A quick word about: Motivation

"I just wish I could motivate him to pay more attention"

"I wish I was motivated to workout more"

"I'm going to motivate these people to meet their sales goals"

"This motivational speaker is going to help me move forward in my business"



You may have heard or said every single one of these statements in one way or another.

They are all wrong.

People motivate themselves to do something that they value or they don't do it at all.

Of course, you can manipulate, threaten, guilt, or coerce someone into doing something for a short time period. This is a losing game though. If you have to constantly be "motivating" someone to do something, you will not be able to accomplish the things that you need to do.

Now let's talk about you.

You are only going to do what you are motivated to do.

That motivation may come from several places: desire to achieve, guilt, responsibility to family, or personal drive.

These are the things that you value. They drive your motivation. If you don't value something, you will not be motivated to do it.

Here's an 30 second excercise: Write down one thing that you value. Now ask yourself why you value that thing. Is it in line with what you say that you want?

Bonus question: If that thing that you value isn't in line with what you do, what are you going to do about it?

I'll give you the answer to the bonus question: You will either make an excuse (too busy, too tired, etc.) as to why your actions don't align with your values or you will make a change.

No one can "motivate" you to change. You will either choose to change or continue to make excuses.

Pittfalls: I'm terrible at trying to do to much. I'm very good at organizing and being efficient, which allows me to try and jam more things in my day. This is a mistake. It's a mistake that I am working towards making less and less. Be a relentless editor of your To Do list. Say no to things if they do not align with your values.

If you only read one thing on this blog, read this post.

Preface: I wrote this on a whim. I may edit it. Resist the urge to criticize the core of it. You mind will insist on making excuses. Stop it.

There is a dangerous thought that people entertain when they think about starting a business. More business "starters" believe that there is some magic bullet or specific business that they will cause customers to race to their business and throw money at them.

There is no silver bullet.

I'm serious. Stop trying to be so smart.

And I know what you are thinking right now....yeah, but so and so started suchandsuch.com and they were an overnight sensation and sold their business to Facebook for a billion dollars.

They were lucky and they may or may not have known what they were doing. They were lucky that what they did caught on and people liked it and Facebook bought it.

You will not be that person.

And that's ok. You can still be successful if you take these actions below.

They are boring and they work. You will have to do them for a long time and eventually you will see results.

1. Stop trying to come up with an idea. All of your ideas will fail. Instead, look for a problem that people will pay to fix. When you see a problem, write it down. When you see a problem, figure out who is having that problem (30 year old single men that play disc golf on Saturdays) and what would solve their problem (they need a disc golf organizer on wheels for Saturdays).

2. Take that list of problems and figure out if your target market will pay you money to solve that problem. Make a cardboard prototype of your disc golf organizer on wheels (hint: buy an used golf bag cart from a thrift store/garage sale/craigslist. Figure out about how much this solution will

3. Take deposits or pre-sell. Ask customers to pay you for the solution you came up with and promise that you will make it for them.

4. Make the item. Get feedback from your pre-sells, make improvements, and continue marketing to the group with the problem.

Side Note: Real results takes real work. Make a product people want and will pay to make. Promote this product tirelessly. Look for additional related problems that you can solve. Repeat the cycle. 

Epilogue: If you are not following the steps above you are relying on luck and best guesses. Best guesses are most useful when you have some evidence to back it up with as in other businesses are doing the same thing or a customer is willing to give you money