Hey guys, what's up, MJ DeMarco author of "The Millionaire Fastlane" and today I
want to talk about five statements or thoughts or mindsets that will expose
you as either an entrepreneur or a wantrepreneur. So if you never heard
that term before, a 'wantrepreneur', I actually think Mark Cuban was, coined
the phrase. A wantrepreneur is someone who wants to be an entrepreneur, they want to be
their own boss, but really aren't cracked up to be one. They think more like an
employee versus an employer. So I've
identified five thoughts or mindsets that will expose you as either an
entrepreneur or a wantrepreneur. So those five are: First: the thought of 'it's too
hard'. It's too hard!. Now I bring this up because I get a lot of e-mails,
a lot of e-mails say 'oh
I had this good idea, what do you think about this? I have this business concept,
however it's too hard'. See that tells me
you're not cracked up to be an entrepreneur. You see any entrepreneurial venture or business
that has any kind of value, it's going to be hard. It's going to be difficult. If
solving your problem or need in your entrepreneurial space is simple, it's
probably not a very good idea. So the next time you're looking at an
opportunity and you're thinking 'oh it's too hard' that actually is the
opportunity! The harder it is to solve whatever problem you're seeking to solve,
the harder it is, the better the opportunity. You see if it's easy, if
solving the problem is as simple as downloading WordPress or Drupal and
you're in business it's probably not a very good idea, because you're violating
the commandment of entry. In the book "Delivering happiness" by Tony Hsieh, he's
the founder of Zappos, he explains how difficult it was to
transform the shoe industry, because it was different, you know, the way things
were set up. It was very complicated, and his success didn't happen in a couple
hours or a couple weeks, it took months, years, because it was difficult. 'It's too
hard'. You see if it's too hard that's actually good. And if you're thinking if
something's too hard, you're probably not cracked up to be an entrepreneur, because
you're looking for the event, you're looking for the easy way in business and
that's not the way it works. So number two: Number two is 'it's already being
done'. This is another one of my favorites. 'I got this great idea bla bla bla bla,
but it's already being done'. Think about that, Google was started as a
search engine and yet there was countless other search engines out there:
Alta Vista, Snap.
Imagine if them guys, Sergey, Brin and
Larry Page said 'Ehhh, it's already being done, let's not do it'. You see the best
entrepreneurs they don't create something new like something that's
never been thought of before, they just take something that already exists and
they do it better. So if you're strolling around thinking about the next greatest
idea that no one's ever thought of you're probably not cracked up to be an
entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs simply take something that's already been done
and they do it a little better. It could be better customer service, it could be a
spin on something that's already being done, that you just do it better. I mean
there's always opportunity with customer service, because customer service
nowadays is just absolutely brutal. Number three: number three is 'I don't
know how. I got this great idea, I got a business, I want to do blablabla, but I
don't know how'. 'I don't know how' tells me you're not disciplined enough. You
want to think about the event versus the process.
I admit, there's a lot of things I don't know
and yet I figure it out. The other day during an interview I was asked the
question 'well how did you teach yourself how to program a computer and build a
website, and all the things, the complicated things that are involved
with that process? How did I teach myself? Well I didn't actually pick up a book,
open it up and say 'I'm gonna learn how to program', that's not how I did it.
I taught myself on a problem by problem basis. In other words I had a vision for
what I wanted, I had a finished product. This is what I want, and I needed to
to find out how I'm gonna get there. So I took it one step, one step
at a time. if I didn't know how to program a certain thing, I figured it out.
On to the next problem, then I figured that out. And on to the next problem.
That's the same thing I did with publishing. I didn't know how to publish
a book and get it on Amazon and sell it and da da da. I didn't know that. I didn't
sit down to seek to figure that out all at once. I took it on a
problem by problem basis. I envisioned a finished product and I said okay first
you got to write it. Then you got to get it you know edited, and then you gotta do this,
then this. It was a problem by problem basis. And by the time you get to
the finished product, whether it's a website or a book or whatever, you learn
the entire process. That's the process, not sitting down and reading 20 books.
You do it problem by problem and that fixes 'I don't know how'. The fourth one is
my favorite 'I'd like to draw a salary or how much am I gonna get paid'? This tells
me you're not an entrepreneur, you're an employee. And I bring this up, because a
year or so ago I had the opportunity to invest in a startup and I was given the
papers, they wanted over a million dollars and they wanted you know a
hundred thousand or two hundred thousand dollar investment. I got the papers I
looked it over and the CEO was being paid a hundred thousand dollars right
off the start. A hundred grand! Now this is a startup - no customers, no
product, no revenue, no profit, concept unproven and yet the CEO wanted a hundred
thousand dollars in salary. In other words, he did not want to take a risk, he
wanted me to take the risk. See that told me this guy is not an
entrepreneur he's an employee and if I'm going to invest in a business, whether
it's my own or someone else's, I don't want to CEO running it I want an
entrepreneur running it, one that understands that entrepreneurship
in its own right is a risk, it's sacrifice. And if you're starting a
business or you want to start a business and your first thought is 'I want to draw
a salary, how much is that going to be' start going back and start looking for
another job, because you're not cracked up to be an entrepreneur. The fifth and
final one is: 'my idea is worth millions' or actually anything with the word idea
in it, this tells me that you are focused on the wrong thing and you cannot grasp
what is important. Any idea worth its salt, is worth it with the execution
Meaning everyone's got the same idea. If you have a great idea, there's hundreds
perhaps thousands of other people who share the same idea. It's not the idea
that's important, what's important is the execution of it. And the execution is
where everyone gets lost, because they think execution is one or two weeks
worth of work. They don't understand that execution can be months or years worth
of work. They don't understand that the first failure is just a part of the
process so they see the failure, and then they quit. They had the
'grass is greener on the other side' syndrome, where they throw something
against the wall and the market says they don't like it and they quit, and
they go do something else, some other idea, because the grass is always greener on
the other side. So this idea is no good, I'm going to go do that.
They don't understand that anything worth value is going to be complicated and is
going to take a long series of executional, execution steps. So to wrap this up,
there's five statements or mindsets, they may expose you as a true entrepreneur or
a wantrepreneur. The first is: 'it's too hard', the second is: 'it's already being done',
the third is: 'I don't know how', the fourth is: 'I want to draw a salary or how much
am I gonna get paid?' and the fifth is: 'my idea is valuable or my idea is worth all
this money or can I sell my idea', anything with the word idea. Ideas focus
on the event, not the process, not the execution. So thanks for tuning in.
Hopefully this is, this will help you explore yourself as a real entrepreneur and not
as a wantrepreneur. My name is MJ DeMarco author of "The Millionaire Fastlane"
Have a fantastic day.
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