Why You Should Lose $200-$300 Per Month
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My friend Woody from Woody Maxim.com just wrote a post about making $2k-$3k per month.
I think the post is a good one - accurate in strategy, if not in mindset.
Here’s how I see things:
The only people trying to make $3k per month are the people who are not particularly entrepreneurial - they are just small time people trying to make some money.
Which is fine as far as it goes.
But, to a large company like Google, these people are fish. As in, the fish who get shot in a barrel.
Here’s the dichotomy:
Whilst my company generates nice cash flow and profit from leads - it’s not my goal to make money.
HUH?
It’s true that several years ago, money was my goal. I wanted more of it, and fast.
These days, I want to be better at BUSINESS. I don’t focus on, nor do I THINK about money. The better my business skill set becomes, the more money I make. It’s an inevitable outcome of pursuing my goal: being the best entrepreneur in the world.
If you approached becoming a professional poker player with the goal of making $3k per month within a few months, you’d be broke in a few weeks. I guarantee it.
Not because Poker is harder than business, but simply because it’s a game which truly brings you into contact with the risk/reward reality you really operate in. And there’s no bottom to it, until you’re bankrupt.
People who focus on money, not skills, are the fish of life.
If I were to advise myself on how to think when I was starting out a few years ago, I would say:
“Figure out how you can afford to lose $300 per month on skills acquisition and learning. Get a second job maybe. But whatever you do, DON’T focus on making money and trying to be a full time entrepreneur… just focus on business skills, and forget about making money.”
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August 29th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
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August 29th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
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September 28th, 2007 at 2:16 am
Definitely more lucrative to focus on the value of what you’re offering. The money will come.
September 28th, 2007 at 2:35 am
Actually Jonathon I don’t believe in “value”.
And you just gave me a good idea for a post.
Thx.
October 18th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
Now I know what I’ve been missing. Thanks for the reality check.
May 15th, 2008 at 5:10 am
I’m currently deliberately losing money in my business (tax work around to avoid losing my main income to taxes) but this entry made me wonder, how investing money into yourself/business to gain skills would equate into success.
To use your poker metaphor, if you go to the table and decide you can lose $300 wouldn’t you play it until you were out $300? You need to keep in mind the upward goal as well. When I play the pokies I go in with what I’m willing to lose, I play those coins but the money the machine pays back goes into another pocket. Do I walk out even at the end of the night? Not always, sometimes I’m up, sometimes I’m down but I never blew that entire $300 because I kept the profits instead of investing them into future losses.
If you can afford to lose/invest $300 but all your focus is on your investment then where is the turn around? Will those of us who work to lose money never make any? Building generations of skill but not looking at how to apply that skill for profit just creates a talented pensioner.
May 15th, 2008 at 6:31 am
I like your eloquence and the time you took to make your point - but ultimately there is no such thing as a skillful entrepreneur with no money.
The turn around is whenever your incomings rocket past your outgoings - the point is to focus on skills acquisition, not financial gain.
PS there is no such thing as an “upward” goal. People delude themselves all the time into thinking they have “forward” goals, when really all they have are DIFFERENT goals to the ones that preceded them. Do not make the mistake of thinking “more money” is further ahead of where you are now, it may not be.