A few things I’ve been thinking about and other randomness!
In a nutshell: The opportunity we have before us right now is incredible.
I can’t imagine a better time to be alive in the history of the world than right now.
There are a lot of structural challenges for sure, as far as being able to build stuff and get our dreams out, but regardless, this is probably the best time ever!
Think about it.
Just 20 years ago, without the internet, many of the businesses we’re building right now wouldn’t even have been possible.
Back then you needed a massive marketing budget that you can replace with a bunch of really good social media videos.
Here’s another thing that came to mind as well:
-Say you have $2,000 to invest in a stock. The stock you invest in matters of course. But an astute investor doesn’t just look at the stock, she also looks at the overall fundamentals of the industry before investing.
-Similarly, if you have $2,000 to invest in a new business idea the business idea you invest in matters as well. But like the stock, we also have to spend more time appraising the overall fundamentals of the industry as well.
Some of the questions I consider (You may have equally valid yet completely different questions):
- Is it something that I can make life changing money with?
- Is it a business that other people have started with the same resources I have and made millions?
- Is there a solid opportunity for recurring revenue so that each dollar I send to war comes back with some friends?
- Is the startup cost low so it’s not the end of the world if it fails?
- Does success mean I have to raise more capital to survive or does success mean the business supports itself?
My goal, knowing that water (capital) is scare, is to water the most fertile lands possible. And while I don’t have all the answers on what those lands are, I think we have to make sure we have solid frameworks for what types of businesses we pursue.
This way, we know if we’re consciously building a solo thing (which is cool) or likely to be stuck in a solo thing not by choice (not cool).
At the end of the day though, the 100 lb weight we have on our back as entrepreneurs isn’t going away anytime soon, so we have to be extra careful about choosing which races we run.
If I could wrap this up in one sentence it would be:
Let got of the fancy stuff and be more disciplined in how we decide what to build!
Posted for discussion because I surely don’t have all the answers.
What I do know is that with everything, many of you are well on our way to making some crazy generational changes right now and I’m inspired!!!