The 1 Trait Entrepreneurs Need To Surpass The 1% (It’s Not Talent)
Entrepreneurship has become a commodity.
Anyone from any country can start making money as their employer. Every day there’s a new business, along with it: a set of new entrepreneurs ready to make a living outside the workforce.
To distinguish yourself you need 2 traits. One that puts you among the 1%, and another that helps you surpass the 1% threshold. In this case, you’ll see that the order matters, you cannot drive without a car. Get the car and then you’ll be able to drive; similarly, you cannot surpass the 1% without becoming part of it first.
To get to the 1% is quite simple, just work hard… but it's not quite so easy.
Working hard isn’t about the results you get from your work, its about the skills you develop from the output.
The first part is evident by a lottery winner, he may have won millions but does that place him in the 1%?
Of course not, because that would mean placing a sheep in a herd of cattle. It's incomparable, and if it's incomparable then there is no question that the fruits of your labor do not suggest your placement in coordination with others.
The output itself doesn’t matter either and is more dependent on the time spent working. The skill you breed does not come from three or four nights of intensive practice, it comes from months… no, years of moderate practice.
To compare both would be like comparing a duck, to a fish, lion, and eagle. The duck can swim but not as well as the fish whose only instinct is to swim. The duck can run but not as well as the lion whose only instinct is to run. The duck can fly but not as well as the eagle whose only instinct is to fly. Thus, the duck is outdone by its competition and finds itself at the bottom of its food chain, poor duck.
Similarly, how can you expect to beat the salesman whose only instinct is to sell? It is irrefutably impossible.
Time is not only a catalyst for growth but a filter that indicates a need for change.
Only some of the skills you moderately work towards will be useful.
There are plenty of useless skills that people develop in hopes of its fruits but, later, come short-changed. Time will become a filter for it all. Working on one thing moderately for even just one month will begin to show the limits that thing has.
That limit will be according to your goal. Learning how to cook would be a good skill but if your goal is to make money it will take much longer than you might initially think, this is a bare-bones example but the process can become just as intricate with the thousands of unique skills offered in free markets.
With time and consistent hard work you are destined to reach the 1%, no matter how much you deviate from your original plan
Most people will find themselves stopping here, but that’s fine, it is quite an achievement on its own. However, that doesn’t change the fact that most people will try to surpass this limit, but fail trying. It takes a unique change of pace to surpass the 1%
Hard work will only get you so far, what you need is a dash of creativity.
Creativity is so difficult to achieve because it's insanely subjective.
You ask a hundred people what they think creativity means and you’ll get a hundred different answers. The real challenge here is trying to get a solidified definition of it to have a measurable metric by which you work towards. Once you’re able to live by a definition all you need to do is come back to the time factor and diligently work creatively.
Though I cannot claim that there is a set definition of creativity, I have still come up with my own and will leave it with you as a starting point. Don’t forget that creativity is different for everyone and that anyone else’s ideas MUST be taken with a grain of sale, regardless… here’s what I think.
Creativity isn’t about unique solutions to common problems, it's quite the opposite.
Instead of being unique, it's about zooming in on what is overlooked.
A hard-working detective solving a murder case will overlook the crying wife, instead searching every scene, suspect, and record. That detective has worked hard, that is irrefutable, but that won’t mean he’ll solve the case.
On the other hand, the creative detective will break the crime into pieces, and start with the biggest piece. He won’t care for details, evidence, or records — he’ll go beyond that, searching for the motive. This will lead him to suspect the crying wife, leading to gasps among his workforce.
What is overlooked is quite usually the most common solution, a solution so common that you would easily overlook it. That’s what creativity is, to me.
But don’t fret, your creativity will be out of your control.
It is not the same as hard work.
You can force yourself to work harder, but you will never be able to force out creativity. That is the change of pace you must adapt yourself to surpass the 1%.
Some days you’ll find that spark as you go to bed, others it’ll find itself as you shower. All of that is out of your control but the hardest part is understanding when that creativity hits. It's so easy to misunderstand that feeling with.. let's say, a spoiled stomach from rotten milk.
This will only come with practice. Once again put the time in your favor and you’ll succeed, it’ll allow you to become accustomed to it and then you’ll be able to spot it as soon as it hits you on the dome.
Your hard work will put you in the leagues, and your control, or lack, of creativity, will put you above all.
Thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed it, check out my newsletter.
