One of the things that never ceases to amaze me, is the number of small business owners and entrepreneurs, who are always looking for the next new thing; without ever finishing whatever they had previously started.
I spoke with the owner of a start-up business earlier this year, who had very limited resources. He was planning to develop his new business, in an extremely competitive market, YET he was just about to dilute his meagre resources, by “looking into a great opportunity”, which was clearly about to rob his new venture of what little resources he had. He sent me several emails over the coming few months, telling me about more new opportunities. When I last met him, he confirmed that he was now back in salaried employment. For him, as he put it; “the ride is over!”
In similar fashion, I had a chance meeting with an entrepreneur earlier this month. This guy was just about to start up a new business, in an industry he knows absolutely nothing about. A mutual acquaintance later told me that this guy starts new ventures al the time, and runs out of interest when they don’t make him rich after a few months. He believes everything he hears from the guys who pitch these ideas to him, never once thinking he’s heard it all before. It seems he finds it hard to see past the fake testimonials and promises of easy riches on these people’s websites.
Now, as I write this, I am thinking of another entrepreneur, who emailed me yesterday with a question about her latest business idea. She has (literally) dozens of disused websites littered all over the Internet, for various online business ideas she has started and abandoned. She always starts them off with a great deal of optimism and energy, before quitting them for the next new, shiny thing. I have known her for 2 years and never known her stick with anything for more than a few months. One of her ideas looked like a sure-fire winner, and I believe could have made her a wealthy lady, had she actually worked at it for more than a month or two.
The worst part? I can think of dozens of people who have spoken to or emailed me, who will be certain I just referenced them in this post. That’s how common it is!
Focus and persistence
Focus and persistence are 2 keys to business success. Once we have done the research and chosen the kind of business to get into, we need to maintain our focus on what’s important, and then persist until we have at least given our business the oxygen it needs to survive, then thrive.
By constantly moving onto something new, each time we reach a sticking point, we rob ourselves of the lessons we need to master, if we want to succeed. That’s why these people keep failing at the same point in their business ventures each time!
It’s great to diversify, but first we need to get to the stage, where our core business is financially robust enough, to afford us the time and money required to branch out and explore new, exciting opportunities.
By constantly quitting, before we even get started, it’s hard to achieve anything of lasting commercial value.
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I think that one of the problems is that entrepreneurs, by their very nature are attracted to shiny new things and tend to have extremely low boredom thresholds. However, as usual Jim you have hit an important issue on the head. I think that a lot of this jumping from idea to idea comes from lack of a coherent 3-month plan for your business activities though.
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Hi David. I think there’s a huge difference between a successful entrepreneur and those who dabble. Dabblers by default, tend not to plan, whether that’s 3 months ahead or 12 months ahead.
People who quit every time are dabblers, IMHO.
Challenging and insightful as usual, Jim.
I think David is absolutely right. New ideas and getting them started are attractive and exciting, but the actual doing – the execution – can get boring, as compared to the next exciting opportunity.
I’ve been guilty of my share of “impulsive” starts myself. And – while I won’t argue that “Focus and Persistance” aren’t essential to the success of any startup – I doubt the people you’re describing would argue that either. They probably know it, intrinsically.
Having been there myself, my guess is many of the people you describe are frustrated optimists. They might have even started new ventures with a “This time will be different” belief… and arrived at exactly the same place. Maybe more than once. They might feel incapable of change. And here’s the thing: they’re probably right.
I think the key for anyone among your readers who feels they’ve been “pegged” in this discussion… is to recognize their own strengths and weaknesses and deal with them early in the business planning process.
Here’s the internal dialogue they need to have, IMO: “Stop being an optimist and start being a realist. You know this enterprise will fail if the plan isn’t executed. How will the plan get executed? I’m going to get bored and flutter off to my next brilliant idea – I’ve proven that time and again. So… how?”. Until they can answer how, they shouldn’t start anything.
There are, of course, many ways to answer the “How?” question above. More often than not, they will involve hiring/partnering with people who will bring complimentary strengths (such as focus and persistence) to the business. And that can raise other strength/weakness issues for anyone willing to be honest with themselves. If they can learn to deal with those deeper seated issues, they will experience magnificent growth. If they can’t (or won’t), then they almost certainly would be better off as salaried employees. There’s no shame in that, BTW.
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It’s that word again Jon; “planning!”
Too many people fail to plan, which I am told means they plan to fail, by default. Maybe there’s something in that old saying, after all?
This post brought a smile to my face Jim as it’s something I see all the time!
With the timeframes you are talking about, the owners in question clearly didn’t do their research properly before kicking off.
Whislt the worlds most successful entrepreneurs may have a string of businesses to their name – they concentrated on getting each one right, before moving onto the next.
In business, there is seldom a get rich quick path
Absolutely Stuart!
I find it amazing that failed entrepreneurs tag themselves as “serial entrepreneurs”, when the term was originally used to describe people who have succeeded many times in enterprises.
Wow, I was telling someone the same thing yesterday. I gave them this really great idea on something that they could do, basically a whole business. All they have to do is implement it, they already had the skills. She asked me if it was such a good idea, why didn’t I do it? I told her I could, without any issues, implement that plan myself. The problem was it would draw the focus away from my current business, which doesn’t really work for me.
Good advice anyway.
Thanks Marvin. Clearly, you get” the whole idea of focus and a planned approach to business development.
So true Jim. Ideas are easier (and more fun) than implementation. After all, it was my idea so it must be a good idea
I permit myself to have as many ideas as I want. I record them as possible projects and let them marinate as I review them. I’ve found that my best ideas today aren’t that great tomorrow after the “new idea adrenaline” is spent and I can toss them painlessly.
Thanks for the focus!
m2
I love when people say things like, “I’m an idea guy” – that usually means that they lack follow-through. But seriously, for me sticking with an idea is dependent on me loving the work and the implementation, not just the idea itself. it’s not always easy to tell the difference in the beginning though.
Well said Jim, here I will like to add the concept of 1001 which says that as owners of start up one has to face a lot of odds ,but if he can make his business survive for 1000 days on the 1001th day there will be a big exponential leap,but he must persist for the 1st 1001th day
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Thanks for another thought provoking post. I’m wondering about the flip side of this.
I hear you when you talk of the people with a string of websites / businesses behind them as I too have some very ‘creative’ friends. But I have another friend who has put thousands of pounds and 6 years of his life into a project that really doesn’t look like it’s going to go anywhere.
He and his family are running out of money and his marriage is suffering because he can’t sleep or think about anything else – he really believes in this idea, but no one else seems to but at the same time he’s become resentful that nothing is happening as a reward for all his hard work.
When does ‘not quitting’ become ‘flogging a dead horse’ do you think? How do you read the signs and where do you gather the wisdom that it’s time to quit v’s persistence and focus?
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I may be wrong Mrs Green, but I “think” this is perhaps the easiest question I have ever answered here – and there have been almost 10,000 comments.
Your friend, who has been going nowhere for 6 years, is not the opposite of being a quitter, as your comment seems to suggest. Far from it in fact.
He or she is simply another example of bad business practice – surely? A static business for 6 years strongly suggests that something is very, very wrong. This person will end up in the same place as the quitters, just via a different route.
Regarding gathering the advice needed for commercial success: You either pay for it from an expert, or if you think you can do better, do it yourself.
I hear from small business owners all the time, who waste years trying to find the answers they need for their unique business problems, via free advice from websites / blogs etc. I also work with people, who decided to invest in doing it correctly. Two VERY different mindsets, and two equally different end results.
The reason that accountants, marketing professionals, lawyers, web designers etc exist, is to help those who realise that they are competing for business, in the most sophisticated marketplace in human history.
Sadly, many people work extremely long hours for years and years, doing the wrong things.
Hope that helps.
This post also points to people trying to fill a need that they think getting “rich” will satisfy. I wonder about their personal vision for their lives, never mind their vision for their business. Eventually this all points to planning. If you know where you want to get to, develop a plan and do each step. Maybe they have a low threshold for boredom or frustration or maybe they don’t know how to manage themselves well enough to build in coping mechanisms to tolerate the mundane and/or frustrating days.
Excellent point Elli!
For a lot of Entrepreneurs it could just be a matter of having trouble applying theory they learned to a new “business idea” which was probably the first to pop into their minds. In this case good chances they skipped the boring research, and risk evaluation and moved on to planning the actual idea too quickly.
It could also be a person, who believes he is better than the rest, probably a drop out and went into a project risking everything he had. In the modern world these people would fail straight away, because when they realize that implementing idea included in itself all functionalities of the business.
In the end I think its ok to take the trial and error approach as long as its on paper. But of course no one likes the boring paper work, and in reality small business will continue failing without taking the propoer steps.
To add to my previous comment: If a person really did go as far as the implementation, at least its better he realizes the idea was never meant to work, rather than strongly believe in something bound to fail in the long-run
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