You might be wondering what has been keeping you away from earning your six-figure income after all these years. You have probably been working, have had multiple ideas, tried them all, and your bank account still doesn’t reflect it. After blaming a multitude of circumstances this might be one of the true barriers keeping you away from that one metric.
Wish I was great with metaphors to come up with a great example filled with imagery that boldly explains this concept. The closest thing I can imagine is being more of an idea packrat than an idea beaver. I got that concept from the book The Six Figure Second Income. It is one of the issues I sometimes face and probably many entrepreneurs also struggle with; specially considering not everyone can be as adept or have the means to get many things simultaneously done as someone like Gary Vaynerchuck. Acknowledging this, takes a bit of self mastery though.
Now, what does idea packrat actually mean? It goes like this: we all have that one entrepreneur friend who is forever looking for the next Big Break, just like a packrat hoarding a bunch of shiny new things, none of them with a particular use whatsoever. Of course someone will always be around to take advantage of that person and get them on board purchasing the next idea. Marketers will easily sell you on a course to up your blog design game, then the next thing becomes Instagram; now you have to jump on Tik Tok; Then it becomes imperative that you have a LinkedIn; Then back to square one but with a bit of “branding” added in. And you never fully capitalize on one endeavor, while the marketers and course creators happily watch you part with your hard-earned money. That is being an idea packrat. You are going from one shiny idea to the next and filling your space with a bunch of shiny new ideas without fully realizing any one of them.
This doesn’t work. For one you are not dedicating enough time to let any one project get to fruition. Two, unless you have massive luck or are the first to do something, chances are you won’t find a silver bullet that is the business of all businesses. By the time someone is telling you about the newest shiniest thing, just like the California Gold Rush there will be a load of adventurous souls trying to get in on the action. (I’m saying you, but I’m also writing this for myself.)
In the end it is much better to style your work after a beaver’s. Once the beaver picks a spot to call home, it will not look for the ONE tree to fell to build it’s dam, rather it looks for the most convenient pieces it can add little by little to this one location to build a natural wonder. At first it seems like nothing much, but with steady effort a complete project gets delivered and the beaver reaps the reward.
In essence, if you have heard “It’s not about timing the market, it’s about time in the market,” we can apply this mantra of investing into our business and entrepreneurial endeavors. It’s not about timing the next big thing, it’s about choosing one promising idea and sticking to it till it bears fruit.
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