Today we are talking about the genesis of my career as an entrepreneur. This Is Where It All Started For Me
This is the exact moment everything started for me. What lessons did I learn? How you can open yourself to endless possibilities? Answers inside…
I wanted to tell you more about this book called “The Four Hour Workweek”.
And before I start, I am not affiliated with the book. I don't get any sales any commissions I'm not paid to say this. It's just a book. I really want to talk about it and you'll understand why. OK. So what’s so special about this book? I know it helped a lot of people and convinced a lot of people to go and try their luck.
Yes so some people say that one teacher can actually change your life and stuff. But you know I was kind of sceptical about a book can changing your life. But it did for me. It did! This book is the book that changed my life. Right. And that's the reason why I want to tell you about it.
So the first thing I got from the book was that there is more than one system. OK. Remember we talked about this in the previous podcast because I was under the assumption that there was one system.
That's the only system we have. I had no idea there was something else. So if you don't know that there is something else then you're not going to pursue it or get interested in it.
But that book basically told me dude you are in one system but that's not the only one. Then there are others out there. And once you notice then you start looking for these other systems. And trust me, your perception of the world changes radically. Then you see the world from a completely different angle. And that's what happened to me.
And this book gave me options and endless possibilities. That’s one thing it gave me. It's a mind-set shift dude. You have options. You're not stuck in the system. There are endless options for you to choose from. OK. That's huge.
Again I know I may be repeating the same thing but you know just because it's important I think that your mind-set is going to change. It's worth way more than actual like skills you have.
So you know maybe if you know how to code but you don't have the right mind set, then it's not gonna work. OK. Because things are going to get difficult. And you might just give up. You may be the most talented coder on the planet but there is a power outage and that's it. You give up.
But if you have the right mind set then nothing could stop you. OK. And that gave me that mind set of “dude you know there are possibilities”
This Is Where It All Started For Me
The second thing I got from the book was “stop delaying your life plans”. OK. I think it's one of the main messages that he wants to convey in there. Stop delaying your life plans because you know again the system that I considered, the only system before is designed to make sure that you work first and then you will enjoy later.
So basically you work and you sacrifice a lot. And then once you're old, then you're going to get a pension and that's when you start traveling. All right. But you know the book said “dude well why would I wait until I'm 60 or something to start traveling?” You never know what can happen.
So this is one thing I got out of it. I was like you “know what? I'm not going to wait until I'm retired because I may be too old and too bitter to do anything.
The next thing I understood from the book was that you don't need to be a millionaire to travel the world. Nothing could be further from the truth. Because you I mean you can travel and I'll give you my example. You can travel around the planet for less than two thousand bucks right. And two thousand bucks is super high end right.
I've seen tickets so I don't know if I if they're like British people here but I've seen tickets that take you around the planet for like seven hundred pounds and I don't know the conversion rate but let's say one point five thousand dollars I guess. So my round the world tour was cheaper than just one return going to Haiti right. So we can stop chasing the millions!
If you're chasing something that seems unattainable for you, then you'll get discouraged. OK. So that was one of the Takeaways I got from the book. The other one was that you don't need to know everything. OK. And this was stopping me and I think is stopping a lot of you guys from starting anything. You don't need to know everything about everything.
So let me give you an example. I suck. I'm not a handyman. I suck. I don't know. I can't put a nail in the wall. I suck. Right. So was I going to start a company like a handyman company. Oh gee I had to learn everything about it. I don't know how to code I don't know how to create business plans. I don't know how to do this and that. And I was like “dude my options are limited to what I know”.
But the book told me that you don't need to do that right. You don't need to know how it's done. Right. You just need to know someone who's willing to do the task for you, for a good price.
And this changes everything. These are your two components you need when you start a business in anything. I can have a gardening company but don’t know the first thing about flowers. But the person who wants the job knows about it. So this is what I was saying in terms of endless possibilities.
So in my opinion, the best skill for me to have, for the life I have right now is to know who to ask! That's the best skill I have right now in my business. And what does that mean? It means that again I told you all my businesses are automated or outsourced. OK.
So in order for me to be able to avoid doing manual, operational stuff, well I need to delegate that task to someone else. It’s paramount for the life that I have.
The next thing I learned from the book was about creating a product. So maybe you’re thinking “I don't have a product. I need to go and create the product”. And this is stopping you. I don't know the first thing about creating a product and stuff like that! And well this is a legitimate limiting belief right. It stopped me for a long time.
But the book told me that you don't need to create your own product. You can find a product that's already been created. And you can just use your expertise to talk about the product. OK. So if you're very good at cricket and you know all the players.
You know this, you know that, etc., and you can explain the strategy and the philosophy and blah blah and basically say everything about it. “I think the best product is this one for X Y reason X Y Z”. So you've demonstrated your knowledge of the cricket world.
And then afterwards you can direct people to a specific product. So try directing them to a product you actually believe in. And that's it! You don't need to go and create your own. So that will help you get started.
So in the end you might want you have your own product as well. But you can start with selling other people's products. And that means you can start tomorrow!
So this book is super powerful. I also think that when I read the book, there were a lot of concepts that I couldn't grasp. And you might have the same thing. Like you read this book and at the time you weren't you weren't ready for some aspects of the book. It was just theory for you. OK.
Because maybe you weren't that advanced in whatever you were doing and at the time you were like “oh yeah sounds interesting but I'll come back to that later”. But a few years later, if you read the book, it’s talking about something that you do every day and you’re like “Oh yeah I do understand now! And I think I need to go and read the book again.
I might go and buy the audio version because now I listen to books more than reading them. But I need to go back to this book because I think there are some hidden gems that at the time I couldn't appreciate, because at the time I didn't know anything about anything.
So that's the reason why I am where I am today. It's because of this book. It's this book that actually changed my mind about everything. The endless possibilities and all that, gave me the courage to go and try!
