody has the eye of the tiger when their ambition is like a force of nature. They cannot be stopped. Nobody is snickering when they talk about what’s next. That’s because they’ve got the eye of the tiger. It’s a good thing to get.
If you take my advice and only do stuff that takes 24 hours to do, you should be able to show 7 discrete deliverables every week.
That will really start to add up.
Having it all add up is important since that’s when business ideas happen. They don’t come from sitting around and dreaming up what the market could really use. We are building something like Facebook for stock brokers… our Indian dev team will be done with it in 2 weeks.” Not happening!
Business ideas happen when you re-purpose assets that you’ve already built.
That’s what happened with the Dynamite Circle. Everybody who gathered around the ideas we were talking about at the podcast wanted to talk to each other. The asset already existed. I just needed to re-define that asset it in a way that both clear and valuable to others. It wasn’t some grand idea. I just needed to connect the dots on assets I already built.
If you haven’t already, make sure you get yourself a group of entrepreneurial friends. The small deliverables that you are doing 7 days a week will earn you a spot at the table. Doing stuff is sexy, and earns the respect of others. If you don’t have entrepreneurial friends, you’ll often be seduced in to doing non-entrepreneurial stuff, like following methods.
Don’t hang out with people just because they are rich. Hanging out with rich douchebags will get you nowhere. They won’t like you enough to give you opportunities, and you won’t like them enough to tolerate them.
If you are still like, ‘hey man I’ll take the method! I just need to know where to get started!!” I will oblige you.
Sell what you know how to do on a freelance basis.
Go get a job with an entrepreneur.
Do something amazing for a company that is making money. Help them make a lot more. Don’t ask much in return.
All crappy options if you’ve got a sweet job eh? Many people agree, including this guy.
Anyway… keep crankin’ out the work and eventually you’ll build up enough assets that the question of where to start will fade away. Your entrepreneurial friends will even help you out if you get stuck.
Oh yeah, it’ll take 1000 days. You might want to stay on a few mailing lists, just to keep you company.
Have a great holiday,
Dan
PS, speak of the devil!…