Your Fears Will Wallop You
Only think about how you’ll make a living and/or how you’ll pay the overhead needed to do the work you want to do after you’ve spent time being creative.
You have to keep a roof over your head, keep the lights on and keep food in your belly! You may already have employees or investors to consider. In some ways, money is all you think about when you think about starting a business, running a campaign or developing a community initiative.
With that said, here is my thought for the day: during the period of time that you are brainstorming, creating, and/or flushing out the idea, try not to focus on money while you are working out the details of your business, non-profit, or program.
Yes, eventually you have to add money to the equation, however spend a brainstorming session (or two) just flushing out the idea.
I highly encourage you to focus on the idea for a select period of time for a few reasons:
- You may not want to earn money doing the work you are meant to do. I know this may be surprising, but some people want to do what they love without earning a living doing it. I like to question our clients on this on occasion, because some people take on this philosophy, not because they have no interest in making money from their work, but because they don’t see themselves (or their work) as valuable.
- If you focus on your idea while you obsess over how you’ll make money, the creative juices will either slow down to a painful drip or stop all together. I can attest to this fact in ways i won’t talk about here. Let’s just say it is better when you create, plan, then consider logistics, in that order.
- Money is a result, not a solution. What i mean by this is even if you had all the money in the world, it won’t help you if you haven’t properly planned anything. It doesn’t mean money can’t assist with moving your idea forward. It means seeing it as a solution will keep you chasing after money and not expanding on an idea.
Most people will now think i’ve lost my mind. You want me not to consider earning a living. It will go against everything you’ve ever understood or experienced in your life. You have to eat, right? You will inevitably ask yourself, “well, pray tell, genius, how are you going to eat while being a sculptor?” This question is important and shouldn’t be ignored, however, give yourself a task to add “idea logistics” back into the planning stage once you’ve made headway with the actual idea.
Sustaining your well-being, earning a living, keeping a roof, paying bills, eating, etc. Are necessities, right? Assume for a moment these things are a part of the equation. Consider your idea first, and we will tackle these important details in a bit. I want to ask you a question that you should do before you consider money.
Question: “do i have what it takes?”
Many people don’t even go here, because the thought of restructuring your business, starting a new business, or organizing an annual event never actually happens because they are immediately stopped by, “will i have to change the life i have grown accustomed to in order to make it happen?” In some cases, yes.
There are a lot of things you thought you’d never do in your life or career, yet somehow you did it. The question is, do you think you will be able to do it? The deeper question is, do you think you’re enough to do it? Good enough? Smart enough? Old enough? Young enough? Experienced enough? All good questions that cause fear in some people and stop the others from doing the work all together.
Right now, all i am suggesting is for you to think about the idea only. Here are a few ways to focus your mind on what is important right now:
- Who will want what i am offering? (market research)
- What location will i use to do my work? (operations)
- What problem am i attempting to solve by doing this work? (marketing)
- If i were successful, what would the people i work with have as a result?
So what now?
Use the example from the original email i sent you to help you flush out the idea. If you don’t get those emails, sign up at the bottom of this page.
Flush out your idea and answer the above questions by using google keep (where you can put down all of your brainstormed ideas without anyone seeing it…yet!): >>>your ideas
As you begin to think about logistics, the thought of money will come up. What helped me to make my work financially possible, was a simple key that changed the direction of my business. I’ll tell you about that next time.