How to not to get distracted and focus on what matters in your entrepreneurial journey — Part 01
Because it’s really easy to get lost in the sh*tload of ‘information’ out there.
Nowadays, almost all of the people we meet in life, is an ‘expert’ in something. From coupon cutting, lotteries, ‘expenses reduction’ (aka saving or penny pinching) to managing businesses, managing your money, handling people, investments, and the list goes on. And almost everyone around us, would love to give ‘advice’ to us regarding any one or more about those areas. Sometimes it’s our mother, father, or any family member. Sometimes it might be a coworker. Sometimes it’s a complete stranger we meet on the streets. It can be anyone.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with getting some piece of wisdom from other people. Even from strangers. It’s actually a good thing to listen to other people sometimes (if you have the time and all of that) and find out what they have to say about something. If we pay attention, there’s a lot to be learned from just listening to random conversations. Maybe you can do some market research too. Maybe they’ll whine about some problem they have and it might give you an idea.
But there’s a time, place, and circumstances for everything. Yes, it’s important to gather as much information as one can as knowledge is potential power, but sometimes, you just gotta go ahead and do the thing.
Faster, is the new bigger……
In the entrepreneurial world, above italicized phrase is frequently true. As a matter of fact, there’s a phrase which says, “Faster is the new bigger”. As an entrepreneur and a business consultant, I have found this statement to be true in almost all the time. Many big companies as well as startups have failed royally, just because they were late to the party. And when they realized their mistake, the ship has gone. They were left behind, and their clients and prospects turned to the competition.
So how on earth can you keep up with the world, if you’re too busy distracted on bullsh*t?
Be careful of who you take your advice from.
Like I said, almost everyone we meet these days, is an expert in something. But it’s up to you to evaluate them and extract the bullsh*t and the good sh*t. After all, you’re not going to get stock advice from a guy who’s neck deep in debt right?
All experts aren’t equal.
Different experts say different things. All of them are true. Just not from the same point of view.
No expert on this earth, can give one-size-fits-all advice. Because it doesn’t work like that. Every situation is different. One expert might say one thing and another might say the complete opposite, and that’ll confuse you. You’ll wonder whose advice should I follow? Whose should I ditch?
Here’s the thing.
First off, you’ve got to evaluate your situation. You have to know what you want. You have to get your sh*t together. Only then, you’ll be able to get anywhere.
Then you have to find an expert / specialist who’s specialized in whatever area(s) you’re interested in. Avoid the Jacks of all trades because they’re masters of none. Once you’ve found the ideal figure for this, stick with them. Check out their content regularly. Interact with them. Talk to them. Tell them about your situation and either strike out a mentor-mentee program (if possible) or just ask for guidelines and do’s and don’t’s. You might have to pay for that, but trust me, it’ll be worth it. In my experience, almost all of the startups that succeeds has mentors, consultants that help their growth.
Get away from social media. At least from its negativity.
Social media is not what it was. There’s a lot of manipulation going on. Lies are getting spread all the time. It’ really easy to post something on Facebook or Twitter than writing it to a newspaper. It’s really easy to create a trend on social media. It’s also really easy to spread negativity on social media. I know this because I’ve seen it happens, right before my eyes. Page admins who call themselves ‘influencers’ spreading lies, just so they could crank up their reach and views and all that sh*t. People react to such things, unknowingly satisfying the ‘influencers’ because they only need the numbers on their insights, so they could charge high dollars from the people asking for ‘shoutouts’.
So folks. Don’t visit your feeds unless your business or brand requires you to do it. Even then, use a social media scheduling system, like HootSuite or something. Be careful of who you’re following. Don’t have any negative stuff on your feed. Have a purpose every time you launch the social app or log in to your account.
Write down what you have to get done.
This is important. If you’re going to keep your to-do list on your mind, then you’re doing a big mistake. It’s really easy to forget something or miss something. Be organized. Best way to do this is to have a whiteboard (or any kind of board) in your office space and write down what you have to get done from time to time and the deadline, if there’s one. That way, you’ll see what’s on the board every time and it’ll be on your mind, and then the chance of you getting it done increases dramatically. Or you can go digital and use something like Evernote (highly recommended).
For daily tasks, you can use the Microsoft To-Do application. It can be used both on phone and computer. It’s syncable so you won’t have to repeat anything.
……..to be continued to Part 02……..
Note: You don’t have to do all of these things. Just doing one thing right might suffice. Just make sure to do it the right way, all in. Don’t do things half-assed. Go hard or go home.
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