Being an expert isn’t necessary; just learn.
When I started my first successful business I had no idea what I was doing.
Really.
I wasn’t an expert. I didn’t have a relevant degree. I didn’t even study business. English was my major in college, and later I earned a Master of Divinity. (You probably have no idea what that is. Most people don’t.)
Anyway, my point is this.
To start a business, the degrees you have, or don’t, may not mean much.
No, what matters is that you continue learning.
And it’s usually better to learn from other people’s successes and failures than your own.
So, let me share a few lessons I learned.
It’s easy to think that starting a business is all about you slogging it out in a lab or behind a desk or on a couch — alone. And it can be.
But often it isn’t. Often it takes others bending down to give you a hand, lifting you up.
Without my mentor and friend, I wouldn’t have been able to start my business.
While I was jobless and in the throes of the Great Recession, I started my first company, a luxury t-shirt business. And — it wasn’t working.
But, once a month, I would meet with this retired man who had a very successful career. He became a mentor and often took me out to eat at his favorite sushi spot on a quaint tree-lined street in Manhattan. We would talk and share ideas, and he would give me advice.
One day, he asked if I could help him market his hotel in Ireland. I looked at his website and told him it looked “awful” and that I could help him with that.
Although I didn’t know it at the time, that moment changed my life. It jump-started my first successful business.
He didn’t have to come to me to get a website or marketing help. He had a big network and probably could’ve gone to at least a dozen other people.
But he didn’t. He asked me.
And the reason was simple.
He was helping me.
I will say that part of me was skeptical of that help. I thought, “This is too good to be true.” But I fought that off. And as I accepted his help, I saw that it wasn’t too good to be true. It was just good.
So, if somebody offers you something that almost seems too good to be true, sometimes, it isn’t. And all you need to do is just take it.
If you do, it can change your life like it did mine.
Second, you don’t have to be an expert to start a business.
As I said at the beginning of this post, I had no idea what I was doing when I started mine.
And that’s important because the thought of you not having enough experience or knowledge can often dissuade people like you and me from starting a business. But it shouldn’t.
I’m not saying it’s bad to have experience. No, that’s not the point. I’m saying that it’s rarely necessary.
Sometimes being an expert can even be a liability. It can keep you from having an important way of thinking.
See, to do something new, you often need a “beginner’s mind”. That means when you are just starting, and don’t know much, your mind tends to be more open; you see new possibilities; and opportunities abound.
But an expert’s mindset can be the opposite. Their thinking shrinks and narrows what’s possible. They know what’s been tried and don’t see the use in trying again.
Now, just because you don’t have expertise doesn’t mean you shouldn’t experiment. You should. You should start, try things — conduct experiments.
Experimenting gives you experience and working knowledge. And it can often give you the information you need to take the next step.
That, for me, as I mentioned above, was working on a t-shirt company. Sure, “it wasn’t working”, but it helped me exercise an entrepreneurial muscle that made starting my next company easier.
Lastly, yes, failure sucks, but it can also be one of the best things that can happen to you.
When I said that my t-shirt company “wasn’t working”, what I meant was that it was failing. In fact, it failed. And it wasn’t my first major failure.
That happened when I got fired from the only job I was actually qualified for.
Remember that Master of Divinity I got? Well, you usually get one of those degrees to work at a church.
So, yes, I got fired from a church. It was devastating for me. After I got fired, I didn’t know what I could do next. I thought my life and career was ending in my mid-twenties.
But it didn’t.
And that’s what I learned. Failing didn’t kill me.
Actually, it freed me. Failure allowed me to find a place where I could better succeed.
Failure isn’t the end. Often it’s the beginning of something better. It’s a rebirth.
If I didn’t get fired, I don’t think I would have ever started my own business. And starting a t-shirt company that failed actually prepared me to start the next business that succeeded.
You see, when you keep learning, failure is never just a failure. They are lessons that will teach you how to succeed. And they don’t just teach you; they empower you. They even launch you forward.
In fact, my lessons weren’t just critical for me. They were essential. Without one, I wouldn’t have been equipped to take the necessary steps in my journey.
So, learn from my lessons, learn from yours, and learn from others. But no matter what you do, keep learning.
If you do, you can’t help but succeed.
