Exactly
two years ago today, I woke up at 5 in the morning. Yes, I was suffering from
our generation’s new sleeping problem. It is
caused by too much blue light, especially when you stare at your cell phone
before sleeping, which leaves you awake after only a few hours of sleep. I
thought it was useless to try sleeping any further, so I decided to get up and
start working.
After
checking my emails, I found myself on Twitter. One of the tweets took me to an
article about Ruby on Rails on TechCrunch.
That article took me to Codeacademy,
where I discovered you can actually learn how to code.
Then I
was distrupted by a call from a friend of mine. During the call, I realized
that day was actually the birthday of a friend of mine so I got on Facebook
where the top post on my newsfeed was about a new social network.
I went
to check what it was about and holy sh*t, that SoundCloud the article was
talking about was actually such a cool thing. I spent another two hours on it.
Read: Have you heard about the social network that wants to transform
the Speaking Industry around the World? SpeakersBay.com is set to launch
soon!!! Follow @SpeakersBay
Guess
what? I
even came up with a new startup idea that could be much better than SoundCloud! Soon, my mind
was exploding with amazing ideas and I was exhausted.
Oh wait,
I just saw another tweet. This time it was about “HOW TO blablabla IN blablabla STEPS.”
That tweet took me to Inc.com where I spent another…
OK, STOP. FC*K ME, I WAS AN ENTREPRENEUR. But it was 2 a.m., the middle of
the night, and I had truly wasted another day doing nothing but jumping from
one website to another.
I had a
headache and felt so much pressure on my forehead. I was in bed with my cell
phone logged into Facebook.
Oh, I
also realized, I never wrote to my friend to wish him a happy birthday.
That
day, two years ago, I decided to change the way I work because I was
finally so fed up with the one
thing that made me fail over and over again:
“I WAS THE DISTRACTED MISERABLE GUY JUMPING FROM ONE WEBSITE TO ANOTHER,
FROM ONE IDEA TO ANOTHER, WHILE GETTING
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING DONE.”
OH, I ALSO FOUND IT COOL TO CALL MYSELF AN ENTREPRENEUR.
Distraction is the new illness of our
generation of entrepreneurs. There is too much noise, too much information
overload. If you don’t start controlling your environment, you are destined
to FAIL.
Of
course I had my excuses such as,
“But I am an entrepreneur and I need to be
inspired,” “I need to learn new things if I want to become a successful
entrepreneur and I am just curious”
Yes,
it’s true. We, the entrepreneurs, are curious. Actually, the problem is, we
are SO CURIOUS AND CRITICAL ABOUT
EVERYTHING that we are constantly distracted while getting nothing
done.
Here is
what I did that has since revolutionized my life:
1.CONTROL YOUR ENVIRONMENT, YOU LITTLE BRAINY.
Entrepreneurs
are the smartest people I have ever met. I don’t think it’s just because they
are born to be so, but also because they use their brains much more than their
peers working in the corporate environment, who are usually checking the clock
to call it a day and go home.
Use this
to your advantage and control your life. It all sounds easy, but how will you
implement them on a day-to-day basishe things you
will get done that day. Key: Don’t over-target. Be r
2.FIND THAT FAMOUS “ONE SINGLE THING” THAT YOU ARE INSANELY PASSIONATE
ABOUT
Come on.
It’s not rocket science. You are not looking for the love of your life. If you
are reading this, I assume you have spent at least 18 years on this planet and
have at least an idea of what you like and what you don’t. Remember, you don’t
have to reinvent the wheel.
Discover
what you are really passionate about and what you would change in your life or
people’s lives. Think about what one thing you can do better than others, or
how you could improve an existing problem.
I
understand you need inspiration, but wasting a million days in a row jumping
from one distracting website to another won’t help you find the idea of your
life.
How do
you make sure you’ve found that one single idea? Maybe Mark Cuban can help with
his 12
Rules for Startups
“Don’t start a company unless it’s an obsession
and something you love. If you have an exit strategy, it’s not an obsession”
3.
3. YOU
FOUND THE THING OF YOUR LIFE? GREAT! NOW DO ONE THING: START!
Stop the
vicious cycle and just start. You will be impressed by how many people will
contact you or will want to work with you once you begin. Scratch your idea
onto a piece of paper (yes, just on a piece of paper) and walk out of your
apartment. Talk to people.
By the
way, get a life and stop that bullshit of, “What if they steal my idea?” Talk
to as many people as you can. Let them steal it if they really will, but you
will kick their ass.
Please
also stop saying, “I need to find an investor.” How about making some sales
first?
Maybe
you will even realize you don’t need to give any share of your business to an
investor. Even if you really need an investor, by making some sales, you will
have a stronger hand to play.
In my
case the former happened. After making some initial sales and seeing such a
high customer repeat rate, I decided I was not willing to give up any share of
my startup, PIQERS.
4. NOW THAT YOU’VE STARTED, HERE IS WHAT YOU SHOULD REMEMBER EVERY SINGLE
DAY: SAY NO TO OTHER IDEAS, KEEP DOING ONE THING, AND DO IT REALLY WELL
Just
because you started working on your idea doesn’t mean you won’t meet
distractions along the way. Your mind will be about to explode with all the
ideas you can apply to your business, the many features you can add to your
product, etc.
Keep
your focus. Say no to distracting ideas. If you keep doing that, another thing
that will impress you will be the power of what you studied in your marketing
book: word of mouth.
You will
be truly impressed by the number of people coming back and asking for more
work. Who cares about competition? You are just beating yourself. Isn’t that
what matters in the end?
5. OH, BY THE WAY, STOP GIVING
A FU*K TO WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK.
If you
are an entrepreneur because you want to prove other people that you are
successful, then please go back to step one above. Make sure you are following
your passion because you have a vision and you are out to change something in
this world.
Otherwise,
this will kill you. You will have difficulty focusing and you will keep being
distracted because you won’t really be passionate about getting anything done.
Now
what? Stop wasting your time reading this article and get your ass back to work.
Credit: Ali Mese Founder & CEO @piqers
