This week’s question comes from Bobby, who asks, “I’m having trouble staying motivated in my side hustle. I hope for it to be my primary source of income eventually, but I can see that will take a lot of time and effort. I’m trying to do more networking with other entrepreneurs and side hustler, but without any real wins, I’m having a hard time connecting. How do I find my first five people that I am supposed to be the average of?”
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No slight to Jim Rohn, but it was easy to say, “We are the average of the five people we spend the most time with.” It was also easy to sell as a concept. If you want to improve your standing, spend more time with people who are living and working as you wish to live eventually.
Except there is a flaw in the statement itself. Being the average of the five people you spend the most time becomes a scare tactic to keep away currently low achieving people who would be bringing down the average.
Then there is the over taught mindset never to be the smartest person in the room. Taken on face value, this turns out to be horrible advice, as high achieving people are often intelligent and extremely accomplished people. When they enter a room, they are usually the smartest people in the room by default.
The problem with a person selling you services by using maxims like these is that they are selling you something that should be obvious, but the people they target or often oblivious on to the sales tactics being used against them and are usually so desperate for a win that they readily accept good sounding garbage advice.
As a person who does my services using good sounding advice, I do my best to make sure it is not garbage, so I am not going to answer your question with the cliches that are usually tossed to people to convince them to keep trying.
But I am going to say, “Keep trying.”
Keep trying to tighten up you side hustle so that the processes become streamlined and straightforward. This will help you operate without losing your mind, and get closer to consistent sales.
Keep trying to connect with other business people, both established and up and coming. You will find that the better lessons come from stories of failure, and working around people who are currently working through failures is better than a case study. You might even be able to help other entrepreneurs get over the hump, which will endear you to others as you both continue to rise.
And a bit of an inside hit o myself: the reason why I bring up my many failures is that they helped me become what I am in the way of success. And one thing I am continually working to improve, and usually failing at, is in making connections. I am horrible at networking and even worse at asking for help from the right people.
This may not be the most cheerful advice I’ve ever given, but it’s probably the most real. You need failures as a businessperson to learn the limits to what you can accomplish. We collectively need to see more failures so that we remember that the majority of business do fail. You can pick whatever statistic you want to quote, but the odds are always against the average guy n the street taking an idea to success.
Assuming you are one of the average guys, congratulations on taking the leap of faith that you can beat the odds, and I hope you do. I also hope you keep trying to find those guys and gals who are ready and willing to run with you in your side hustle. They will become your first board of advisors and will know exactly where you are coming from. Don’t be afraid to be the man bringing down the average, for now. You’ll get caught up pretty quickly.
This Week’s Business Questions Asked Here: Who is in your ‘personal’ board of advisors? (answer in the comments)
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