Want to Start a Business, but Where’s your Follow-Through?

Time and time again we hear the same words coming from our friends, peers, and acquaintances: “I’m going to start a business and become super rich and successful one day. I’m going to change the world, just watch!” It’s become ubiquitous in our society to hear such a statement of venturing out to start a business, but here’s the thing: 9 out of 10 of those people with high hopes and big dreams will never – ever, ever, ever — get past their words and have absolutely no follow-through.

It’s so easy to stay that you want to start a business, but actually starting one is a whole different story as many of us already know. It feels great to think about all the fortune, prosperity, and notoriety that may come from starting a business and turning it into something big – it really does feel great. But what leads many people to never actually starting a business is the pain.

What pain are you talking about? Well, let’s be honest, starting a business isn’t easy and in almost every entrepreneur’s life, success goes
hand-in-hand with pain, struggle, stress, and plenty of hardship.

Achilles – the great Greek warrior – knew that his fame went hand-in-hand with his doom, but the desire to be remembered for eternity lead him to take action and never stop fighting. Though it was painful, he’ll be remembered forever.

This is they type of pain that will cause many people who “speak” of becoming an entrepreneur to end up swallowing their words and never following through with their aspirations.

You need to understand that entrepreneurship is much more than ideas, dreams, and aspirations, it’s really about “actions.” It’s about waking up in the morning and not just thinking about creating a business, but actually taking steps to make your visions a reality.

Sure, it’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be very hard. But without taking action and following through on your visions to become successful, you’re simply never going to make anything happen and you’re dreams will never be materialized – I can promise you that.

There comes a point when you have to really ask yourself: “How come I can’t follow-through on any of my ideas or goals?” The answer may be that you’re not cut out for the life of an entrepreneur and your subconscious is at war with your conscious telling you: “This isn’t for you, buddy. So sit back and relax, grab some chips, and forget about doing any work today… Or better yet, just get a job and forget about this entrepreneurship mumbo jumbo”

For those of you who are really, really hungry to become a successful entrepreneur, you’ll understand that taking action is the most important thing that you can do to make things happen and change your life.

Many new entrepreneurs fall into the trap of thinking like this: “I have to consult with this or that person before I start anything. I have to read this book before I do this. I have to email these people and ask for their opinions before I move forward. I have to write this 30 page business plan first. I have to do tons of market research before I feel comfortable moving forward. I have to BLAH…BLAH…BLAH….”

Com’on guys, do you really think it makes sense to feel “comfortable” before starting anything in life. No. No. No. The truth of the matter is that it’s not going to be comfortable when starting a business so you may as well get at it NOW, and stop worrying about all the little angles that you think “must” be covered before you start anything. That’s not the right way to think and if you are thinking that way, you better take a rain-check on becoming an entrepreneur.

You need to jump into it now. Sure, you may not have all your bases covered initially, but that’s what entrepreneurship is about: learning as you go along, trial and error, experimentation.

In the game (art) of chess you have two classifications of moves: fast and slow. Fast moves are usually categorized as moves that are ambitious, bold, and aggressive. Fast moves usually throw your opponent off but at the same time are very risky. However, they can lead to huge advantages.

Slow moves, on the other hand, are extremely passive moves that are usually taken when a player over-thinks the situation and takes many steps back to “eventually” go many steps forward – in general, these passive moves turn into mistakes and are easily capitalized on by the bolder player who was willing to experiment and take a chance. This is how I used to beat expert chess players as a novice.

Point being, in business — like chess — there comes a point when you just have to go for it! When you just have to close the books, stop all the emails and phone calls, and just start doing it. Stop thinking and start doing.

Either follow-through or fall through.

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