Oh yes. Read the book, Toilet Paper Entrepreneur. While there are facebook success, google success. Majority of the success are not like that. The reports of those romanticize success may mislead many aspiring entrepreneurs.
The Romance of Success
Send to Kindleby Randy Gage
Okay I confess: I’m a hopeless romantic. Used to choke up on Casey Kasem’s long distance dedications. Cried during The Bridges of Madison County. And yes, I saw all the Twilight movies.
But that doesn’t mean you have to romanticize everything. Especially reaching success and creating wealth…
So many people dream of winning the lotto or getting a big inheritance. They want to watch The Secret and have their Bentley materialize in the driveway.
Maybe it’s not romantic to say it, but success takes work. Determination, persistence, sweat, effort, and guts. You’ll face setbacks and go through disappointments. But the people who learn from and grow from those setbacks are the ones that have breakthroughs. That’s the romance.
Likewise, it’s fun to dream of getting Silicon Valley venture capitalists to invest in your new startup and then take it public and become a billionaire. But that’s not how most success stories play out…
The formula for creating wealth may not sound romantic, but it’s fairly simple: add value or solve problems. Every day there are people becoming wealthy because they add value or solve problems. You don’t hear about most of them and their not on the cover of INC magazine. But they are building their dreams and getting rich doing it.
If you have a brilliant tech innovation that will make you a VC darling, by all means go for it. But just know that fortunes will be created over the next ten years in payment processing, manufacturing, delivery, education, logistics and thousands of other “not romantic” fields. When you add value or solve problems, people will joyfully, lovingly, gratefully crawl naked over broken glass and throw money at you.
So don’t over romanticize success. Get to work and take a step closer to your dream every day. But don’t be a skeptic either. Or as Casey would say, “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.”
-RG
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11 comments
1 Like
I have to say, now that I'm a contract bookkeeper instead of an employee, I view 'solve a problem' VERY differently. I just started working with a wonderful new client and I am helping them fix a lot of old problems. Now that these problems are being solved one by one, productivity is increasing. Their staff are thrilled about some of these things as well. I'm exercising skills and a part of my brain I didn't use as an employee and having an absolute ball doing it too. The money is flowing in nicely and I can see that this client will be more than happy to recommend my services and/or provide a written testimonial that I can use to market myself.
This is an interesting post as it echoes the "no pain no gain" adage. However people such as Esther Hicks - ( Ask and It is Given) says "no gain in pain" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIlqAHGer8k
She says struggle and effort or paddling upstream is picked up programming and that when connected to source, life can be downstream and a breeze, that creation through action is mediocre at best and that creation through alignment of energy is where all masters have found their place.
@Hilary Moore I do believe that when you find the right path, done your preparation and are in the groove - things flow nicely. But I think it's foolish to belief that great success will come effortlessly, without challenges along the way.
-RG
Such a coincidence, or as Melanie Mills might say, "the universe conspiring with you" that Bruce Beaton and I had a very similar discussion yesterday. If I understood him correctly, Bruce feels that too much self-help stuff available is of"the rah-rah you can do it variety, 'Deadmau5 did it, so can you!!!" He was saying that you have to grind it out, and still may not reach the coveted first place.
Oh, and thanks for helping me stop saying Deadmowfive before I was overheard by one of my nieces. :)
If it were "that easy" it wouldn't be fun. I love romance, but I never was big on typical romance stories. I prefer the stories where the protagonist, through hard work, dedication, pluck and cleverness gets all he or she ever dreamed of - including the love of their life. Now THAT is "true romance" and I'm all for it. MY biggest challenge is not making it harder than it has to be just for the fun of proving I CAN TOO! :)
I love this blogpost. But how do we know if the business we do is going to be a success ? It can be a problem solving business or it can be some value we add, but that doesn't mean people are going to pay for it. If the price is to high, people don't buy.
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