In a world of instant gratification, the man who is patient will win. But being patient is not enough. We cant just wait for things to happen. In the micro, we need to be focused on speed. We need to be not afraid to “move fast and break things.” Because its only in breaking things that we will eventually come up with something new, something “big.” This “big thing” will not be an individual moment, but all the series of moments that led up to it. There is no such thing as a overnight success, just a series of days and nights after years of perpetually beating on our craft and ourselves.
Tag: Business
“But will it scale?”
One of the most overused words/questions in business: “But will it scale?” “How do we scale this?”
Don’t get me wrong, its an important question. Big businesses thrive off of economies of scale, how to do bigger things for cheaper, how to grow products/services in a quick and seamless way.
However, in my own life, I feel like it was those things that don’t scale that made the biggest difference. It’s the one off conversations with an alumni which can lead to an internship, a personalized cold email to get to meet a CEO/world leader.
In following the “nontraditional” paths that are not supposed to typically work, or cannot in a grand scale, we have the ability to introduce personalization, expand our creativity, and potentially find new solutions that others will never see.
CIGC
This weekend I consumed one too many beverages and started white-boarding what it means to be an entrepreneur with a friend – we concluded that being an entrepreneur has many forms – a musician, an artist, franchise owner, doctor who owns his own practice, real estate investor, etc. All these products and services offered vary quite drastically, yet it takes a certain type of “personality” in order to 1) decide to do them 2) be good enough to execute
Overall, if I had to give a framework to this “personality” or characteristics, it would be: CIGC
Creativity – Imagination and childlike curiosity in order to dream up a future, better world
Innovation – The ability to take this idea and apply it to the real world, whether that be in a new or evolving market
Grit – Mixture of perseverance and resourcefulness
Charisma – The art of applying empathy and getting others to not only understand your vision, but buy into it and want to be apart of this new future
Can you be a successful entrepreneur or inventor without these 4? Yes, as long as you can bring someone on your team that fills the discrepancy.
Ideas, Events, and People
A quote that has always stuck out to me: “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” (Eleanor Roosevelt) Its unbelievably true how accurate this quote is, and how I have seen it reflected in my own conversations. It’s in the conversations/interactions that I discuss ideas where I feel the most alive, the most willing to take on the world and create change.
Yet this quote falls short in one area. Its not enough to just discuss these ideas, we need to execute. Ironically, it’s the events that take place and the people we meet that usually make that possible.
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