Day 21/21 My Final 9 Bullets

Can you believe it? I’ve put out a post every day for the past 21 days!

I really hope you got some value along the way.

This series was also a quiet launch of my weekly newsletter: Bold Entrepreneur. I’m really passionate about all things entrepreneurship and especially growing and scaling a personal brand online.

From next week, I will continue to share my thoughts on the same, but once a week and only to those who’ve subscribed or opted-in here. https://bold-entrepreneur.beehiiv.com

On to my final #21daysofentrepreneurship installment.

I summarize my thoughts in 10 ideas that have kept me on track throughout my journey: the ups and downs, the highs and lows.

Here goes:

1. Don’t take yourself (too) seriously.

You are NOT your career. It can end at any time. You can lose it all in an instant. But by all means, take your craft seriously. Be deadly serious and get very good at it. No excuses.

2. Skill without passion is hard.

For an entrepreneur, passion is EVERYTHING.

• Passion is also contagious. Whatever project you are working on, if you’re not passionate about it you cannot expect other people to care on your behalf. Don’t bother to ‘fake it till you make it’. People only care, because you care.
• Don’t create work that you think others will like. Don’t chase followers either. FOCUS on the content YOU like, and the followers will come. For example, I am passionate about Mindset, Personal Development, Spirituality, Entrepreneurship and living a Fierrrce and authentic life aka my best life. I can talk about these things all day, likes or no likes.

3. Don’t be realistic.

Successful entrepreneur's world over, are known to be unconventional, charting their own paths, setting their own records and breaking new and invisible ceilings. Do you think the leaders of Dubai were realistic?

Set big, lofty dreams and ensure they are your dreams. Some of you are chasing other people’s dreams, because you believe, or someone told you they are more realistic and practical than your own. You have already failed - just like the many failed quail entrepreneurs in Kenya in 2014.

4. Don’t be a quitter.

A prolific Japanese writer and poet Yukia Mushima, commenting about his writing wrote: “Why do we conceive the desire to give expression to things that cannot be said-and sometimes succeed? Such success is a phenomenon that occurs when a subtle arrangement of words excites the reader's imagination to an extreme degree; at that moment, author and reader become accomplices in a crime of the imagination."

In short, become relentless at whatever you pursue. Of course, it helps if you chose the right thing to be relentless about.

5. Don’t (over) think.

When you think too much you rationalize everything, which sparks FEAR. Entrepreneurship and fear aren’t good bed mates.

Thinking often attracts application of logic. Logic stifles creativity.

6. Be obsessed.

If you forget about your business while you’re away from it, this may not be a good sign. If you’re not obsessed enough about your ‘passion’, that it keeps you up at night it’s easy to become that entrepreneur, who’s only driven by money. If you’re only driven by income, what happens when the income disappears?

That feeling of obsession should never go off.

7. Iteration is a part of the journey.

You may start doing one thing today but end up doing 10 different things over a period of 10 years. This is OK.

While in the job marketplace, moving from one job to another in a short span would appear flaky or unserious - ask any entrepreneur out there. Few of us rarely ever do one thing or stay within one industry throughout our journey.

Maybe we start in web development and then we niche down to apps dev and then we get even more niche specific, creating supply chain apps for the agribusiness industry. Entrepreneurship can sometimes look like schizophrenia.

8. Don’t create rules to fit in. Be YOU.

Rules only direct you towards average behavior. If you really want to build exceptional brands or things, rules can’t always apply. Think Elon Musk. Find your edge and then keep hammering at it, a bajillion times until it starts to speak to your audiences, your way. Your uniqueness is what will differentiate you, and eventually separate you from the pack.

9. Just DO it.

Yes, just start. Just finish it. Write that blog. Publish it. Record that podcast. Share it.

Funny story. It’s only over the past 21 days that I have actually been crystallizing some ideas around my brand that I’ve been thinking about for the past 5 years! Remember my point #5 on (over) thinking? I’ve been in my head for 5 years.

This is me urging you not to punish your future self, because regret isn’t a good face.

#21daysofentrepreneurship