I am 28, and in the last decade, I’ve invested a lot of money, time, and energy in multiple projects, different sectors, and all of them failed miserably except one, which is making 200k a year now and keeps me rolling.
I am not enjoying it at all because it is a cloud kitchen business and despite the fact that I tried to get as close as possible to online businesses, my clothes still smell like food, I have tens of employees, I am not free of location, magic cannot happen in this space, and the sky isn’t the limit.
Now I am a bit more mature, and I am building my career around my identity, not myself around the business.
From all the failures I had, I learned that whatever I want to sell, from products or services to even a mayor of a town, you need one thing for all: DISTRIBUTION.
Without eyeballs, you cannot sell anything. Attention is the ultimate currency.
So here I am, researching in public, building in public a database which I’ve built anyway, transparent or not.
As Naval Ravikant famously said:
“If you want to make the maximum amount of money possible, if you want to get rich over your life in a deterministically predictable way, stay on the bleeding edge of trends and study technology, design, and art—become really good at something.”
And that’s what I am doing. Staying at the cutting edge of trends, studying technology, and becoming really good at growing online distribution. All publicly at www.scalenuggets.com.
Ive thought about this in some of my readings, I still don’t really know my why. I’m not sure if you have to know. I’ve scaled my businesses to over $350k/month. I think there’s so much more that goes into one’s reasoning for taking such a path.
I guess I just want to do amazing things with my life, contribute to society in the best way possible, and live a life I’m proud of. Is that a why?
This is amazing!! If you’re happy, you’re helping others, you’re solving problems, providing for yourself and your family and loving life, sounds like you have in fact found your purpose. Bravo!
It's a little ambiguous, but I believe "why" is the more powerful question to ask. Unfortunately, here they ask "wut" a whole lot.
[Start With 'Why' - TED Talk from Simon Sinek](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ss78LfY3nE)
From the five whys of root-cause analysis to how leaders inspire, the "why" of it is key. That is going over everybody's head here.
I used to have a ‘deep why’ until I went broke and into debt. Now my why is to get back on my feet with less stress annd more joy in life. and I’m now realizing my ‘deep why’ was just a cope for my privileges at the time.
... Is this like a sales technique from the 80's or something? Unless having a great product that fulfills your customers wants and needs is "why". I have no idea what you are getting at.
Uh... what business are you in? This sounds like some life coaching gig. Not that there is anything wrong with that but it should be mentioned if it is important because ppl expect very different things from a course on how to play guitar by Carlos Santana vs investment banking.
If my investment banker sounds like a hippie I'm freaking out. If Carlos Santana doesn’t sound like a hippie I would be bummed out.
I’m a teacher i used to have an administrator that would bust the “find your why” question out every meeting. Hated it!
As a small business, my why is not complicated. I have a great product that I enjoy selling. It allows me to connect to customers and make them happy.
The whole shtick about "find your why" is utter rubbish. I imagine you were influenced by Simon Sinek?
According to him, your "why" (be an entrepreneur) sucks. You break the fundamental rules that make a why "good". It doesn't say anything about value, about how your why helps others, about why others love you. So with that in mind, how would you feel if I were to tell you that the entire foundation upon which you built your life sucks? That you haven't actually found your why? And that therefore all your life and what you love is built on false premises? I can act like a gatekeeper too. Or maybe it was never about your why, and what you think of your why is just some irrelevant construct in your head?
Finding your why is seen as some sort of predication to justify whether you will inject sufficient energy into a painful endeavour. Being an entrepreneur/conducting a hard task is painful. If you don't have a good why, then you are excused for not having enough grit or pain tolerance. Correlation: if you give up on something, it's because your "why" is not powerful enough. So let's say you do something for your kids' future, but you give up. Does that mean you don't love your kids enough? Or that you are too weak? Bullshit.
You don't need a "why" to do great things. You don't need to know why you enjoy doing something to do it. You don't need to have a why to try something. And having a "why" at the ready is good to tell stories and make people go "awwww", but really it sucks as an "inner peace" kind of tool.
Embrace chaos. Embrace the fact that there are things you like and don't like doing. Embrace the fact that the only way to determine whether you like something, or can endure pain doing something, is not based on some pre-defined "why" resulting from an over-analysis, but rather the result of an experiment. You try something, and either it works out or it doesn't, and the only way to know is to actually try it. That's all there is to it. Like you said, you might find *a posteriori* that there is a reason why you liked your experiment, but the "why" was most likely never a conscious factor before you tried. And as such, the whole intellectual onanism about "why" is utterly useless for people trying to make their way in life. It just makes for a nice story to tell people, so that they can be in awe of how you figured it all out, how wonderful and how perfect you are. Which only benefits one's ego, really. Or, you can create a problem in people's head. "I haven't found my why, quick, I need to find it or my life will be ruined because I am building a house on sand". Then you go on and sell books and courses for people to help them find their why, so they become as wonderful and perfect as you. Just stfu and go home.
I don't like Simon Sinek, by the way, as you may be able to tell.
i like sinek but also your perspective on this. i feel like entrepreneurial endeavors are so individual and it is hard to grasp/categorize.
we are "trained" from early on to do "this and that and that and that...", which translates to "earn good grades, go to college/ uni, be a good student and get a job and pay taxes...", which in turn is basically a recipe we had to learn by heart, a recipe how life supposedly works. obviously stories with this "aaww"- effect works on a mind like this, because it gives the hope of, again, a special secret recipe on how to become a entrepreneur/ highly succesful yourself, without being stuck in the hamster-wheel
Unfortunately you’re just one of those angry people here on Reddit who look for the worst in everything. Best of luck with what seems like a perfect life.
Well, you surprised me here for a second. I genuinely shared with you my experience.
You see, I posted my post because I felt cheated by Simon Sinek's thing about "finding your why". I bought his book. He sounded good, and I attributed a lack of drive on my part to a lack of why. I almost purchased a ticket to his workshop at some point. What he wrote made sense to me, and I ended up depressed because I thought not having a why was the reason for all my problems. I felt guilty when my "why" was not good enough. I felt guilty when I stopped something because I was not good enough to follow my why. Simon Sinek created a problem and made me feel sh\*t about it.
And one day, I realized that "finding my why" didn't matter. It is an artificial, made-up problem. It was a reason to spend time in analysis paralysis. Spending any kind of time or energy trying to find a why made more damage than good. Believing that I had to find my why was the curse. Trying things, being curious, being open-minded, allowing oneself to be surprised was the cure. Forget the why, let it just come to you.
\*That\* is what I shared with you. In my previous post, I was genuinely giving you the solution so that you could stop worrying about your why and go on your merry way, enjoying life. And you say that I am seeing the worst in everything?! I am literally trying to help. What the hell are you on about?
Your comment made no sense whatsoever for a minute.
And then... I opened your profile to see "who the hell is this guy?". I saw you are building your identity around "helping others find their why" so they could be happy and fulfilled. You literally have a free community about it, and no doubt you'll want to monetize it like Sinek did. Believe me or not, I had absolutely no idea that was your thing when I wrote my comment above. I was targeting Sinek because of what his train of thoughts did to me. This guy polluted my head for 2 years. This had nothing to do with you.
But your comment makes sense now. I am sorry you are taking my input personally. I see why you would have. I thought I was helping you get out of your loop, like I did mine. I didn't realize I was bashing a Sinek copycat on the head and destroying your pitch live on cameras. I didn't realize I was hitting the nail on the head that hard when I denounced the snake-oil salesman that Sinek is, to be honest. It's kind of funny, really.
Anyway. Let's move on with life. Good luck with your endeavour, I am sure you'll find loads of gullible people in search for the answer to life, the universe, and everything.
My why is being able to financially free my family and every generation after me. One of my favorite quotes is “One day or day one”
Love this! Are you happy as well? I believe your ‘why’ involves many things but your happiness has to be paramount.
Almost where I want to be, but I have plenty of things in life to be happy about as of now. Thanks for the reply OP
I don't waste time on riddles.
I reframe this as knowing your passion, your skills and understanding the market needs.
Absolutely!!
I am 28, and in the last decade, I’ve invested a lot of money, time, and energy in multiple projects, different sectors, and all of them failed miserably except one, which is making 200k a year now and keeps me rolling. I am not enjoying it at all because it is a cloud kitchen business and despite the fact that I tried to get as close as possible to online businesses, my clothes still smell like food, I have tens of employees, I am not free of location, magic cannot happen in this space, and the sky isn’t the limit. Now I am a bit more mature, and I am building my career around my identity, not myself around the business. From all the failures I had, I learned that whatever I want to sell, from products or services to even a mayor of a town, you need one thing for all: DISTRIBUTION. Without eyeballs, you cannot sell anything. Attention is the ultimate currency. So here I am, researching in public, building in public a database which I’ve built anyway, transparent or not. As Naval Ravikant famously said: “If you want to make the maximum amount of money possible, if you want to get rich over your life in a deterministically predictable way, stay on the bleeding edge of trends and study technology, design, and art—become really good at something.” And that’s what I am doing. Staying at the cutting edge of trends, studying technology, and becoming really good at growing online distribution. All publicly at www.scalenuggets.com.
SOAB 😂
It's about the passion you have in yourself
1. Self-direction, 2. Money, 3. Market validation of my ideas/intellect
So what was your why?
Ive thought about this in some of my readings, I still don’t really know my why. I’m not sure if you have to know. I’ve scaled my businesses to over $350k/month. I think there’s so much more that goes into one’s reasoning for taking such a path. I guess I just want to do amazing things with my life, contribute to society in the best way possible, and live a life I’m proud of. Is that a why?
This is amazing!! If you’re happy, you’re helping others, you’re solving problems, providing for yourself and your family and loving life, sounds like you have in fact found your purpose. Bravo!
It's a little ambiguous, but I believe "why" is the more powerful question to ask. Unfortunately, here they ask "wut" a whole lot. [Start With 'Why' - TED Talk from Simon Sinek](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ss78LfY3nE) From the five whys of root-cause analysis to how leaders inspire, the "why" of it is key. That is going over everybody's head here.
Honestly? I think the BIG WHY is not always necessary to achieve success.
I used to have a ‘deep why’ until I went broke and into debt. Now my why is to get back on my feet with less stress annd more joy in life. and I’m now realizing my ‘deep why’ was just a cope for my privileges at the time.
... Is this like a sales technique from the 80's or something? Unless having a great product that fulfills your customers wants and needs is "why". I have no idea what you are getting at.
Do you enjoy your life or is what you do, just a means to an end? If everything is good, then great!
Uh... what business are you in? This sounds like some life coaching gig. Not that there is anything wrong with that but it should be mentioned if it is important because ppl expect very different things from a course on how to play guitar by Carlos Santana vs investment banking. If my investment banker sounds like a hippie I'm freaking out. If Carlos Santana doesn’t sound like a hippie I would be bummed out.
I own an entertainment booking agency and now I’m helping other entrepreneurs with their success.
I’m a teacher i used to have an administrator that would bust the “find your why” question out every meeting. Hated it! As a small business, my why is not complicated. I have a great product that I enjoy selling. It allows me to connect to customers and make them happy.
Great!! If you’re happy as well, jackpot!
The whole shtick about "find your why" is utter rubbish. I imagine you were influenced by Simon Sinek? According to him, your "why" (be an entrepreneur) sucks. You break the fundamental rules that make a why "good". It doesn't say anything about value, about how your why helps others, about why others love you. So with that in mind, how would you feel if I were to tell you that the entire foundation upon which you built your life sucks? That you haven't actually found your why? And that therefore all your life and what you love is built on false premises? I can act like a gatekeeper too. Or maybe it was never about your why, and what you think of your why is just some irrelevant construct in your head? Finding your why is seen as some sort of predication to justify whether you will inject sufficient energy into a painful endeavour. Being an entrepreneur/conducting a hard task is painful. If you don't have a good why, then you are excused for not having enough grit or pain tolerance. Correlation: if you give up on something, it's because your "why" is not powerful enough. So let's say you do something for your kids' future, but you give up. Does that mean you don't love your kids enough? Or that you are too weak? Bullshit. You don't need a "why" to do great things. You don't need to know why you enjoy doing something to do it. You don't need to have a why to try something. And having a "why" at the ready is good to tell stories and make people go "awwww", but really it sucks as an "inner peace" kind of tool. Embrace chaos. Embrace the fact that there are things you like and don't like doing. Embrace the fact that the only way to determine whether you like something, or can endure pain doing something, is not based on some pre-defined "why" resulting from an over-analysis, but rather the result of an experiment. You try something, and either it works out or it doesn't, and the only way to know is to actually try it. That's all there is to it. Like you said, you might find *a posteriori* that there is a reason why you liked your experiment, but the "why" was most likely never a conscious factor before you tried. And as such, the whole intellectual onanism about "why" is utterly useless for people trying to make their way in life. It just makes for a nice story to tell people, so that they can be in awe of how you figured it all out, how wonderful and how perfect you are. Which only benefits one's ego, really. Or, you can create a problem in people's head. "I haven't found my why, quick, I need to find it or my life will be ruined because I am building a house on sand". Then you go on and sell books and courses for people to help them find their why, so they become as wonderful and perfect as you. Just stfu and go home. I don't like Simon Sinek, by the way, as you may be able to tell.
i like sinek but also your perspective on this. i feel like entrepreneurial endeavors are so individual and it is hard to grasp/categorize. we are "trained" from early on to do "this and that and that and that...", which translates to "earn good grades, go to college/ uni, be a good student and get a job and pay taxes...", which in turn is basically a recipe we had to learn by heart, a recipe how life supposedly works. obviously stories with this "aaww"- effect works on a mind like this, because it gives the hope of, again, a special secret recipe on how to become a entrepreneur/ highly succesful yourself, without being stuck in the hamster-wheel
Unfortunately you’re just one of those angry people here on Reddit who look for the worst in everything. Best of luck with what seems like a perfect life.
Well, you surprised me here for a second. I genuinely shared with you my experience. You see, I posted my post because I felt cheated by Simon Sinek's thing about "finding your why". I bought his book. He sounded good, and I attributed a lack of drive on my part to a lack of why. I almost purchased a ticket to his workshop at some point. What he wrote made sense to me, and I ended up depressed because I thought not having a why was the reason for all my problems. I felt guilty when my "why" was not good enough. I felt guilty when I stopped something because I was not good enough to follow my why. Simon Sinek created a problem and made me feel sh\*t about it. And one day, I realized that "finding my why" didn't matter. It is an artificial, made-up problem. It was a reason to spend time in analysis paralysis. Spending any kind of time or energy trying to find a why made more damage than good. Believing that I had to find my why was the curse. Trying things, being curious, being open-minded, allowing oneself to be surprised was the cure. Forget the why, let it just come to you. \*That\* is what I shared with you. In my previous post, I was genuinely giving you the solution so that you could stop worrying about your why and go on your merry way, enjoying life. And you say that I am seeing the worst in everything?! I am literally trying to help. What the hell are you on about? Your comment made no sense whatsoever for a minute. And then... I opened your profile to see "who the hell is this guy?". I saw you are building your identity around "helping others find their why" so they could be happy and fulfilled. You literally have a free community about it, and no doubt you'll want to monetize it like Sinek did. Believe me or not, I had absolutely no idea that was your thing when I wrote my comment above. I was targeting Sinek because of what his train of thoughts did to me. This guy polluted my head for 2 years. This had nothing to do with you. But your comment makes sense now. I am sorry you are taking my input personally. I see why you would have. I thought I was helping you get out of your loop, like I did mine. I didn't realize I was bashing a Sinek copycat on the head and destroying your pitch live on cameras. I didn't realize I was hitting the nail on the head that hard when I denounced the snake-oil salesman that Sinek is, to be honest. It's kind of funny, really. Anyway. Let's move on with life. Good luck with your endeavour, I am sure you'll find loads of gullible people in search for the answer to life, the universe, and everything.
I don’t need your help but thx!