This comes form a past seminar participant:
Hi John, Thanks for the emails you have sent. I enjoyed your class and I want to start but I have cold feet. I just don't have a good grasp of this. I am still reading and for a time I just put it down. I have recently picked it up again so can you give a few words of encouragement and where to start first?
"Where?" is the question indeed. Where are you right now, in the sense of "your life so far"?
That is the place to start. Where you are. As you reflect on yourself, consider what in your life causes you to suffer. Trust me, for a minute, and think about that. What causes you to suffer. Forget about what and who you know, forget about what everyone else thinks. You are about to face an existential crisis. What really matters to you?
So, what causes you to suffer? This is that critical passion question, for passion comes from the Greek (the Romans took it from the Greek) word "to suffer."
But passion is not enough. We suffer over a lot of things. The winning combination is when you find JOY working on the solution to the problem that causes you to suffer.
Now, this is very specific, and the two parts narrow this down, but it also applies to anything. Goods. Services. Agriculture. You name it. But what you find is by immersing yourself in what causes you to suffer, the only pain relief is the joy in working on the solution.
Your work is you and your lifestyle, you solve problems for yourself, but you find you are not the only one who suffers the way you do. There are others. They too will benefit from your work. They are called customers. Bill Boeing built his first airplane for himself. Steve Jobs built his first computer for himself. Gregor Mendel developed the first pink peas for himself. Og, the caveman, made the first wheel for himself. Shakespeare wrote his first story for himself. You'll develop it for yourself, and then out of love of neighbor you'll offer it to others. For a price. Of course. You are not running a charity, and they do not want to be obliged to you. They want to cancel any obligation to you by purchasing your product. If my friend gives me a cup of coffee, I owe him. If I give Starbuck's $4 for a cup of coffee, I owe them nothing. To make real sure we owe Starbucks nothing, we even tip the help. People feel overwhelmed by obligations. Money discharges obligations. People would rather buy it also to make sure it keeps coming. if you make something they want again and again, they know if you do not charge, it will stop at some point. They are happy to pay.
We know some things. No customers, no business. So you test your solution on customers. This assumes you are pursuing Plan A. Test your idea with retailers, as a customer of theirs. (Plan B, selling something off the shelf, is not for you.)
Test your idea, your solution to the problem, and then listen.
Get that far, and then let me know how it goes. Feedback on your idea will be so specific, there is no point speculating right now what you should do after feedback. But respond to the feedback you must, so achieve that important milestone, and report back.
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
Hi John, Thanks for the emails you have sent. I enjoyed your class and I want to start but I have cold feet. I just don't have a good grasp of this. I am still reading and for a time I just put it down. I have recently picked it up again so can you give a few words of encouragement and where to start first?
"Where?" is the question indeed. Where are you right now, in the sense of "your life so far"?
That is the place to start. Where you are. As you reflect on yourself, consider what in your life causes you to suffer. Trust me, for a minute, and think about that. What causes you to suffer. Forget about what and who you know, forget about what everyone else thinks. You are about to face an existential crisis. What really matters to you?
So, what causes you to suffer? This is that critical passion question, for passion comes from the Greek (the Romans took it from the Greek) word "to suffer."
But passion is not enough. We suffer over a lot of things. The winning combination is when you find JOY working on the solution to the problem that causes you to suffer.
Now, this is very specific, and the two parts narrow this down, but it also applies to anything. Goods. Services. Agriculture. You name it. But what you find is by immersing yourself in what causes you to suffer, the only pain relief is the joy in working on the solution.
Your work is you and your lifestyle, you solve problems for yourself, but you find you are not the only one who suffers the way you do. There are others. They too will benefit from your work. They are called customers. Bill Boeing built his first airplane for himself. Steve Jobs built his first computer for himself. Gregor Mendel developed the first pink peas for himself. Og, the caveman, made the first wheel for himself. Shakespeare wrote his first story for himself. You'll develop it for yourself, and then out of love of neighbor you'll offer it to others. For a price. Of course. You are not running a charity, and they do not want to be obliged to you. They want to cancel any obligation to you by purchasing your product. If my friend gives me a cup of coffee, I owe him. If I give Starbuck's $4 for a cup of coffee, I owe them nothing. To make real sure we owe Starbucks nothing, we even tip the help. People feel overwhelmed by obligations. Money discharges obligations. People would rather buy it also to make sure it keeps coming. if you make something they want again and again, they know if you do not charge, it will stop at some point. They are happy to pay.
We know some things. No customers, no business. So you test your solution on customers. This assumes you are pursuing Plan A. Test your idea with retailers, as a customer of theirs. (Plan B, selling something off the shelf, is not for you.)
Test your idea, your solution to the problem, and then listen.
Get that far, and then let me know how it goes. Feedback on your idea will be so specific, there is no point speculating right now what you should do after feedback. But respond to the feedback you must, so achieve that important milestone, and report back.
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
2 comments:
Very true. My problem is forgetting about what I know and what everyone else thinks.
/Jacob
Perhaps you would like to know that I have taken some positive steps and tested three of my ideas and got very positive initial response from the retailers. I think two of them are plausible in terms of my interest and knowledge. Started doing the market research but it would probably be a wise idea to speak to some more retailers before I proceed.
/Jacob
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