Mindset is one of the ten obstacles that we need to master in order to succeed in business as an entrepreneur, particularly a technology entrepreneur, when you’re on your journey from taking your invention to a successful exit. Today I want to talk to you about focus in the light of all this negativity that’s in the news and what’s happening in the world. It’s easy to get discouraged, its easy look at all the nonsense and all the economic inefficiencies if you want to call, that economic misallocation of resources if you want to call it that, stupidity if you want to call it that. There is something I just want to tell you about folks, focus is what determines your future.
Focus, I think that is a Tony Robbins thing, focus on the negative we’re going to get negative. If you focus on opportunity and progress and personal growth for your business, that’s the direction you’re inevitably going to go if you stick to it. It’s so easy to get caught up in the negative of what’s going on in the world. There are so many people hurting and there’s so much unnecessary pain going on, but look, I believe that the solution, the problem solvers, the door kickers, the people who are actually going to help heal the economy which is what’s going to determine how the quality of our lives generally in this society the healers are the entrepreneurs, the tech entrepreneurs that make the products, that solve the problems, that make people’s lives better, so we need you tech entrepreneurs to not focus on the negative. Focus on the positive opportunities, the positive energy that keeps you going, because look there’s this concept, as I understand it, the four turnings.
Good people make strong people, and strong people make strong good times. Good times make weak people, and weak people make bad times, and bad times make strong people. I think that we’re right in that third or fourth turning where weak people quite honestly are populating leadership and there are just too many forces that are just taking us and dragging us into bad times, but that’s okay because in every bad time there are fortunes made. I’m not saying we should profit from this. I’m saying that there are people that are just killing it in business right now and they’ve had more business than they could shake a stick at. There is opportunity out there and lots of it, but it’s just obscured by a lot of darkness, negative energy and all sorts of confusion.
This is my call today to the entrepreneurs on your journey from your invention to your hopefully successful exit is to focus on the positive because even though were in this spiraling down cycle now, they always come back. Look at history After the Civil war, that eventually led to what was not great, there was a lot of anxiety, a lot of darkness, and a lot of horrible things. After that cycle, there was the industrial revolution, Henry Ford, and all the productivity there, so a lot of invention and innovation coming up at that time. Then there was WWI, very stressful with lots of anxiety, but then there was the roaring 20’s, then there was the great depression, and then there was the run up to WWII. After WWII there was a big economic boom with lots of prosperity, wealth creation, and lots of good economic indicators.
The tech entrepreneurs played a massive role in that because tech entrepreneurs do what they do? When you’re successful you not only are successful for yourself but look at all the good you do in the world. Your employees and their families have jobs, your suppliers’ families have jobs, and not to mention all the good and value all your customers, because of the products and services that you sell, that you’ve invented, and you’ve sold, you’re profiting from, and they’re profiting from you’re inventions, your services, and your business. That builds the economy.
The tech entrepreneurs are that sliver, that less than 1% of the crazies that can get those 10 things lined up. Those 10 obstacles are skills factor systems processes that need to be set up in order to succeed in business. That’s something that most people cannot do, so we cannot let our technology entrepreneurs get discouraged and focus on negativity. That negative energy has got to go guys.
We have got to keep our focus and we’ve got to maintain our focus on the opportunity. It’s absolutely there. If you’re not seeing it, I want this to encourage you to press on. If you can prosper, if you can at least survive and keep your business and make it strong, solid, and lean in this difficult economic scene that we’re in, what is going to happen when the cycle turns. The four turnings. It always goes around in a circle because bad times make strong people. When that time comes around again and history says that it will, because it repeats, then you’re going to be so far ahead because you’ve been building your foundation, your fortress, your business, and your process has worked out, and if you’re able to survive through the hard times, you’re already way out of the gate if your new entrants come into the market and try to compete with you because you’ve already established a relationship. you’ve already solved the 10 problems and they are just getting started. You’re way ahead and that’s when you can really position for massive scaling. I’m here to do what I can to build a community and to provide support to technology entrepreneurs for these 10 obstacles.
I want to encourage you to keep the belief in what you started and build something great, even though there’s all these negative messages, you have to be aware of them. We’re not being anti-intellectual here, in our eyes, but our focus and our energy needs to be put into our building and growing because of all the good it’s going to do in our world, for yourself, your family, and everyone else that you touch.
