Better Young Entrepreneur

If you want to become a better young entrepreneur, have children.

Ok, I’m not serious. But it would be an understatement to say that my 16-month-old daughter has been the most important marketing guru that I’ve ever had. Plus, she’s cuter than all of the 40-year-old guys teaching marketing out there today, ;)

Here’s one of the lessons that she’s taught me.

As usual, I was giving my daughter her bedtime bath. We splash, color the walls with crayons, and play with different shaped cups to swish the warm water around.

Randomly, I took one of the cups, scooped up some water, and moved the cup in a quick upward motion to release the water in a straight vertical line.

You should have the look on my daughter’s face. She gave me the, “That was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen” look. You know what I mean?

I started smiling from ear to ear and threw the water over and over again until she reached for the cup in my hand because she wanted to do it.

She tried the best she could, but had no luck.

So, I grabbed another cup in the tub and started to show her the motion again.

The next part is important, so pay attention.

She grabbed for the second cup that I was using,thinking that the cup was what made the water do what she liked so much.

She didn’t recognize that it was the operator behind the tool that was so important, and not necessarily the tool itself.

This made me think, “How often do entrepreneurs think that finding the ‘perfect’ tool or system is what is separating them from success, not realizing that it is themselves who are the crucial point in their business?”

The answer is, way too freaking often.

I had personal experience of this the other day while I was looking for a task management system that worked between my Mac and iPhone.

I spent 3 valuable hours searching for and reading sites on the Internet who were all promoting a different system and pointing out its specific benefits.

I did this until I just had enough and realized that I could have a perfectly functional task management system with a pen and a sheet of paper if I wanted to. But, I was too externally focused on the tool instead of myself.

If I were really busy enough to need a good task management system, I wouldn’t have had 3 hours to spend researching. I would have found something that worked, and just gotten to it.

In my experience, I’ve seen this happen too many times.

Don’t think that the tool is what makes the magic and realize that the person behind the tool is really the only thing that matters.

If you meet a successful entrepreneur, don’t ask him what tools he uses.

Instead, ask him what motivates him to get things done. Ask him (or her) what qualities he connects with on a daily basis that keep him moving towards his goal.

Those internals are infinitely more important than the external tools and systems that may be in place.

You may have all of the tools that a successful entrepreneur does, but if you don’t have the vision, the drive, the commitment, those internal qualities that are foundational to success, then my friends, all the tools in the world will do you absolutely no good.

With love and respect,

Abhay “Self-Focused” Khurana

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