By show of hands, how many of you are waiting for the right time to take your entrepreneurial leap, or to launch a product or service you’re working on right now?
I know that’s kind of silly – I can’t see whether or not you’re raising your hand right now, but I know some of you are.
Come on – don’t be shy. You’re in the comfort of your own home or in your office, in which case no one else can see you either.
The timing is never right
I just re-read The 4-hour Work Week, and I can’t help but reference Tim Ferriss here.
He writes:
The timing is never right. … The universe doesn’t conspire against you, but it doesn’t go out of its way to line up all the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. “Someday” is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it “eventually,” just do it and correct course along the way.
This begs the question for anyone who waiting for “the right time”: are you really willing to give up your dreams – your passions, your freedom, your time – because you’re afraid it’s “not the right time”?
Have you ever stopped to think that perhaps there is no such thing – that the timing will never be just right?
It’s not about being perfect
In episode #150 of EntrepreneurOnFire, Host John Lee Dumas let’s Steve Young turn the tables and interview him for a change.
During this episode we learn a lot about John, including the best business advice he’s ever received:
Just Start.
So what do Tim and John have in common other than being entrepreneurs who absolutely love what they’re doing day in and day out?
The belief that your product, your business, your services – they’re never going to be perfect, and your business ideas are never going to come to you and be spotless.
In fact, they’re no where near being alone in thinking this way. Some of your may have heard of this thing called LinkedIn, and the Founder, Reid Hoffman, said:
If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.
So what does this all add up to?
If you want to succeed, you need to just start.
If you never start, then there will never be anything to improve.
What successful entrepreneurs have in common
Every guest who comes on EntrepreneurOnFire describes their AH-HA moment and how they’ve turned that AH-HA moment into success.
You’ll notice that what all of these successful entrepreneurs have in common is not just that they’ve had an AH-HA moment, but that they actually took action in order to turn that idea – that moment – into success.
But before they took that action, they were in the same position as anyone else who is waiting for the right time – they hadn’t started yet.
The only difference between them and those who are waiting is that they chose to start.
What if?
An AH-HA moment is special; discovering what you’re passionate about and how those passions intersect with your experience to create a viable business idea is a gift.
If you continue to wait for the “right time” to pursue that, I’m here to tell you, that time will never come.
There will always be too little time, not enough money, too strong of doubts, or too weak of support – 100% of the time you will find an excuse to stand in your way.
What if John hadn’t believed that he would find the time to accomplish creating a daily podcast?
What if Regina Busse hadn’t bought that one-way ticket to South America, which started her “world-wide love affair” that has now been going on for ten years?
What if David Wood wouldn’t have stayed behind in South Africa with only $2k in his pocket as his friends took off to return home?
What if Pat Flynn wouldn’t have taken a chance with his Internet business after being laid off from his job in 2008?
Where would they all be now if they wouldn’t have taken that very first step towards the thing they were passionate about pursuing?
Where would they all be now if they hadn’t just started?
Just start
Don’t misunderstand me here. “Just start” means something different for everyone, and I’m certainly not condoning that you ditch any and all responsibilities – financial or otherwise – and just leap.
If you need a job to pay your mortgage, or to take care of your family, then you should absolutely honor those responsibilities.
“Just start” for you might mean purchasing a domain name and setting up your website over the next few weekends.
It could mean attending a conference to meet people and learn more about a niche you’re interested in.
Maybe it’s waking up 30 minutes earlier in the morning, or going to bed 30 minutes later at night to read and learn more about an industry that sparks some curiosity in you.
“Just start” simply means doing something that will get you one step closer to where you want to be.
Every single episode of EntrepreneurOnFire has at least one thing in common: each tells the journey of a successful entrepreneur who believed they could do something and told themselves all they had to do to get moving in the right direction was to just start.
