(Note: I originally wrote this post - and list - in November last year prior to my decision to press pause on PublicBeta, which means it was more focused on immediate action. Upon reflection though - and even though I'm not actively work on or planning to work on a startup / project right now - I've decided that this is such a powerful mantra and mindset for my own journey this year.)
I am in the (ongoing) process of giving myself a pep talk and a firm kick up the ass.
In the last year, I've allowed the world and other people to dictate terms to me in a way that has had a significant impact on my life. I've become more fearful of failure, less reluctant to experiment, more risk-averse, unadventurous and I have done so much just to avoid making mistakes.
Most of all, I've mostly become a hypocrite about most of the things that I write about here.
So the other night, a kind of aggressive, "fuck the status quo", inspiration hit and I wrote down this list to remind me about what's important:
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Think positively. I need to detox my mind from negative thoughts; they don't help in any way. Every thought I have should be laced with optimism, because that changes the lens through which I look at the world.
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JFDI. There is no learning without doing. And without learning, I'll never know if something can or can't work.
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Stop being so scared. Everyone is scared sometimes, but this constant focus on mitigating fears & risks is totally un-entrepreneur-like.
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Focus on one thing: momentum. Moving from point A to point B is all that matters. Find and do the things that accelerates that path the most.
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Create value. The underlying currency of all businesses is value. Create that and everything else will follow: traction, customers and revenue.
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Start small. Everything in life has a beginning and the size of that beginning has never determined the size of the eventual outcome.
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Stop thinking about money. Money is never the end-goal and only serves to convolute the simplest strategies. Rather think about everything else above.
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This is Sparta. Even at 300 against the world, I like those odds. The world takes no prisoners and easily accepts shitty excuses. But it can never keep a good man down.
This is a start and I'm getting back into shape.
(I initially wrote the first version of the above list in a 2-minute frenzy using this awesome note-taking app: Off The Mind.)
Did You Enjoy This Post?
If you did, here's some related links from my "Best Of"-collection that you might enjoy as well:
- How I Made $4000 Selling A Product I Didn't Have, If you're validating your (startup) idea, this is the ultimate method.
- Why do we worry about scaleability on Day 1?, In the spirit of doing things that don't scale, you shouldn't be focused on scaleability on Day1.
- What's stopping you (from building your business)?, The difference between an entrepreneur and wantrepreneur is just the "doing"-bit.
- How Anyone Can Create A Tech Startup, Really - I mean ANYONE when I say that.
- Scared To Start?, All entrepreneurs have a healthy fear of failure.