The Misguided Mavericks of Business

Entrepreneurs are humans, too. We’re just more committed and fierce with our poor judgments.

It’s as if we have a certain fondness for "miss-es" - misappropriations, misjudgments, miscalculations…

Naturally, these instances are higher for green entrepreneurs, but one pervasive “miss” involves what we emphasize - and overemphasize - in our businesses. These lead to chronic distraction, inefficiencies, and generally "unproductive failure."

There’s plenty of sources of these lovely byproducts elsewhere - let me help screen them where I can.

Here they are in all their glory, what us entrepreneurs inflate to our detriment thanks to our unwavering dedication to “The Grind:”

1. What It Takes To Get Started - Don't overcomplicate the complexity of the launch process or claim to be "industry agnostic." It’s best to start grassroots.
2. Fabricated Obstacles - Stop making excuses and stop subscribing to a made-up order of operations. Embrace the uncertainty.
3. Our Confidence - Don't puff your self-importance with white lies. It's just a map of your insecurities.
4. Feedback From Your Inner Circle - Don’t forget to contextualize the advice you get from your allies.
5. “The Lifestyle” - This is overvalued in two ways: the superficial signals of success, and the burnout that is glorified and disguised as necessary sacrifices. Nothing is worth the expense of your mental and physical health.

Pay attention to what you’re paying attention to. If it’s anything other than 1.) providing the highest standard of value efficiently, 2.) sustainably, and 3.) aligned with your purpose, it's time to course correct.

You'll save your energy to fuss about something else ??

Overhyping "Curtain-Warmers"

The English language fundamentally lacks sufficient vocabulary to describe important concepts.

We don’t have a word for “the beauty in imperfections,” but in Japanese it’s “Wabi-Sabi.”? And there’s no term for “persevering through adversity,” but the Finnish use “Sisu.”

We don’t have a word for the clusterf*ck that we experience when starting something new. Specific to entrepreneurship, we're talking unease, blowing-out-of-proportion and fun defense mechanisms. We're talking what kicks in when we're faced with something as high stakes, risky and close to the heart (ego) as starting a new business.

“Curtain warmers” is a phrase that is kinda close, but misses the mark - a theater industry term for the lights that illuminate on the curtains before a show, intended to create a sense of anticipation for the audience before the play begins.? But in this context, it causes anxiety for US as the founders.

So, I propose the word "Wabisisu” a combo of the root words and meaning of Wabi-Sabi + Sisu. With this word, we embrace the beauty in imperfections (wabi-sabi) and perseverance through the tough times (sisu), and leave the negative connotations behind:

• Perfectionism
• The need to do Everything, Everywhere, All-At-Once
• Spreading ourselves too thin
• Biting off more than we can chew.

The antidote to the bad parts of? “wabisisu” is simple: break things into executable steps, bootstrap, and get scrappy.?

Don't overestimate the scale of launch platforms or try to appeal to everyone.

Focus on solving a problem for a small group of people and let word of mouth do the rest. Some of the world's most successful companies started grassroots, and so can you. Don't overcomplicate things and remember, if you can overcome the trap of Wabisisu, you can then focus on conquering all the other things your brain has made up to further delay you.

Fabricated Obstacles

Whether it be a subconscious defense to our fears, or plain naivety, us entrepreneurs like to invent roadblocks and use them as excuses for inertia at any given time - not just at the beginning.

These pitfalls take on infinite forms, as many as a given founder can drum up.

We entrepreneurs are a creative bunch, but sometimes we like to make life harder for ourselves by finding crutches to avoid forward movement.

Building and growing a business is not linear, it's multidimensional. And that's where the problem lies: we make excuses out of fear of uncertainty. We like to think we're in control, but the truth is, we're just distracting ourselves from making strides that actually matter and stress-testing for actual problems that will stop business activities.

Take websites for instance. People put way too much emphasis on site components, when in reality, less than 10% of people make it to the bottom of the homepage. So, why slam the brakes for something inconsequential? If the developer hasn't made the minor updates requested, the copywriter hasn't submitted copy for the footer, or one URL isn't redirecting properly - follow up, then move on.

Instead of fabricating obstacles to halt progress, we should be triaging each "obstacle" before diagnosing it as a true barrier. We should be asking:?

• What is the priority level of the element in question??
• Will customers actually be affected or even notice??
• Is the element in question time-sensitive??
• Are people left unable to do their jobs??
• Does it genuinely prevent anything else from being done? Or is it just your ego needing to do things in a made-up sequence??
• Can it be bootstrapped?

If it's a true showstopper, then it's all hands on deck. Otherwise, check yourself and your motivations. Maybe meditate on them.?

False Markers Of Confidence

This one is a little more cringey because it’s 100% about our egos concerned about appearances. We fall into exaggerating our qualifications and success, in hopes of impressing others and strengthening our reputation. But let's call a spade a spade, these "white lies" are just a blueprint of our insecurities. And that's not the blueprint to follow.

Green entrepreneurs, in particular, cling to what I like to call "vanity indicators." These are shallow markers of expertise and success, displayed with the intention of making us appear "bigger" than we really are.

Vanity indicators include things like number of employees, office space, number of clients, years of experience, and inflated revenue. They can be outright exaggerations or more subtle, like claiming to have left something "at the office" when you don't have an office or talking about consulting with your "team" when it's just an outsourced VA.

The truth is, these claims are driven by fear that no one will work with us if they knew the truth. It's a "fake it till you make it" mentality, but the problem is, we're focusing on the wrong things to "fake."?

Instead, we should invest in the powerful signals of our expertise, like hard-hitting client case studies and testimonials, robust SOPs, sharp front-facing assets, consistent and reliable communication, and displaying thought-leadership in our channels.

The moves we make, intentionally or not, to puff up our businesses may seem harmless, but they add up. Let's direct our spotlight on our true talents and proficiency, instead of buying more cheap spotlights.

Heeding Advice

Think twice before taking advice. Especially with your closest allies.

Contrary to what you might think, interpreting feedback from people is actually about self-awareness. It’s about what you hear, digest, contextualize (or don’t), and internalize. And self-awareness gets more challenging when that feedback is coming from people whose opinions you value the most.?

We naturally put a lot of trust and weight in them, but the uncomfortable fact is that we should be inspecting the process of absorbing advice from our inner circle more carefully.

First things first, let's be clear: this isn't to say that our inner circle doesn't have our best interests at heart or that they give bad advice. However, it's crucial to filter their feedback for three things: differences in experience, unrestrained loving support, and jealous, misleading support.

The main pitfall here is failing to consider the person's perspective. They might be accomplished entrepreneurs, your mentors even. But they are biased by their own experiences, such as being in a different industry, encountering serendipitous circumstances, or being out of touch with your audience. People are limited by their stories and it's not their fault - we all have only one life to reference.

Yes our "ride or dies" are invaluable assets. We should simmer in these relationships, but we need to see them for what it is: fuel, not sage. Feedback can be derailing, whether deflating or boosting. And sometimes, jealousy might sneak past your intuition (however unwelcome or unexpected) and can take advantage of your trust with the intentions of harming your continued success.

So, don't be afraid to ask for feedback, take it all in. But be thoughtful about what you do with it. Trust yourself and your gut, and always keep in mind the context.

The Lifestyle

Oh, “The Lifestyle.” AKA, “The Grind." This is an all-time qualifier for the list of things entrepreneurs overemphasize.?

Every industry has its celebrities that won’t let you forget what The Grind can do for YOU! The cars, the travel. The humble brags. They’ve become the norm to signify that you've “made it.”?

We all know the ostentatious shows all over social media - pictures of laptops on tropical beaches, Lamborghinis in the background of selfies, and constant talk about "The Grind." Well, it's time to call out the elephant in the room: "The Lifestyle" is nothing but a false token of fulfillment and a trap that many entrepreneurs fall into.

It's time to stop falling for the trap. Let's focus on what truly matters and rebrand "The Lifestyle" for what it is: a decoy.

First of all, let's address the flashy displays of "success." There's no causation between these and actual success. And correlation only exists because people beat the association into our collective psyche. The displays themselves don’t mean shit.?

Take an expensive car, for instance. At best, people are brainwashed into thinking they need to drive one to be taken seriously, and at worst they tie their identity to it. It’s just sad - because it doesn’t take a six figure income to buy a Porsche, it takes risky financing and a flare for drama and reaction. Even those who own them outright, are probably doing it for appearances whether they know it or not.

Even some people that know and work with me often ask why I haven’t upgraded my trusty Nissan, to look more “legit.” I remind them that I have been driving it since before THEY decided I was the mf-ing best partner for them.

I’ll leave with this fun example: my friend's uncle was Orville Redenbacher’s accountant, net worth tens of millions of dollars. He ate ham sandwiches every day for decades and rented a tiny apartment in Tampa until the day he died.

I think I’ve made my point here about the superficiality of embracing “The Lifestyle. A more dangerous part of it to cling to and normalize is "The Grind."?

Many entrepreneurs with a podium glorify burnout and make it seem like it's a necessary part of the journey to success. The truth is, it’s avoidable and not to be reckoned with. Some of those same successful people who have experienced burnout, either hide it or try to rationalize it and normalize the fallout, instead of addressing it head-on.

It’s almost hazing, but its most certainly denial and disingenuine. It paints them as “stronger” and maybe even inaccessible to maintain their authority and credibility.?

But nothing is worth your physical and mental health, and good news is burnout is NOT a rite of passage.

The last toxic part about internalizing “The Lifestyle” is the more subtle, nuanced and insidious:? the romanticized public narrative of "The Lifestyle." You know, those memes of "self-employed friends on a Tuesday,” the preachy-preachy "living in the moment" and "booking the flight" messages. While they aren’t inherently wrong,? the execution is misleading. The focus is on publishing the story, not building it. It's nothing but bragging with an inspirational veil.

Sharing these stories has their place, but it's not to weave a persona for ego validation, to be an “influencer.”. YES these stories provide something to aspire to, but it's going to be your version, and you don’t have to scream it to the world for it to be true.

It's time to put an end to this skewed “idyllic” lifestyle and start a movement to get back in touch with what really matters: building a successful business, not just bolstering a framework for ego validation.

Roundup

It’s time to full-stop distractions that hold us back from reaching our true potential as entrepreneurs. From overcomplicating the process of getting started, to inventing obstacles and getting caught up in appearances along the way, these distractions only serve to waste our time and energy. And let's not forget about the allure of "The Lifestyle" and "The Grind", which can lead to burnout and a false sense of fulfillment.

By simply acknowledging these tendencies, you’ll begin rewiring your brain to shake off these harmful default settings. We can protect ourselves from unproductive cycles. Let's zero-in on the musts, contextualize feedback from our inner circle, and ditch the smoke and mirrors. Keep your eye on the prize and let's make some real progress.