Staying Paid

There’s a New Kid In Town

Posted on March 2nd, 2008 in Business, Creation Station, General, balance, life

Johnny come lately, the new kid in town
Everybody loves you, so don’t let them down– The Eagles, “New Kid In Town”

Is there a new kid in your town? How about in your business, or in your life? For a lot of would-be entrepreneurs, that new kid has a very classic name that nobody quite seems to get right: doubt.

Doubt can crush any chance you have of fleeing the office dance if you aren’t careful to watch out for those signs of doubt creeping in. When doubt sets in on my goal to stay paid, I tend to go back to the basics.

Remember why you’re doing this!

Do you have a visual reminder up of why you’re putting yourself through the testing, lead generation, research, and time away from the people you care about? If you don’t, put one up — I have above my monitor a list of things I want to do. I also have a picture of a sunset, something I think about quite often. I want to get paid and stay paid so I can watch the sun rise and set everyday from the comfort of my living room, not through some office window (if I’m lucky).

Get a Buddy

I limit my forum creep to places where people are positive and determined to make money. Thread upon thread of “why am I going nowhere fast” does no one any good, so I avoid places that tend to collect a cluster of that type of thinking. Finding people that share your passion shouldn’t be just limited to the Web — go out and find people in your area that have an interest in owning businesses. “Running” a business makes it sound too much like what you’re trying to escape from. Owning a business means management of resources and people, not grinding it out like a wage slave. Granted, as your business drools and crawls on the floor, you’re going to grind more than a gear at the widget plant, but that shouldn’t be your permanent setting.

Just Do It!

It doesn’t have to be perfect. Look at top selling products on television — are they perfect? No, and they have thousands and thousands of fans. The very characteristics that are seen time and time again in entrepreneurs are the very characteristics that morph into the Everything Must Be Perfect disease, crushing your business before it even comes out of the gate.

Got an urge to write something? Pick up a pen and just write. And write. And write some more. Thinking about an AdWords campaign? You’d be surprised at what you’ll learn with just 20$ ($5 a day to watch your ad run and get clicks and test which ad got the most response) and a couple hours of research.

Just remember: not everyone can even think about doing what you’re setting out to do — own a company. Pat yourself on the back and tell that new kid in town to get to the back of the line — success was here first!