CheatCodes: Dealing with external doubt, How to pick the right idea, and the truth about procrastination

How to deal with external doubt

"When someone tells you it can't be done, it is a reflection of their limits, not yours."

Those who tell you that goals are impossible do so because to them, it is impossible.

But that doesn't mean the same applies to you.

They're a completely different person to you - how do they know what is impossible for you?

Be brave enough to set bold targets and start the journey, even if the task itself looks daunting.

Most will tell you it's not possible, then when you do it anyway they'll say "I always knew you'd do it."

Ignore them. Focus on you.

A framework for picking the right business ideas:

It’s possible to play the business game on easy mode.

One of the frequent mistakes I see first-time entrepreneurs make is picking hard business ideas.

A key feature of a hard business idea is that you have to convince the consumer rather than guide them.

Convincing the customer often means that you have to plead with them to show your solution is worthy of their budget.

Convincing typically means you have a new product and the customer has to find budget for it.

They have to stop spending on something else or even worse, they have to find money from their savings to buy your product.

The better thing to do would be to pick an idea where people are already spending to solve a problem.

And you are just GUIDING them towards your solution.

One example of this is Quickbooks - the tax planning company which is now a $170 billion business

People already had budget for paying their accountant to do their taxes.

Then QuickBooks entered and just said “we’re cheaper and faster” and they GUIDED people away from using accountants to their software.

On the other hand, a bad idea is something where there isn’t already a budget.

For example, I recently got pitched on an SMS platform for twitch streamers.

This is a bad idea because twitch streamers aren’t paying for an alternative SMS solution.

In fact most of them don’t even have email lists so a phone number solution is so far out of the equation.

One way to avoid this problem is to identify if there are at least 3 other things that your customer pays for to solve the problem.

That tells you that there is an existing budget for your solution and shows you what you need to demonstrate to be better than the competition

Without that, you face a lot of resistance from customers, because you’re trying something too different.

And this requires more time + money which in most cases, at the beginning you don’t have.

The truth about procrastination

Make it stand out

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

​This is from "You become what you think about" by Vic Johnson.

Truth is, procrastination is inevitable.

Everyone does it, no matter how intensely focused you are on efficiency and productivity.

So, understanding what procrastination really is, why you do it, and how it affects your work is a critical step in time management and effective productivity.

For me, I decided to schedule procrastination time in my calendar.

I know I'm going to do it anyway, so if I set aside "unproductive time" it allows me to hyperfocus during my "productive time."

Simple really, but it works incredibly well.

Keep Winning!

Timo