Entrepreneur Lounge - Entrepreneurship Discussion

The Emperor's Lounge
#1

I am creating this post in hopes of creating a community Thread for Entrepreneurs on SubClub that want to dicuss their wins, loses, frustrations. I blame Ecstasy of Gold and StarkQ for this thread.

I currently have no one really in my friends or family that care at all about entrepreneurship and sometimes scoff at it or think that you are greedy for carving your own path. Its seems we are our own breed. Hopefully we can create discussions to help drive insights and help each other figure out the messy road that is entrepreneurship. No need to give out details on your specific business.

I have been searching for my own business since college and dumped thousands into many failed ideas that never had a chance, but each failure taught me something new. I finally found a sustainable idea and created an LLC to become official. Since industry minimums are really high for my product, I am working on building demand through social media for my product so that I can create a successful Kickstarter campaign.

What are your biggest roads blocks? What are your best wins?

I hope this helps someone out who feels they are alone in this endeavor. Entrepreneurship can be a pretty lonely road.

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#2

For years, people were talking behind my back about how I’m just a dreamer, get nothing done. Basically laughing at me and what I talk about. Even my closest friends.

As it turns out, it’s me who is having the last laugh.

But the thing is, I’m not bitter. Nor do I blame them. Because the things would have sounded absurd to me too if I was them. And till just recently, I was failing.

I just didn’t give up.

Now the people who matter are all accepting that I wasn’t full of shit. And they are happy for me. And I freely offer my help to anyone of them, to get to where I am. They’ll have to do the work themselves, but I can help them avoid the pitfalls.

The ones who cannot admit they are wrong, or who are just jealous. Well, they can go f*ck themselves :wink: .

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#3

I totally relate brother.
My parents used to tell me how its good to “have dreams” but its better to be employed, as if being an entrepenuer is a foreign thing only few can do.

i don’t blame them since that’s the mentality they grew up with.

only after reading poor dad rich dad, the millionair fastlane and Unscripted i realized it is just how society tend to program people to be ok with trading their time for money , hence being a wage slave.

I am still far from my goals but i know for a fact that only by sheer determination, strong work ethics and faith, you can achieve ANYTHING you want. Guarenteed.

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#4

@Hoppa it awesome to hear your journey from dreamer to it becoming your existence. I often say I am too stubborn to give up on what I want in life. I can see my new reality very clearly especially compared to when I decided to create my desired lifestyle. Hopefully my persistence will pay off. Its s great feeling though to have a product that solves a problem in s good market even if I am struggling to fund it.

I have great support, but deep down they keep seeing failure after failure and they just don’t want to hear about it anymore even though they claim to want to know what I am up to. But when push comes to shove they just care about results. Our society doesn’t seem to care about the process then bitch about lack of results and wonder why even though the process is flawed.

I have learned to embrace being called a dreamer. As Tyrion in Game of Thrones says, “Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you.”

Has anyone stepped in front of a camera? How do you build up your confidence so you don’t look terrified.

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#5

Hell NO!

You do know that every photo and video of you eats a part of your soul, right? :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m too introverted to do that. At least for now. And I don’t need to. On purpose, I’m not the face of the business even if I am the majority owner. My sister is.

I’ve delegated everything that feels even close to work to everyone else :wink: .

I do what I do best, dream up the possibilities. Team makes them happen.

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#6

I can do what I can do, because of the all the years I “wasted”.

I built an understanding of all the possibilities in marketing. I’ve been studying about marketing and building a business now for way over a decade.

That’s why I can give confidently a direction to my business.

There were times when everyone in my family were ready to give up. It’s a family business. But I kept on going.

I had been able to buy an apartment. I sold it to fund my studies in marketing.

I basically had nothing left. Then I finally started succeeding. And here we are.

There were countless of times when I fought with my father because he did not understand why I was wasting time. Now I can see tears forming in his eyes every time he talks to other people how I made all this happen.

DO NOT GIVE UP. That’s all I can say.

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#7

This statement really helps! Something I will probably keep going back to.

Has anyone used skillshare? Is it worth the monthly amount? I keep seeing ads for it.

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#8

My biggest entrepreneur tip? Get the notion of “working two hours a day, then sipping on gin with a couple of friends for the rest of the day” out of your mind. Yes, I’m sure eventually you’ll get to that point. When you start out, you will hustle. A LOT. To exhaustion. To passing out on the bed. To your friends, family and romantic partners being agitated because you don’t have time to interact with them like you want. You will work your ass off and you’ll enjoy it, because you’re building equity in your own life and not anyone elses.

Now, of course there are times when you can sit back and chill. I decided to take a three day weekend and sit back and just sleep yesterday. But, that doesn’t happen too often. In fact, @Fire and I both decided that we gotta stop working so hard on weekends, since we’re burning ourselves out. But that’s the life of an entrepreneur.

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#9

That sounds vaguely familiar

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#10

Just don’t ask about cliffs

Somehow I don’t see that changing ever

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#11

Me neither. I don’t see any need for that.

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#12

The introversion may not change, but the activities with which you’re comfortable and in which you’re interested will probably evolve continually as they always have.

Thank you so much for sharing these inspiring snapshots from your mind and your experiences. They’re pretty breathtaking.

I’ve bookmarked this thread and will hopefully come back to it to keep gaining nutrition.

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#13

Today my mind was kicking and screaming that it didn’t want to work on my business. I felt depressed and blocked. I worked out for an hour to avoid it, then did dishes to avoid it. Finally I forced myself to turn my computer on. The ideas began to trickle until one thing led to another. More ideas were created and scrapped. I finally had discussions with my wife here and there throughout the night until we came up with a game plan.

Sometimes you need to just let your mind kick and scream while you drag it to do things you don’t want to do and it becomes happy that you did those things after the fact. If only my resistance wasn’t so strong life would be easier. Today was a fight.

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#14

I think this comes naturally once you found your purpose.

Working 8 hours on something you don’t like: draining
Working 16 hours on something you truly enjoy: enlivening

I can’t explain it but it is what I noticed.

I work every single free minute I have on my purpose and it feels amazing every time I do. In fact, I hate when I cannot work on it.

This has an unhealthy component to it and you are doing it right in taking breaks. I should take more of them…

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#15

I always had the yearning and the drive to start my own business and make money. When my parents came to the UK they were invited to work in the factories but when they closed down and their jobs were outsourced to China. They were left to sink or swim with no assistance from the goverment at the time. The goverment at the time labelled us at the time ethnics. WTF ??.

Just because at one time we were ruled by the british empire does not make us slaves to them now.

My parents lived in a single room mother worked a part time job father worked a full time job whilst studying part time. They were left to struggle and make ends meet. My father did finally open his own grocery business. Things got better but i hated the way they were treated and the way i was treated.

I said to myself one day that i am worth more then my weight in gold. Fuck these people who treat myself and family like migrants. We are no know different from any other human being on this planet.

Cut along story short i am no longer a slave to the system. They pay me substantial amounts of money on my terms.

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