Lessons from the Entrepreneur School of Hard Knocks is a long overdue contribution I could have made available to entrepreneurs out there are still struggling, lost and figuring out how to start an online business before we can even make it successful.
After 8 years of hard knocks, I am still nowhere near where I thought I should be when I first started.
The idealistic me has finally met the grounded me.
After having my head stuck above the clouds for so long, I finally realised that nothing beats starting from the bottom.
How It All Began
In 2010 I met my ex-business partner at Starbucks in a busy office building in the city. From then on, the entrepreneurial spirit in me began to grow, until today.
The first business I started with my then business partner began with lofty dreams. To create lifestyle brands and platforms in the travel industry, shopping arena and so on. Within a year or so, we realised that while dreaming big fed our spirit, it wasn’t paying bills, expenses, his rent, nor feeding us. We soon turned to offering our services in web development and copywriting then again, our ambition got the better of us and we wanted to do more strategic consulting stuff.
Within 4 years, my personal relationship was taking a toll. My partner told me to get a job. And I did.
Then we parted ways.
First my business partner, then my partner.
A Full Time Job & A Part Time Business
While I was drawing a comfortable salary and yes I did enjoy my work; teaching pre-teens English at a premium enrichment center, for some reason I wasn’t feeling fulfilled.
The entrepreneurial itch was there.
I should start something.
This voice is constantly telling me that.
That’s when I decided to do something, not too risky or out of my comfort zone since my last venture didn’t end well. It didn’t end badly, but not like it was a smashing success.
I started The Write Motive, a sole proprietor offering copywriting services and eventually building straightforward content and eCommerce WordPress websites.
More and more projects came my way and I was making side income on top of my salary. It was a pretty good gig I had going until I thought I had a better idea.
It’s Not Always Once Bitten Twice Shy
While my job was demanding, I was able to make full use of my off hours and days to work on self-development and picking up new skills.
So I began learning more about online marketing and the potential of online businesses. That’s when I also began to experiment with building WordPress websites.
Then 2 years into my full time job, I quit because I thought I was going to make it on my own.
I left my job with new knowledge and newly picked up skills thinking that I was going to start and own a successful online business, but I could never be more wrong.
Little did I know that I was going to repeat history—poor business, no clients, no online business. Success was nowhere in sight.
As much as I had many action plans, they required more time, skills, effort AND investment. My savings from my full time job were wiped out. I was threading on a thin line again. So I went back to freelancing as a stage manager, which was what I have been doing before the full time job, just to earn some bread and butter, while I continue to figure out how to make any of my business ideas work.
Another 4 Years of Hard Knocks: Busy
Fortunately I came to learn about the Diamond Cutter Principles by the Diamond Cutter Institute. Reading both books The Diamond Cutter and Karmic Management, I was still crazy about starting and owning successful online businesses.
Especially since The Diamond Cutter specifically mentioned that a business should make money and we should become successful.
But it’s only after I attended the trainings at the Sedona College of International Management, 6 sessions to be exact, and today right now as I am writing this post, I realised how off track I had been.
I lost focus totally.
Lost in the vast expanse of information overload, I had jumped from one “expert” to the next, from one methodology to the next, from one course to another with the promise that all these information I learn will help me start an online business.
But after all of that, I have all the information, sometimes conflicting, sometimes confusing since not everyone agrees on the same idea sometimes, to start an online business.
I had so many ideas, so many projects in planning, in the pipeline.
But I had so little time and not forgetting the fact that I need bread and butter—again, the bills aren’t going to pay themselves. Expenses, food, and all.
I was constantly overwhelmed.
I knew I had to make sure the plan I had to launch that academy online is right.
I thought I knew what I was doing, after all I have a blueprint and action plan right?
The Online World of Opportunities
After all it’s the era of free wifi and internet freedom, websites and mobile apps, plenty of freebies to hook your attention and distract you from what you should be doing.
It’s the power of the online.
Along with it comes opportunities such as becoming a blogger, influencer, owning an online business, a lifestyle business. And they will then tell you all about passive income, making a full time income owning a blog and so on.
It’s like a child entering Toys’R’us already teeming with other children going wild, tearing down shelves and shelves of talking toys, running through maze-like aisles of promotions and latest toys.
Some kids walk out crying and screaming how other children snatched the last on the shelf. Some leave disappointed and say the store just sucked and they should have gone to another instead. Some never made it out and are still circling.
What have these got to do with starting from the bottom?
Good point.
Starting From The Bottom
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. — Lao Tzu
We have to know what we want, then take the first step. Then the next, and then the next.
It’s not slow and steady wins the race, but staying grounded as we learn the ropes, application of what we learn that builds a firm foundation that allows us to accelerate, expand and go far.
Dream big. Start small. But most of all, start. — Simon Sinek
Don’t just dream and not do anything. Don’t just plan and not do anything.
Learn, put what you learn into practice, make mistakes, and start over again.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results — Albert Einstein
Above all, learn from your mistakes, and avoid making the same mistakes.
While you keep your eyes on the prize—the result you desire—don’t be blinded by only what you want; a following, passive income and whatever not.
Strive for growth so that you can consistently deliver value to your audience.
You don’t always have to position yourself as the expert right from the start because you don’t have the credibility for that.
Instead, start from the bottom, because not only does that makes you relatable, it builds your experience, career capital, and allows you to focus on delivering what matters.
And that’s my lesson to myself after 8 years of hard knocks and what I’m working on right now.
Starting from the bottom.
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