Stop Dreaming About the Future and Start Enjoying the Process of Creating It

Entrepreneur Office Hours - Issue #229

This past week I unexpectedly found myself standing on the steps of a building on Duke’s campus talking with a group of 100 admitted high school seniors who were visiting the school and deciding whether they wanted to attend. Behind this group of students was, for me, the strangest of possible sights: My freshman dorm.

While I realize this specific scenario isn’t interesting to anyone but me, I’ll tell all of you what I told that group of high school seniors about the strange setting:

Ignore the specifics of the story…. who it is, what they’re doing, where they’re standing, etc. Instead, consider what would happen if you hopped in a time machine and traveled back in time 23 years to ask the 18-year-old version of me moving into his freshman dorm to describe his future.

Do you think, at any point during that exercise, he could have ever imagined looking at the stairs across the street and saying, “I’m going to be standing over there in 23 years talking with a group of 100 high school seniors deciding whether they want to come to Duke?”

Of course not!

Again, the specifics of this scenario aren’t what matter. I’m sharing the story because the fundamental ridiculousness of the situation is equally applicable to you and whatever entrepreneurial journey you’re on.

As entrepreneurs, we all occasionally find ourselves imagining the future. It’s only natural, and, indeed, critical for what we’re trying to accomplish. We need to have a vision for some sort of amazing new product or service that we’re going to bring to market, and, by doing so, build an enormously successful business.

It’s fine to imagine those things, but remember: you can’t possibly imagine what’s actually going to happen. No matter how hard you try to predict your life five, 10, 15, or more years into the future, you’re going to be wrong. While that doesn’t mean the exercise of imagining the future can’t be enjoyable, always remember that it’s a distraction from what really matters, which is the experience of creating the future.

-Aaron

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This week’s new articles…

Here’s the Ugly Truth About Scaling Startups

You won’t like it the most frustrating reality about scaling startups, but you’ll learn to accept it if you want to grow a company.

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Estimating Project Timelines: A Simple Formula to Perfect a Founder’s Most Underrated Superpower

Giving great time estimates for the projects you’re working on will make you a more successful entrepreneur.

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Office Hours Q&A

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QUESTION:

Dear Dr. Dinin –

I have been following your work for a long time now. It has been incredibly helpful and very inspiring.

I have also always been interested in entrepreneurship from afar but never actually felt ready to take “the leap” myself. I often have ideas for startups that seem like they could become successful companies but am too scared of giving up everything else, taking the plunge on a start idea, and being wrong.

I would be curious to get your thoughts on this. While I am certain you will tell me you can never know for sure if a startup idea is a good idea, I would still greatly appreciate any advice you can share on how to at least figure out whether an idea has a more than a decent chance of succeeding.

Sincerely,

Martin

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You’re right that I’m not going to be able to give you any guarantees. Heck, I won’t even go so far as to offer a suggestion capable of reaching the “decent chance” level you’re hoping for. Instead, I’m going to warn you that you’re already making a huge mistake simply by focusing on ideas.

In general, and for all sorts of reasons I can’t delve into in such a limited space, an idea is going to be incredibly hard to turn into a successful company. Instead, you want to shift your perspective so you’re finding market opportunities.

I actually have a free class about this – it’s called “Will My Idea Work?” – that goes into more detail. The gist is that you need to stop looking for ideas and start looking for a problem/need that lots of people have and is important enough that they’d be willing to pay to have it solved.

This confluence of problem and demand is at the heart of a startup’s potential for success. Once you find this combination, you can build something to address the issue. Whatever you build may or may not work (i.e. not be a way people want to address the problem), but, even if your first solution isn’t right, so long as you’ve identified a viable market opportunity, you’ll be able to keep taking swings at solving the issue until you get it right.

Got startup questions of your own? Reply to this email with whatever you want to know, and I’ll do my best to answer!

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