“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”
– Chinese Proverb
Why you aren’t making money
Three months ago someone emailed me asking for advice on starting a blog. I sent them some pointers and went back to doing my own thing.
During the next 90 days I grew traffic on my own website, started a few new side projects, and continued working with a handful of business clients.
A few days ago I got another email from the same guy who’d wanted help. Over the past 90 days he hadn’t even launched his blog and yet he wanted more advice.
This might sound like I’m being a bully and picking on one person, but it happens almost every month. I get swamped with people who are always going to do something. Yet they never actually take that first step to get started.
The best business advice I can give you
Get up and start doing something.
Sitting on your hands and speculating about some theoretical business will get you nowhere.
The worst blog on Earth is still better than being empty-handed. The reason why you aren’t making money is because you haven’t even tried.
You can upgrade and tweak your business once you get it running. You can’t make up for all the time you wasted sitting on your hands. I’d rather spend a week fixing mistakes while I got paid than waste seven days pondering my future business ideas without earning a thing.
Great products trump everything else
Last week I wrote a post with a major typo in the headline. It was about making $2,000 before November 31st. There are only 30 days in the month, so I was going to look stupid.
Do you know how many people picked up on this glaring error (that was right in the headline)?
Two readers and my mom.
That’s it. Less than 1% of the people who saw that post picked up on the issue.
The content was engaging enough that the typo went undetected. And, while you should always correct your work, things like this are fairly common occurrences.
Most people aren’t operating with a dream team that never falters and doesn’t make mistakes.
Do more before 7 A.M. than most people will do all week
Before the sun was out this morning I had already applied for two writing jobs, finished up a project, and written 1,500 words for my upcoming eBook. And I haven’t even had my protein rich breakfast yet.
Meanwhile, there are a hundred thousand wantrepreneurs who will wake up at noon, read one Tim Ferriss post, and then loaf around all day. On Monday morning they’ll head back to the cubicle farm wondering why they aren’t financially successful yet.
If you want to make money and be your own boss, stop wasting time. Go make a business that fails. Then start over and try again.
You’ll get more from an afternoon of real experience than you will from a weekend of reading business theory blogs.