I’ve started and run a business for most of my adult life.
I have two observations and lessons I’ve learnt, that are seemingly related:
- You don’t need to try too hard
- Listen to your energy
Here are some raw, unedited thoughts.
I’ve started ventures and found that often the ones I don’t put as much effort into, seem to do better. It’s almost, as if, me putting more effort into something might be pushing success away. Like the timeless story of the lover who is too keen, which pushes the love away. Also, perhaps, starting something that doesn’t need much of my energy, is a sign that it has something special about it. I need to explore this more, and think about it more.
There is a quote I read somewhere that said:
“The more you think, the less you have to work”
And I’ve been reading the book “The Master Key” which is probably the inspiration for the classic book: “Think and Grow Rich”. It has encouraged me to think more about every issue, and looking at ways to be smarter, rather than just digging in to solve it. My time, energy, and effort, is a valuable resource, that I need to conserve and protect, so I can develop, and grow, and live, and that is how it is supposed to be. I am not supposed to be working on something quite mundane and unneccessary.
I’ve also reflected and believe that without proper planning and consideration, as I grow the business it can become more and more challenging to run. Complexities and issues come at a cost that can be solved easily in advance.
For example, by planning everything out in my business, I can consider different eventualities and make the best decisions in advance.
A good car doesn’t need much work to operate. There is something beautiful about a simple well oiled machine that just works, and a business should be the same. In that way, a business becomes a machine that runs itself and an asset that can grow.
That is a sure sign that it is providing value to the market, and some of the value can be paid back to investors for that investment.
If a business needs constant attention, and fixing, then, just like a car, there is something fundamentally wrong. The machine or systems are somehow broken. A car is trying to climb a tree. Does it have the right people and strategy? Is it creating or capturing enough value in the marketplace? This is a big mindset shift.
It’s really all about developing this mindset. To one of:
– Thinking before doing
– Simplifying
– Building the business that works without intervention
– Systems, People, Incentives
One of the biggest things I’ve learnt is that every challenge presented by life gives you a lesson that you need to learn otherwise the challenge will continue or repeat itself. That’s why I think being an entrepreneur in the middle of an evolving market is the closest thing we have to the ruthless competitive forces of nature and it gives you the best exposure to these kind of lessons so that you can grow and evolve.
This is what I think the meaning of life is: to evolve and become better.
Listening to your energy is another powerful idea. Our feelings, emotions, and our body has some higher level of intelligence from millions of years of evolution that works in a different way to our logical reasoning. When you feel drained by work and it feels like a slog, it is usually because your body knows that you are putting in more effort than you are getting back. There is something fundamentally wrong if this is happening. Sometimes you can put in more effort than you are getting for some time, but your body usually knows that it can expect a payout at a specific date, for example if you are building a house. But sometimes if you are just going round in circles playing wack-a-mole, your body intuitively can feel this and knows before you know it on a rational level.
On a personal level, I have recognised recently that whilst developing my business I have been playing wack-a-mole of tackling these three issues, which is the trifecta of service businesses:
– 1) Customer Acquisition – ensuring there are a flow of new customers
– 2) Operations
– 3) Cash flow
(These are the three problems that businesses need to solve as they grow.) As you grow to each level, you need to solve the other two in the trifecta. They are all related in some way. As you get more customers, you need to solve the operations and provide a good service for them. You also need to ensure there is enough cash to provide a good service to them, and that the business can scale as it grows. You also can’t spend too long on one without solving the others, or else the business starts to bottleneck or shrink.
I have recently come to the conclusion that I have been going round solving these three problems repeatedly, and, although becoming much better at doing so, but in some sense, I feel I have been getting better at whacking moles when I could have been eliminating them.
Raising investment, for example, would permanently solve the cash flow issue and allow growth to a huge level, and eliminate one of the trifecta, to solve the other two, for a while. But this just delays the inevitable solving the underlying model. Eliminating 80% of customers who are not profitable, is one way to solve the operations and cash flow. Building an incredible offer that is unique and differentiated in the market, raising prices, and focusing on the 20% of customers, is one way to solve all three of those problems.
Back to the thoughts about energy and how it relates to activities.
On the other side, there are some activities that draw you towards it and on an intuitive level, and that is because you either love it, you are uniquely good at it, or there is either some growth or pay-off there. This could be some work that really excites you because there is an opportunity there, or it helps to develop your talents to the next level.
There is a difference between shiny object syndrome, and a direction of genuine opportunity and growth, and this is where wisdom and thought takes over. But these feelings are feelings, they should be just one indicator on the dashboard of for your rational mind.
Now to a seemingly unrelated thought but about education
I feel like my understanding of the world was not really in line with reality and it has taken me a while to learn how the world really works. I have developed my mindset and ability to think to a much higher level now that I am older throught he process of reading, and experimentation, massive effort, and rest and reflection. Compared to when I was at school, but I wonder if I could have just learnt and developed these lessons while at school? So that I would be 5-10 years ahead, and at a time when my energy was at it’s peak.
I believe so, and I think it would really benefit the world if education could be improved at a younger age so that people are more equipped to deal with the real world as it really is.
For example, if you try ideas and make stuff happen, what are the constraints and limits? What makes people buy and sell things? Would it not be possible for children and education to help you learn how the world works. I think people should have more exposure to the forces of the market at a younger age, because children are effectively brought up in a socialist system and this hampens their development.
There is also one thing I really don’t understand about the world we live in, and that is,
1) It is well established from history that capitalism is the most efficient way of allocating resources
2) the wealth of the west was created during a highly, almost completely, capitalist society
3) democracy erodes capitalism – because people vote for their own interests
4) therefore democracies become more socialist over time
Markets reveal truth and challenges forge growth.
The secret isn’t to push harder—it’s to listen closer.
To understand.
I’ve learned that a business, like life, thrives when it runs on its own momentum, from raw energy and powered by intentional thought.
But I see now we’re raising generations blind to this, cushioned from the forces that built our wealth.
If we taught kids to feel the market’s pulse rather than the meaningless hierarchies of social media and dynamics from a socialist system guided by a teacher who probably has no market experience, listening to social media stars, and following a centralised curriculum.
We need to let children be free to really build, fail, and adapt—they’d not just survive reality; they’d have the skills to launch our world into the new dynamic digital era.
Capitalism’s engine hums loudest when we stop and think and start understanding it.
We need to unleash it.
