Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

Certainty vs. Real World Entrepreneurship
I just got an email from Google AdWords guru Perry Marshall in which he told an entertaining story about a homework assignment he received in college.

The professor assigned a problem that was utterly unsolvable -- unless you compared notes with other students, asked advice from other professors, and eventually found your way to some obscure computer program on some obscure computer in the depths of some obscure research lab way across campus.

The next day, Perry really let the prof have it. How dare that professor give them a problem without first telling them how to solve it. The professor shrugged Perry off.

It took years of real-world experience before Perry finally realized that that assignment had had a more important point to it than just returning the correct answer. The professor was teaching them an important lesson about life.

Perry puts it this way:

"The good news is: Business is an OPEN BOOK test where nobody tells you which book you might happen to need today.

"All you know is: The more things you've seen and the more books you have at your fingertips, the faster you can solve the problem, run through the maze, ring the bell and get the cheese...

"In the Dilbert Cube and the classroom, they give you 100% of the answers in advance and they expect you to do 100% of what they tell you to do. If you do it correctly, you get a grade of 100%...

"In the entrepreneurial world, you get maybe 30% of the answers in advance. And because you assume from the outset that only one third of the things you try are going to work, you need to do 300% of what you're told to do."

If you like everything neatly defined for you, maybe entrepreneurship is not where you want to be.

When you start your own business, you leave behind the certainty you had as an employee. I'm not talking just about the guaranteed paycheck and benefits, though.

When you start your own business, nobody is responsible for giving you all the answers in advance. Finding the answers even when you don't know where to start is your job now.

When you're an employee, someone else takes responsibility for making sure you have the resources you need. Someone else takes responsibility for figuring out what you need to do and when you need to have it done to keep everyone's work flowing smoothly. Someone else ventures out to deal with all the uncertainties that you never even become aware of.

That person takes the risk. That person tackles the unknown. That's why the person at the top gets paid the big bucks.

When you start your own business, YOU are that person. That means taking responsibilities you never dreamed of as an employee. Are you ready for that role?
Jeff


P.S. Thought-provoking emails like the one from which I took just a small snippet are part of the reason I belong to Perry Marshall's Renaissance Club. If you're ready to take building an entrepreneur's mindset seriously, I encourage you to check it out.

As a member, you receive Perry's classic Definitive Guide to Google AdWords, no-holds-barred emails on all sorts of topics related to entrepreneurship, a top-flight monthly newsletter, and a WHOLE PILE of resources on all phases of building businesses.

If what he said connected with you at all, check out Perry's Renaissance Club. He's always good for giving a clear view of life outside what he calls "the Dilbert Cube."

Labels: entrepreneurship, mindset, Perry Marshall, personal growth, start business