You Can’t Have It All!…at once.
|Hardest question for an entrepreneur to answer?
“Tell me about your company…what do you want to do with your company?”
As an entrepreneur, this feels like a trick a question. Because after all, entrepreneur’s are 90% psychopath and 10% narcissist. So, of course, the real answer we want to blurt out when asked this question is “WORLD DOMINATION! I WANT IT ALL!!”
Think about it, you set out to be an entrepreneur because you wanted to be your own boss, you didn’t want to follow someone else’s rules, and because you believed in your ability and vision to do something better than how it’s currently being done.
So why wouldn’t your answer as an entrepreneur be some variant of “WORLD DOMINATION!?” We already believe we are the best, we already believe we can do anything, and our vision is jaded because we are the ultimate optimist.
However, in year 3 of being an entrepreneur, I have finally realized that the best entrepreneurs have the ability to control their passion and confidence and leverage that energy to focus on one mission at a time. I’ve also realized that the one mission, task, or goal they do focus on is a very simple one. And because its simple, they are able to perfect it. And then, that one small & simple mission, goal, or task blossoms into a larger one.
I had a hard time accepting this. I was getting in my own way because I was making the process too complicated. What was worse was that I was holding my team back.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I have the most talented team that ever walked this earth. I know every founder in the world says that….but I am telling you all those other founders are wrong.
Because of how talented they are I felt that I was doing them a disservice if I took on a small & simple assignment. I now know that is the dumbest thing I could have ever thought. Just because our team has the talent to do it all doesn’t mean that we should…at least not at once.
Business is about two things. Discipline & momentum. If you can remain disciplined and focus you can build momentum for your business.
The journey of being an entrepreneur is already a difficult one. Don’t make it harder than it needs to be. If you and your team has the skill-sets to build and create something that is great…GOOD…focus those skill-sets and solve a small problem and grow the solution as big as you can. When you do that, you will pick up new skills, gain credibility, and hopefully if you do it right, earn a little bit of walking around money.
Because entrepreneurs are wired differently this is hard to wrap their head around. In a way, it feels like settling, which is the worst feeling an entrepreneur can feel. But its not settling it is just the truest form of patience. And patience is the number one trait every entrepreneur must have.
-KC
