February 2007 I got fired from my first “real” job. My boss told me; “This is my company and we do things my way, if you want to do things your way you should become an entrepreneur.” So I did! Instead of shifting into a planning fase, I decided to jump in and learn by doing. Have you ever heard the quote; “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail?” Well lets just say the landing from diving in was quite painfull (Just like in the picture above), but for every fall you get better at falling. This post is about my first 1460 days as an entrepreneur. Hope you find the information relevant and educational.
When I started 4 years ago I was predominately a doer, not a planner. That is a great skill for an entrepreneur to have because you are able to get the wheels turning and it means you likely are quite creative (right brain thinker), but you must learn to set goals, focus and plan or you will not achieve your dream (left brian thinker). A great solution to this problem is to find a business partner that is excellent at planning and that you can have a “Band of Brothers” kind of working relationship with. Find somebody you are willing to go into the trenches with. There is a lot of fun to be had, but it will also get quite tough!
Most of the best companies in the world are built by complimentary business partners; Microsoft, Valentino, Berkshire Hataway are some examples. If you want to read more about how these dynamics work I recommend reading “Working Together; Why Great Partnerships Succeed” by Michael D. Eisner with Aaron Cohen.
So far I have had 2 businesspartners in two seperate businesses. None of them worked out they way either of us had hoped. I put this down to not spending enough time on clarifying each others”life-goals” and not having a well developed partnership contract. These things take quite a lot of time to develop, but are well worth it. I will get back to planning, goals and focus, but first lets start with the end in mind.
The Dream
I went into business to make a lot of money. A couple of months after joining Lobster Studio (company went bancrupt in 2009) I read the book “How to get Rich” by Felix Dennis and thought the book was amazing! Yes, read it! Also read “Rich dad, Poor dad.” by Robert Kiyosaki. For even more books I recommend reading click here
The dream can´t only be about making copious amounts of money. You must start with your dream for the future or you are likely to end up somewhere else. This can be scary at first because you will find it quite unachieveable. You need to shift your mind from “instant” to long term thinking or you will not make it happen. The little things you do everyday/week/month is that will bring you closer and closer to your dreams + a mix of never ever giving up, thats never ever give up!
and so far that has not happenend, but it doesn´t matter because my passion for money has turned into the lust for knowledge on the same subject. The more I learn about how the game of business, life and money is played the more fun it seems to get.
(Ford Quote about making it all back in 5 years)
This should be about long terms focus.
Learning Curve
Up to the age of 25 I had a much to easy life. Things came easily to me and I never had to work really hard to get what i wanted. That changed when I joined up with an old classmate and helped him build Lobster Studio in London. In many ways I jumped straight in and was 100% convinced I knew what i was doing, which turned out to be 100% wrong!
Believe in yourself 100% That is not wrong and you must to succeed.
Knockout
“Failing to plan, is planning to fail.”
I had a plan, it just wasn´t very well thought through. I just went for it because the thought of not starting my own business overshadowed the need to calculate and plan my first venture. My goal was to start my own business and learn as I went along. And thats pretty much what I have done! However I do recommend writing a businessplan and thoroughly thinking through what you are investing your time and effort into! Its been really hard! Elements that I previously did not think of as a challenge became a challenge. Thinking and planning long term is a very important part of starting a business. In many respects you should “start with the end in mind” because it takes an enormous amount of effort and work to build something that you need to approach the business in this manner.
You can compare entrepreneurial journeys as a series of mountain climbing exhibitions and in that sense its a good idea to come prepared. Lets just say I was semi prepared and have suffered the consequences. The efforts of starting a business has taken its toll both physically and emotionally. Luckily I started a business that had a high initial cost and that has grown slowly but steadily which gave me time to recopriate, think and most importantly get educated about the subject.
My business has however doubled its turnover year on year over three years and Im very proud of that fact! We also work with some of the most famous brands in Norway and have a great reputation in the marketplace.
Basecamp
Sometimes you need to take a nice long rest to reflect, think and set the course for the future. Can you see the forrest for all the trees in your enrepreneurial madness?
31 days away from it all is what I needed to figure out what I want going forward. John C. Maxwell highlights in his book “Thinking for a Change” how important it is to spend time on actually thinking. Not doing something and thinking at the same time, but not doing anything, but thinking. This skill is something I want to get much better and I plan to spend 10 minutes after each Yoga session to think as I will be in a relaxed state and quite possibly able to see my options much more clearly.
Future
Planning 5 year plan accompanied with a 1 year plan of executable actions that will pave the way forward, whilst loving every second of it! If you are not doing what you would like to be doing in 5 years right now, then why are you doing it? Life is to short for this kind of work.
Lifestyle design
Choosing to become an entrepreneur is a lifestyle choice. With enough knowledge about the subject you will be able to design your business around the life you want to live.
Point of article is; Focus long term, set realistic goals, know thyself and go for it (don´t worry about what other people think, they dont matter)