Starting a Business is Easy
Hey friends, happy Sunday!
Starting a Business is Easy
Starting a business is easy. Running and growing a business is hard.
It's like you're running a marathon blindfolded. Everyone is telling you to head in a different direction. And in the beginning, you have to imitate others.
But their advice is biased. It's based upon their own experiences, needs, and wants. They are telling you how to run the New York marathon but you're in London.
Sure some advice might be useful but the only way to find your own success is to carve out your own path.
Finding your own path takes time. You need to try things, lots of things.
You need to make your own mistakes. Figure out what you like, what you don't, and iterate until you find the path that's right for you.
The further you get into running, your blindfold starts to slip a little. You begin to see your own path, bit by bit.
Things become more clear the further you get. But making progress requires you to take action without a defined path.
When you look at others you only see the polished work. You don't see the 10+ years of self-doubt and mistakes that led to them finding their own path.
Even though mistakes are part of building a business, it's never easy to deal with making those mistakes.
The last couple of weeks I began to notice a mistake I'd been making. I was trying to build a business based on what others were doing, not what I wanted.
I was taking steps that seemed like the right thing to do but not the things I actually wanted to do.
Building an agency seemed like the natural next step from freelancing. I knew I wanted to build a business and an agency seemed like the easiest business to build. All I had to do was scale my already refined system.
Yet I neglected the most important factors:
- I don't want to manage people in a service business environment
- Long term I don't want to scale a service business
- I want to focus on developing skills and becoming the best in the world at what I do
In hindsight the only reason I wanted to build an agency was ego. I wanted to earn more and start a business I felt was more "credible".
Yet I've always known in the back of my mind the direction I want to head.
For years I'd put it off. Initially, because I needed to figure out how to make a living as a freelancer but more recently because I was scared to make the leap.
I want to build a profitable company of one. A diverse business optimising for the skills I have and the skills I want to develop. Producing work that's meaningful to me and being intentional about how I'm spending my time and attention.
I'm now moving back towards the solopreneur business model. But this time I'm embracing being a freelancer. My focus is on learning, creating content, and providing value to people.
I want to be the best in the world at what I do. The way to do that is to make better shit, tell better stories - teach what I know, and serve my people: makers, creators, and entrepreneurs.
This week I want to leave you with one question:
- Are you running a race you want to win?
Quick Update:
There will be a few changes to the structure of this newsletter over the coming weeks as I focus my business around freelancing and creating content on creativity, self improvement and business.
I'm focusing on proving more signal and less noise. Developing my own style and distilling the best ideas + lessons on the topics I mentioned above.
I want to make this newsletter the best thing you receive in your inbox every week.
Here are this week's finds:
🔥 The Other Side of Burnout​
(Video)
Whenever I want to learn a new skill I find the high performers in an industry and try deconstruct their work. This week I spent some time deconstructing Matt D'avella's videos and wow.
His ability to effectively tell stories through video is incredible. This video - specifically the initial hook is compelling.
🔦 The world is a malleable place
(Quote)
This quote from Marc Andreessen is one of my favourites:
"The world is a very malleable place. If you know what you want, and you go for it with maximum energy and drive and passion, the world will often reconfigure itself around you much more quickly and easily than you would think."
​
💠What's the point of productivity?
(Article)
We all try to be more more productive, but what's the point? Often the reward of increased productivity is the opportunity to just do more work.
This post from Paul Jarvis poses an interesting look at why being more productive is only useful if it improves the quality of your life.
"Unless all this productivity is making us all exponentially happier or more fulfilled, it just feels like we’re working our asses off to work our asses off more. Without some bigger purpose or grander goal, like getting work done faster to spend more time not working, it feels like a hamster wheel of working more to work more to spend more so we need to work more."
This week's Video:
📚 How to Read More Productively
End Notes
If you enjoyed this edition of the Sunday Filter then I'd love it if you share it with a few friends. You can send them over here to sign up.​
Have a great Sunday,
- Stephen