Now that you know you’re an entrepreneur-in-the-making, it’s time to take action. At the same time, you must also be patient. This might feel like a contradiction in terms. “Take action” makes you feel like you need to put the pedal to the metal. “Be patient” makes you feel like you need to slam on the brakes. So, what gives?
While these two instructions may sound contradictory, they’re actually quite complementary. By doing both you can manage your expectations and avoid a lot of frustration. If you think that you’re going to finish this book today, have your idea tomorrow, launch your business next week, and generate $5 million next year—well, most of you are going to be disappointed. That’s why you need to both “take action” and “be patient.”
TEN-YEAR THINKING—THE VIRTUE OF PATIENCE
You can afford to be patient because you know you’re going to make your mark someday. It might be next week or fifteen years from now. As you patiently move toward your goal, you have to reframe your sense of time. Try to think in ten-year time frames. Regardless of your age, your jaw may have just dropped. Those of you aged eleven to nineteen who are reading this have, after all, only lived one full ten-year time frame. But there’s a good reason for this.
I learned the discipline of thinking in ten-year time frames when I was thirty-five. Once I did, time slowed down. I started having more fun. I was less frustrated and rushed, and more great things started happening.
The process works like this. First, you have to understand that, barring a natural disaster or getting run over by a car, you’re probably going to live until age eighty-five. Even if you’re sixty-five right now, you still have a good twenty years left. If you’re fifteen, you have seventy years left.
Next, you need to realize that you can accomplish anything in ten years, worst case twenty. As in the old business axiom, “It takes twenty years to become an overnight success.”
If you think you’ll build an empire in the next couple of years, in most cases you’re going to be sorely disappointed. If you accept that you have ten years to build something great, your mind and your body can relax. You’ll think better and make better decisions.
You might be a fifty-one-year-old stay-at-home mom who is now an empty-nester trying to find herself. You say to yourself, “I know I’m an entrepreneur-in-the-making, and someday I’m going to take my leap.” You’ve put your intention out there to the universe. Next year, after trying a few things, you discover your passion and start a business around it. At age sixty, you’re making more money than you could have ever imagined, having more fun, and feeling more fulfilled than ever.
Or if you’re seventeen years old and reading this, you might say to yourself, “I’m an entrepreneur-in-the-making. I know I’m going to be an entrepreneur someday. I’m going to go to college and take the right classes. Then I’ll get a few different jobs until I find my calling.” You might take your leap when you’re twenty-six, and at thirty-five, you’re making a million dollars (or $100,000, whatever’s important to you), running a business you love, and making a huge impact on the world.
You can accomplish anything in ten years, but rarely in two. The motivational speaker Les Brown used to say, “All you need is a good decade.” Part of the reason is that this current phase is usually filled with false starts. Whatever you do between now and when you open for business is all part of the process. It will often seem to have no direct correlation to the business you finally start. But it does. As Rosabeth Moss Kanter says, “In the middle, everything looks like failure.”
I took my leap at age twenty-five. Between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four, I worked in a machine shop, sold corporate travel, had a mail-order company, and invested in and sold real estate. None of this had a direct correlation with a training company, but I can recall dozens of experiences from those different endeavors that are now all part of what I know as an entrepreneur.
The idea is to move forward. Try a lot of things. Learn lessons. Just do something. Get to work, get a job, work harder than everyone, and the inspiration will come. This is your experimental testing phase. It’s as much about figuring out what you don’t like as it is figuring out what you love. In the back of your mind, you know what and who you are. You have put what you’re going to be out there into the universe, and, assuming you’re committed to becoming an entrepreneur, the answers will come.
Of course, there may be the reader of this book who’s eighteen, just graduated high school, and quickly finds their passion. They decide not to go to college and start a business at nineteen that generates millions in revenue. And they may become a billionaire by age twenty-five.
That scenario is the exception. Truly, one in a million. If you measure yourself against them, you’ll always feel like a failure. Ironically, if you’re patient and think in ten-year time frames, you’ll probably get to where you want to go faster.
As you embark on this somewhat messy next phase, your job is to keep your eyes peeled for your inspiration. Think about a need you see or problem to be solved. As marketing guru Joe Polish says, “Most of the money we make in the world comes from transforming other people’s bad news into good news.” And Richard Rossi says, “Wherever there is anxiety, there is opportunity.”
Dan Sullivan says, “When people are feeling confused, isolated and powerless, there is an opportunity.”
Here’s a list of entrepreneurial “light bulb moments” that were turned into businesses. Here’s hoping they give you such a moment:
•a software program that helps landscapers run their businesses better
•a wedge to stop food from falling in between your car seats
•a sales training program for real estate agents
•a protein bar made from crickets
•remanufacturing toner cartridges for printers
•buying defective iPod minis, fixing and reselling them
•an app that helps people meditate
•portable photo booths for events
•buying used audio equipment low and reselling it high
•a foldable kayak
•a ring for your finger that monitors your sleep, steps, and other vitals
•organizing people’s homes
•eye-catching basketball socks
•cleaning cars, boats, jets
•direct-to-consumer braces for your teeth
•shared electronic scooters in cities
•a video camera for your front door
•selling ugly Christmas sweaters
•food trucks
•mobile windshield crack repair
•a more interactive golf range
•an app that gives you leadership insight
•a warehouse full of trampolines to entertain kids
•opening a salad place in a college town
•starting a fantasy sports advisory service
•compact fitness equipment
•a software platform that helps people share a ride, a room, a couch
•a tracking device to help you find your keys
•a salsa company
•buying and selling items on Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba
•a mobile platform to help entertainers monetize their brands and fans
To get your gears turning a little bit more, here’s a short list of possible businesses:
Appliance Repair |
Home Building |
Beauty Salon |
Home Inspection |
Bicycle Repair |
Home Maintenance |
Boat Cleaning |
Household Organizing |
Candy Making |
Interior Decorator |
Carpentry |
Import-Export Specialist |
Child Care Services |
Jewelry Making |
Cleaning Service |
Limousine Service |
Clothing Manufacturer |
Micro-Brewing |
Computer Repair |
Moving Company |
Editorial Services |
Nutrition Counseling |
Electronics Repair |
Personal Concierge |
Event Planning |
Personal Trainer |
Fence Installation |
Physical Therapy |
Financial Planner |
Property Management |
Furniture Making |
Spa Services |
Gift Basket Service |
Tattoo Removal |
Graffiti Removal |
Wedding Planner |
Peter Diamandis offers this advice for entrepreneurs-in-the-making who are trying to find their start-up idea: “Historically, I come up with my best ideas when reading a book.”
I’ve come up with my best ideas both from books and when brainstorming with friends and colleagues I respect, who bring different perspectives or areas of expertise to the table. Diamandis also adds this advice:
Throughout my career, whenever I’ve started a company just to make money, it’s been a mistake. Starting any successful company is always hard work, and if my heart isn’t in it, the effort becomes hard, unfulfilling work, and I give up before the job is done.
On the flip side, when I start a company to solve a problem truly important to me, one that excites me, even if the solution takes ten years, every one of those ten years are well spent, educational, and fulfilling.
ENTREPRENEURS WHO TOOK THEIR LEAP
Here are a handful of stories about entrepreneurs-in-the-making who took their leap and how they got their inspiration.
Watching my friend Ed Pobur’s son grow up, I knew he was an entrepreneur-in-the-making. The six essential traits are actually quite obvious in people when you’re aware of them. In eighth grade, Eddie Pobur Jr. started a lawn-cutting business with his friend. They ran that business until graduating high school. At their peak, they were cutting thirty lawns a week.
When he was sixteen, he started a window-tinting business that made him much more money than lawn cutting. He continued that business until something better came along at age twenty-two.
He grew up in a golf course community. All his life he was surrounded by golf carts. His sophomore year in college, he started a golf cart sales and service business, Eddie’s Golf Carts. In his first year, he sold thirty golf carts; in his second year, he sold eighty golf carts; and in his fifth year, he will sell and service over two hundred golf carts. His growth potential is unlimited.
Eddie capitalized on a very hot trend, the market for customized golf carts, which continues to grow rapidly.
Shelly Sun, the founder of BrightStar Care, was a thirty-one-year old corporate controller in the airline industry when she had her light bulb moment.
She was faced with a common family issue. She had to find in-home health care for her family member, who had stage four cancer. It required all levels of care and was a challenging and exhausting experience. She realized a huge gap in the industry’s ability to provide a full continuum of care for her loved one.
She saw an opportunity to improve the industry and help many families avoid the frustrations and heartaches she experienced.
Around the same time, she read the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. The book helped her realize that it might be just as risky to stay in corporate America as it is to become an entrepreneur.
So she gave herself a year to make it work. She did exhaustive research, talking to hospitals, caregivers, and nursing homes. Her goal was to create a complete in-home solution for families who need to care for a sick loved one, and give them peace of mind.
Shelly launched her first location in Illinois and then opened two more over the next two years. By year three, she decided to franchise her concept. She sold her second and third locations to franchisees in order to fund the franchising model. The business took off from there. Sixteen years later, Shelly now has 335 locations, and BrightStar Care generates $440 million in system-wide sales.
Scott Bade of ImageSoft is a classic example of someone who waited for their inspiration. He was living his passion, working as a computer programmer and salesperson for a software company for nine years, until he decided it was time at age thirty-seven. He took his leap in 1999 to start his own software company. Shortly after, he joined forces with two other partners, James Leneschmidt and Steve Glisky. He and his partners have since built ImageSoft into a $28 million company with 130 employees.
Dan Haynes was a sophomore in high school when he had his light bulb moment and took his entrepreneurial leap. One of his passions is online gaming. Yet he was getting tired of the same old characters. So he decided to create his own game.
At first, it was just for fun. He wasn’t thinking of it as a business. He was just charging people to use it to cover the cost of hosting servers and the website. But eventually, it took off, and five years later, Dan’s video gaming company, Gaminglight, is generating $10,000 a month in profit.
Ryan Findling has always had entrepreneurial wiring. At the tender age of four, he had a successful lemonade stand that he then tried to franchise and sell to his friends. That fledgling attempt failed.
In sixth grade, he started a company called fotofoto, which does photo booths for weddings, bar mitzvahs, and parties. Ryan started the business with a partner, but realized after two weeks, having a partner was not for him. Over the last five years, he has built it up to where he will do two hundred events this year in his junior year of high school and is now planning to sell the business before he graduates high school.
Ryan also just started a new company called Non-Profit Promos. It’s a for-profit business that sells promotional products and spirit wear to nonprofits for their fund-raising efforts. He created a very simple online interface for users to order. The site has been up for fifteen days, and he already has fifteen orders.
An Entrepreneur magazine edition on young millionaires featured Rachel Zietz, the entrepreneur who founded Gladiator Lacrosse. At thirteen, she started her company to make durable, affordable practice equipment for the sport of lacrosse. Five years later, she is projecting to do $2 million in revenue while attending Princeton as a freshman.
That same Entrepreneur edition featured Brennan Agranoff, the founder of HoopSwagg. At age thirteen, he wanted basketball socks that stood out, and he could only find boring or very expensive socks. He saw a need, and after nine months of research and a $3,000 investment from his parents, he was in business. HoopSwagg is described as a playful brand that manufacturers eye-catching athletic socks. After five years, Brennan has twenty employees and is on track to hit $1.6 million in revenue. He’s putting off college to focus on building the business.
Marc Schechter, co-owner of Schechter Wealth, a wealth advisory firm, exhibited all the signs of an entrepreneur-in-the-making before taking his leap. At age twelve, he was a DJ and magician at kids’ parties; at age sixteen, he became a videographer at parties; and at the age of nineteen when in college, he took his leap with a partner and started Star Trax, which managed karaoke for bars. Having purchased music mixing systems and song lyrics, he was able to create the karaoke concept before karaoke became popular.
Marc initially got into the business with a partner with the idea of doing this karaoke concept at private parties. After seeing how much fun groups of people had doing this at private parties, he decided to expand their services to a local bar one night a week. Marc received 20 percent of the growth in revenues from the bar owner, and his innovation vaulted the bar’s sales from a quiet $500 per night to lines out the door and $2,500 per night. Marc himself was making $400 per night. Even more exciting to him than the significant earnings was the recognition and association of being involved with something creative, unique, and valuable.
A year later, Marc had crews working at ten different bars per week. After graduating college, he dropped his plans for Wall Street in favor of continuing with Star Trax. He bought out his initial partner and sold 50 percent to new partners. Together, they built Star Trax into a very successful multimillion-dollar event-planning company.
At age thirty-five, Marc left Star Trax and sold his share of the business to his partner over subsequent years. Marc then focused his entrepreneurial passion and mind-set on growing his family business, Schechter Wealth. Since he joined the company, it has quintupled in size.
The final story is one that is too good not to add, although I can’t find the original source or the entrepreneur’s name. If you know who this is, please let me know. The story is that of a young man who, after he got a DUI, was kicked out of his parents’ house. Homeless, he slept on the couch of a friend on the Florida coast for a little while. Because he was living near the water, at the end of each day he noticed people gathering around the docks. Curious, he decided to go see what all the fuss was about. He learned that these people were gathering to help clean the fishing boats coming in after a day of fishing.
When he heard what the people were being paid, he had a light bulb moment. He organized a crew and started a boat-cleaning business. In his first year, he made $60,000. Becoming more advanced, he learned how to clean under the boats’ hulls, which no one at the docks had previously been able to do. He began cleaning larger boats and then yachts and started a delivery service, taking boats to Mexico for owners who wanted to fly down and sail. His boat-servicing business is now a multimillion-dollar business.
SUMMARY
Once you commit to the fact that you’re an entrepreneur-in-the-making, you should think in ten-year time frames, and move forward when you find your calling. Consider reviewing the list of industries in chapter 8 again, as you may now see them in a different light, and the list may prompt additional ideas.
You might need to keep rereading this book before your light bulb moment comes. I believe you’ll have new and different insights each read through.
Before we move on to taking your leap, please take a few minutes to jot down the thoughts and ideas this chapter has prompted. You should also write the words “I am an entrepreneur-in-the-making” if you believe it. It also wouldn’t hurt to say those words out loud right now.
WORKSHEET
What action can you take in the next seven days to help you have your light bulb moment?
You can download all worksheets and tools at e-leap.com.