ARE YOU DONE BEING BROKE?

Every time I have the opportunity to speak on business and entrepreneurship development especially in the midst of young people, I am always approached by participants after my session who want me to motivate them and coach them on how to become a successful entrepreneur in Nigeria.

While that in itself is good (in fact I really love to help people), the problem is in the fact that 80% of those who approach me are not really ready to do what it takes to really launch out. In fact, it is amazing to see that majority of them needs just a little push and they will be fine. Yet, they find it hard to let the ‘little push’ come forth.

One of such cases still happened few days ago (which really prompted me to write this) when I was invited by a youth-based organisation to train their members during a retreat on Entrepreneurship and we had to talk about ‘Digital Marketing‘.

During the training, I divided the participants into 6 groups and had each group present me an idea and I would show them how to develop a digital marketing strategy for it to really make huge sales. Trust me, these guys really came up with fantastic business ideas and we worked together to develop high profit-making digital marketing strategies that work for them group by group and they were all amazed.

They were surprised about the great opportunities embedded in the various gadgets they all carry (in terms of phones, laptops, tablets and so on) and how that could help them succeed as young entrepreneurs.

As I was being escorted towards my vehicle after the session, several of these guys approached me for one advice or the other and that’s fine. However, one that is relevant to our discussion today was the dude that told me – sir, I loved all the ideas and strategies you shared with us and I really wish I could just implement them immediately.

Then I said – Fine, go ahead and implement them and let me know if you have any issue. And he said again – Sir, that is not the issue. The problem is that I don’t have a phone that can browse. Then, I was like – Wow! Just try and get a cheap android phone. This is a paid retreat, if you can pay to be here, you can save to buy a small android phone too.

In fact, you can always borrow one each time you need to go online for your business and log out when you are done. I told him further but of course, that did not sound really practical to him. He just thanked me, promised to get back to me and left.

While driving back to my base, I kept thinking about this guy and so many other young people like him. I kept thinking of when I used to be like that too thinking I had not enough of what it takes to do what I needed to do to achieve greatness as an entrepreneur and how I feel so sad now each time I remember that because it really delayed me from getting things done and achieving some of my business and life goals.

YOU VS. YOUR INERTIA

Both the concept of ‘inertia’ and the Newton’s first law of motion (also known as the law of inertia) in physics are really applicable to this discussion. The concept of inertia simply mean – the resistance of any physical object to any change in its position and state of motion – while the first law of motion states that – an object at rest will stay at rest and an object in motion will stay in motion with the same speed and direction unless acted upon by an external force.

Hahahaha…do you see that! You can call ‘inertia’ the ‘comfort zone’. Everyone likes their comfort zone and they want to remain there. Meanwhile, according to Neale Donald Walshc (an American author of the series – Conversations with God), Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

[bctt tweet=”No one ever gets anything meaningful done staying in their comfort zone. You got to move, move and move!” username=”planbbiz”]

Also, the Newton’s first law of motion takes it further that of course, you can enjoy your comfort zone for as long as you like until an external force – which could be in form of debt, children school fees, house rent, sickness, expenses and so on – start to act on you. Do you get the point? Yeah, that is the only language we understand. We move only when something is pursuing us or we are pursuing something…it is funny but that is the truth.

Everyone has the battle of ‘inertia’ to fight in order to get the work done. When I say ‘the work’, I mean what you need to do to get your business venture (whether online or offline) rolling and start succeeding with it or what you need to do to achieve your financial goal in life (whatever it is). The only difference is just that while some have strong courage to overcome their inertia, majority of the others don’t. They can’t just get anything done.

Even if you drop money on the floor for them to pick, they can’t pick it. While that might sound funny, that is the interpretation when you show people money-making opportunities and they just can’t catch the vision. They are not done yet being broke!

Here is the message to you my friend;

[bctt tweet=”Are you aware of your inertia (what is holding you back)? How strong is it? What are you doing to get rid of it? How soon can you get rid of it?” username=”planbbiz”]

Those are the important questions you need to answer to really get something done for (and in) your life. Now, take a paper and pen and make a list of everything that’s holding you back from making the money you desire to make, starting the business you desire to start, living the life you desire to live, doing that thing you know that when you do will change your life and so on.

Then, I will tell you one little secret that will help you achieve whatever you set out to do. Before then, let me share with you how I was able to overcome my own inertia when I was starting out and every time I fail and have to start over again.

Sometime in 2007, I was under a paid employment but was making so much lower than my financial responsibility required then. So, I started some side hustles (as we call it) trying my hands on a lot of things. Also, I started nursing the idea of being on my own by starting my own business.

I wrote my business plan, had the details all written down but wont just start anything. That went on for several months until the gap between my earnings and my financial responsibilities became so wide and I couldn’t take it any longer. Then, I had to find a way to overcome my inertia by force.

You see,

[bctt tweet=”most people waste a lot of time thinking, analysing, strategising and planning out what we want to do but always lack the courage to really do them.” username=”planbbiz”]

We hide our lack of courage/fear of unknown under excuses and sayings such as – I am busy for now, I will do it next week, I don’t have this, I don’t have that, who will buy from me, I can’t speak good english, I don’t have a laptop, I don’t have an android phone, I don’t have shoes and good clothes and so on and on.

Each time someone approaches me and they bring up any of the excuses above or something similar after a conversation, I just know in my mind that they are not just ready yet. The power of the inertia they are battling with is still greater than their desire to leave their comfort zone, get shit done and achieve greatness financially!

THE MONSTER CALLED PERFECTION

Another similar inertia and even a greater one that holds a lot of people back and keeps them broke is the idea of ‘perfection’.

I have had my own fair share of this monster too. Wanting to achieve perfection before launching something is nothing but a kind of ‘fear of unknown’. Do not get me wrong, I am not saying you should be in hurry to launch something inferior or shabby. My point is in not overdoing it.

[bctt tweet=”Wanting to attain perfection most times always lead to procrastination and procrastination leads to nothing but failure. ” username=”planbbiz”]

If you are really serious, your goal will be to just strive for progress and not perfection.

For example, you have something great to offer the world and you think of launching a blog. However, you are not a professional web designer and you do not have money to hire one. Meanwhile, you have the message burning inside of you and you are a very good writer.

In fact, each time you see people sharing the kind of message you have in mind to share, those people become stars and highly respected people in the society over time. You desire that too but your inertia is standing on your way.

Now, let’s assume you take a step to overcome your inertia by going online to learn how to design a blog and you try it out. Gbam, it worked. You have a blog that’s about to launch and you can’t wait to start sharing your thoughts wth the world. So, one day, just before launching, you decided to check the blog of another guy who is doing something similar to you only to find out that the blog is so beautiful, so professionally crafted and sophisticated as against yours that can’t stand side-by-side with it in the quality of design.

Now, you are discouraged to launch. You want your blog to be that beautiful too so that people will start seeing you as a professional immediately. So, you set out on this journey to making your blog beautiful only to realise that 2-3 years down the line, you still do not have any blog launched. Hehehehe, my friend, when are you going to be done being broke?

If I may ask you, do you really think the other guy started his blog being beautiful like that too? No! He started from somewhere.

Fine, you have been able to overcome one phase of the inertia but the other phase just got you off your goal. Now, you are back to square 1 after wasting all the time, resources and energy. At the end of the day, whether beautiful or ugly, you still do not have a blog. Your inertia has won again!

If this resonates with you my friend, there is a way out and that is what has helped me overtime now to always overcome my inertia. It is not bad to encounter some failures when starting out. If I tell you I did not fail, I will be lying to you.

I used to wait for crises to happen before I get my ass together and get shit done. I used to wait for debt before doing what I have to do. I used to wait for my financial responsibilities and expenses to pile up before I sit up. But today, I know better.

THE WAY OUT

What do I do now? I JUST DO IT! Yeah, that’s the secret. I just act!

[bctt tweet=”Action is the antidote for procrastination. While procrastination is the recipe for failure.” username=”planbbiz”]

Whether you are fully ready or not, just act. I am not saying you should act blindly but do not waste too much time thinking, analysing and planning. If you waste too much time on that, procrastination will set in and that’s the end.

Read the stories of the richest people in the world and even the richest people in Nigeria, they are people that have taken and are still taking advantage of opportunities at the right time.

They act when others spend all the time analysing and planning. Analysing and planing is good but if care is not taken, you will always get to the party when the jolof rice and meat would have finished. I don’t want that! I want my jolof served hot with fried meat – meaning, I act at the right time.

In collusion, check your life and identify what is holding you back from moving on. From starting that business, writing/reading that book, going for that course, launching that product, calling that person, saying yes to that offer/opportunity and every other thing that is stopping you.

You need to take action now and just do it. Fear fears and hates action.

Once you take action, your fear will disappear and the confidence needed will come. Do not be afraid to start small and scale up. It will be tough but consistent actions from you will keep you in the game and your success is just around the corner. When you do this, that’s when you will stop being broke!

Now, let’s discuss using the comment box below; when do you want to be done being broke? What is it that you want to achieve and what is holding you back? Perhaps, I will have one or two ideas to share with you on that.

If you have gained anything from this post, do not hesitate to share it with others.