The Path of the Entrepreneur
All great products and services first start out as an idea. These ideas can formulate in a boardroom, amongst two friends talking, or while one is taking a shower. Ideas are somewhat sporadic in nature as they seldom can be forced and can arrive in the least expected situations. Regardless of their origination point, whatever success you enjoy in business will be the result of an idea.
So the natural starting point for any new entrepreneur is coming up with an idea for a new business, product, or service. For the new entrepreneur, it is highly probable that you already have at least one, perhaps numerous, ideas that you believe will be successful. So what are the first steps to take once you decide to start making your idea a reality? As action starts to give ideas form, ideas head down one of three paths. Choosing the correct path can be the determining factor on how you spend your time, and whether your dreams become fulfilled.
Path #1 – The Super Highway to Nowhere
This path might also be named A Dime a Dozen. This path is a 26-lane superhighway in which the traffic barely moves. For most ideas, this path serves as not only the starting point but, unfortunately, the final destination as the drivers of these ideas never find one of the numerous off-ramps available.
It is not that all of the ideas on this path are bad, as some are remarkable. Ideas that if the proper planning and execution occurred would improve companies, change individuals’ lives, and alter the marketplace due to the idea’s dynamic nature and innovative properties associated with it. The common denominator for ideas on this path is inaction. This inaction is sometimes caused by fear of failure, sometimes by lack of drive, and sometimes to being stalled by minute details. Regardless of the causal forces that prevent the idea from progressing, the plain and simple fact is that ideas stall on this path because nothing is done.
Do not allow yourself to be one of the numerous drivers of ideas on this path. Develop a commitment to excellence. Develop a commitment to be unlike others. Visualize your idea for a business as a reality and take the steps necessary to make it so. Avoiding this path is easy if you simply take the necessary steps each day to move your idea forward.
Path #2 – The Never Ending Mountain Climb
This path has far fewer people as individuals that journey down this path have put their plan into action and started down an entrepreneurial path. Unlike the stalled superhighway, there is movement on this path—however, each step forward tends to be like a steep mountain hike that never ends. Every inch forward tends to take a tremendous amount of personal effort only to have the next step require an equal amount of effort. The self-employed and certain types of business owners are the most common travelers down this path.
Some might argue that this type of journey is far superior to working for someone else. Given that these are your only two choices, I would have to agree. Working for yourself brings with it a level of satisfaction and accomplishment that working for someone else never brings. However, if ideas at the start of this path are properly analyzed, tweaked, or abandoned for superior ideas, then the same amount of effort that you would be spend traveling down this path can yield far greater results elsewhere.
The simplest and most surefire way to accomplish this is to analyze your idea in the context of the Rich Dad philosophy. Rich Dad Poor Dad and Cash Flow Quadrant: Rich Dad’s Guide to Financial Freedom are two books in the Rich Dad collection that contain ample material in which to perform this analysis. Even if you have read them numerous times, reread them again with a singular objective. Take your idea for a business and read them solely with your idea in mind. You may find that your idea doesn’t fit the wealth-building principles laid out in the Rich Dad philosophy. It’s not that the idea can’t work on some level, just that it lacks the upside to be more than a self-created job or a business that requires long hours for limited potential. Perhaps the idea just needs a tweak to increase its potential, or perhaps the idea is limited in its capacity to build wealth and you need to scrap it. An honest reading of the Rich Dad material with your idea in mind should help you make this determination.
If you have what it takes to successfully journey down this path, then you are only selling yourself short by not starting your journey on the correct philosophical foundation. No one can teach you hard work, drive, and determination. If you have these admirable traits and combine them with the right idea, then your potential for wealth building, not just creating an income, increases dramatically.
Path #3 – The Rich Dad Path
Those that venture down this path will journey to places few ever reach. They are committed to action and have ideas that are thoroughly analyzed and can succeed on levels that few ideas even dare to dream about. The business plans prepared for these ideas not only thoroughly prepare the individual for the journey ahead, but dazzle would-be investors in their thoroughness and potential. (For a comprehensive look at developing a winning business plan, please visit richdadeducationblog.com and read The Business Plan which ran last year.)
The journey down this path is not necessarily smooth as few great journeys are without their potential road blocks. There is the old saying that if it were easy everyone would do it. But the traits that the type of individual has that enable them to succeed on the mountain climb help increase the chances of success here, with a lot bigger upside.
To start down this path, take the idea you have and apply the Rich Dad philosophy to it in order to analyze its potential. Once this has occurred, develop a professional and thorough business plan that outlines not only the steps you need to take, but is also prepared for investors in case additional capital is required. Once the determination is made that you can proceed forward with your own ingenuity or that the proper capital has been acquired, make the commitment to action. Be relentless in this commitment as many business plans languish on the super highway to nowhere.
I hope to find you on the Rich Dad path to success and wealth building.