Tuesday, March 20, 2018

There's always time for another rock

There's a lie that many entrepreneurs tell themselves. It goes something like this: "If I start 3 businesses, I have a better chance of success."

Nope. This isn't the lottery.

Starting a business is like pushing a rock up a hill. It's exhausting. It's sometimes monotonous. It can be thankless and many entrepreneurs end up depressed, broken and disappointed. The solution that often seems appealing is to get more rocks.

But it's a lie. Pushing four rocks up a hill doesn't give you a better chance. It actually decreases your chance of getting any of the rocks up the hill because as soon you make progress, another one rolls back down the hill. And when that rock hits the bottom, you stop what you're doing and start pushing that rock.

But it's not just businesses. It's volunteering at 5 places so you can make a "bigger" impact when maybe you need to go deep in just one place. It's wearing 3 hats at work instead of just wearing one really well.

Pick a rock and push it to the top. There's always time later to go get another rock.