last week I sent out an e-mail with the subject line
“lets start a business together”
The e-mail went on to say I’d had a great idea for a book and I was going to work with 12 people to write it and then I’d spend my own money to promote it in magazines and online.
LOTS of people responded
I love psychology, you can tell what holds people back in life immediately from their initial e-mails to me.
People generally fall into 1 of 4 camps when they e-mail me:
1. Gung Ho!
LETS DO THIS NEIL! is the battle cry of the Gung Ho! types, no info needed, no questions to ask, by the time they’ve read my e-mail they already have the first page written out and they’re starting on book 2.
If you’re Gung Ho! you probably have the following pattern you run:
– New idea!!!!! YAY!!! I love my new idea!!!
– Ok lets get started, lots to do,
– flurry of work
– sleep
– hmm new idea….. not so sure
– bit more work
– kinda bored with that idea…..
– sleep
– New idea!!!!! YAY!!! I love my new idea!!!
repeat in some crazy OCD loop
recognise that?
I do because this is me. ADHD entrepreneur. The big challenge for us is to get something completed. I’ve had to do a ton of work to moderate the desire to have something new in my life all the time.
Try this, next time you get a new idea write it down and do nothing. sleep on it. whilst you do nothing focus on finishing your “old” business until it works.
Once it works, either; sell it, employ someone to manage it or get a business partner who likes to tinker with businesses.
2. Cautiously optimistic
We can do it with each other! is your mantra if you’re C.O.
C.O people love a team, they thrive when they’re with others. They tend to not like leading but prefer to work in a group.
C.O. people are VERY well suited to projects like this, they usually have good follow through and work well in a team.
If you recognise yourself or someone close as C.O you have a choice to make.
Accept that you love working in a team and forgo the leadership hassles of being the boss or learn to accept criticism.
Most C.O.’s tend to have a fear of criticism… (we all do BTW it’s just what we make it mean that changes)
3. Sceptical.
Sceptical people tended to want to get LOTS of details in place BEFORE they wrote a single word, how would the IP rights work overseas? what happens if one of us dies half way through? what will the company share holder agreement look like?
Get the idea?
For these people their biggest challenge in life is getting started. If I were coaching you I’d say “just get started, we can work out all the what ifs when we actually have something to sell. Until you have something to sell those questions are irrelevant.
If you need everything to be in place before you take any action just know that it never is…. even when you have some things in place they ALWAYS change as you’re going along…. always.
4. Poo Poo’ers
Poo poolers have given up before they’ve even started.
“This will never work Neil” “how will you manage 12 people to write a book, it can’t be done” (I used to manage 100 chefs and wait staff so 12 people writing a book is a piece of pi$$ after that) “It will never sell Neil”
Poo Poo’ers use this as a way to avoid failing, their greatest fear.
They have usually failed at something when they were younger and made it mean they were bad people, and now they avoid anything new for fear they’ll fail again.
They freak out when I tell them I start 5 new businesses a month and 4 of them fail spectacularly!
This for a poo poo’er is like dying 4 times a month.
Worst of all poo poo’ers then try to talk other people out of starting so they don’t feel bad about being cowards.
If you’re a poo poo’er or you know one, my advice is to get a job and work for someone else. LOTS of people will tell you that change is easy, it’s not.
Change takes an incredible amount of consistent work. Poo poo’ers are usually good at their jobs just bored with them. So get a hobby and focus on that, pick a hobby that you like and focus on getting very good at that instead.
Not everyone can be a risk taker.
Not everyone can be an entrepreneur.
To think otherwise is just naive, most people are much happier taking courses and talking about entrepreneurship than being an entrepreneur…. and that’s perfect.
So if you see yourself or people you know in those 4 types above just know that we’re all the same, in some areas we are poo poo’ers and others we’re Gung ho!
Now to get back to managing 12 people for our new book!
Neil
