Do you want to start a business?

If you want to start a business not because of money but for the thrill of being an entrepreneur you should start here. Visit http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html. Paul Graham is a genius in his own right and by reading his essays you get an opportunity to dissect his brain and learn from his experiences.

After you finish reading, leave me a comment and let me know what you’ve learned and how your going to apply it. Also, if you can’t find the time to read these essays, then you should think twice about starting your own business.

The power of single tasking

I sometimes find it difficult to focus on a single project at a time. I get pulled in so many different directions that focusing on a single task becomes my only task.

The way I get over this on most days is by breaking all of my projects into individual task and then prioritize them from most to least important. Then I prioritize the overall projects and select no more than five task to accomplish a day. This way I only get important things done. I also add a time estimate to each task so that I can choose task that I have time for.

Understand your market

If you want to start a business where you aren’t necessarily a member of the market, you must do market research via surveys, focus groups, and questionnaires to fully grasp the market.  Once you receive and analyze this feedback, build a prototype and get early adopters to use your product. Make sure that you stay in contact with the early adopters via emails, newsletters, or blog post so that they can continue to communicate with you as you make changes.

How helping has helped me

When I was just a strapping teenage man, my only goal in life was to be a millionaire by the time I reached 30. This pretty much drove every decision I made from going to the Marine Corps to writing music.   It was not because I wanted money, it was because I thought if I had a lot of money I could help as many people in my family as possible.

This was still my goal until four years ago when I realized that I don’t need money to make a difference.  In 2006,  after reading The Secret and a few other books, I changed my goal from having a million dollars to helping a million. I also realized that man’s purpose on earth is to help prolong his species by any means necessary. I feel that for me to not live with any regrets I have to help.

Most of the things that I learn I feel like I’m wronging my fellow man by not sharing my lesson with you.  So when I speak to you about getting your life together or ways to improve on yourself it’s not because you are flawed.  It’s because I believe that if I can help you I am helping me fulfill my own destiny.