YOUR DREAM IS WAITING

I frequently get asked questions from former colleagues, friends and family members about various aspects of online e-business and entrepreneurship… one question I was asked today by a 16 year old kid trying to start a music management business, was important enough for me to share with you.

Q: “When is the best time to start a company?”

A: I think the best time to start is right after you graduate college and/or graduate school. A lot of elders will tell you that you are too young or don’t have enough experience to start a company so, let me use a example about bumble bees.

A very successful entrepreneur with a science background once told me that “due to the shape and odd size it should be impossible for bumblebees to fly.”  He paused and finished by saying “However, the bumblebees don’t know this so they continue to fly on in blissful ignorance.” Now you may be wondering what bumblebees have to do with starting a company after you graduate college. Your answer is above. You see bumblebees should not be able to fly, but they don’t know that so they continue on defying the odds and flying around while people who study bumblebees look on in awe. When you graduate college you are well equipped with knowledge yes; but are you ready to fly (start a viable business)?  The answer is most likely no. However time and time again young entrepreneurs with huge dreams have defied the odds, just like bumble bees. Let’s take Seth Berger for example. He is the founder and former CEO of AND 1, which is a company specializing in basketball apparel and shoes. Berger started AND 1 in the early 1990’s after he completed graduate school. He didn’t know what he was going in the initial start up and even admits that. Berger also said in an interview with Knowledge@Wharton when speaking about starting his company at such a young age “I think it’s a huge opportunity. Whenever I speak with [students], I always try to tell them, you should start your business now, before you have a bunch of experience, because what your experience will tell you is what you can’t accomplish.” What Seth Berger just said is an incredible example of exactly what I am talking about to you in this blog post. When you graduate school, start a company and set your sights on success while eliminating the option of failure, you don’t know any better and your chances of succeeding increase dramatically. Have you ever looked back on something saying “How the hell did I do that? That was crazy!” Well just remember you don’t know you can’t fly. You don’t know that you probably should gain a hell of a lot more “real world” experience before starting your venture. All you know is what you want it, bad. You want to fly. You have your eye on the prize. What is the prize?  Success.

It’s that simple.

If you want it bad enough, the rest will fall into place.  So in the spirit of sounding totally cliche, spread your wings and fly. Even if you don’t know how to.

Live Inspired,

Robb

Sitting in the barber shop about to get a fresh cut and just heard something I had to share. A young man who was getting his hair cut was asked by the barber “you still working the same job?” and the man replied “yes, it’s not the best job but it’s so easy and I don’t do much”. That response was almost laughable. The fact he said it’s easy and he doesn’t do much is the exact reason someone like that will never achieve true financial freedom and success. You can never work just at par. You have to always take it to the next level.  Always.