What I’m Reading:
I’m currently Birdwatching Magazines.
No, I’m not a birder 😂.
I like to keep my mind fresh by reading things out of context.
Because great ideas are 2 unconnected strands in one
This is something that you can take away too – Try to read material that’s unrelated to your work or business.
What I’m Watching:
I’m currently watching YellowJackets.
It’s a TV Series that explores trauma and how trauma awareness is a rising trend at the moment.
What I’m Thinking:
Today I will share one interesting story about when I went to Africa last week on holiday.
We visited Laura’s family farm and it was a great learning experience.
One of the things that stood out to me was the amount of effort and resources it requires to grow crops.
While I was there, the entire plot of land wasn’t ripe for harvest yet.
And when I asked my father-in-law what was happening…
He told me:
“We’re Building the Infrastructure…”
He patiently explained that they’ve always been using the common infrastructure for their domestic farming.
And they’re trying to shift away from that as they want to be more self-reliant.
At that point, I started to get what he was talking about.
My father-in-law didn’t want to be too dependent on resources that didn’t belong to him (In this case, it was the common base (irrigation, fertilization and transportation).
What he said got me thinking…
There’s a lesson here that I can apply to my business too.
When I saw Laura’s family building the foundation – they were doing the unsexy stuff (Tilling the ground, applying fertilizers, and building the roads).
It was work that didn’t generate any immediate reward.
But they still did it anyway.
You can see this concept playing out in business too.
Sometimes you may feel like you’re doing a ton of work with nothing to show for it…
But the change is actually happening underneath the surface.
There are actually incredible similarities between business and farming.
One of them is the idea of Seasons.
There’s a season for Farming and a season for Harvesting.
Most entrepreneurs love the harvesting – but they hate the farming because it involves doing a ton of work that doesn’t produce any reward beforehand.
When you go easy on building business foundations, you actually sacrifice the long term potential of your vision.
Infrastructure Building is often unsexy.
And that’s why most new entrepreneurs quit before they see any results.
The key is Delayed Gratification.
This means you must be willing to work even if you don’t see any immediate results.
To give you some personal context:
- It took me months to get good at Copywriting – I was paid a measly amount before my copy generated any results. (I got to where I am today by studying Clayton Makepeace and Dan Kennedy).
- It took me tens of thousands of dollars to build relationships – I paid five figures for Private Masterminds… to get into the right rooms. I knew this investment wouldn’t yield instant results but I went ahead anyway.
- I spent nearly two years perfecting my Info-Product before making a single cent – Now I know everything about Product Launches, and I’ve some of the brightest minds in the industry seeking my help.
You could see that many of my actions didn’t yield immediate gains – but they paid off over a period of time (months or even years).
Building a business is just like growing a tree.
Just like you wouldn’t see a tree sprout after 3 months of watering the plant…
It usually takes months to see any signs of success, especially if you’re a new business owner.
So don’t give up.
Because the light is at the end of the tunnel.
If you do the work, your future self will thank you for it.
One of my suggestions for you is this:
If you find Delayed Gratification difficult, it’s perhaps a good idea to do a Dopamine Detox.