A common issue when talking to entrepreneurs seems to be the lack of funding. We have done over a dozen articles on why funding is never really the issue in entrepreneurship, but rather a smokescreen that is preventing others from seeing the real fear that paralyzes you. In recent talks, however, a very genuine point came up about some ideas actually requiring lots of money, which made us decide to discuss it via this article.
The reality is that no matter how resourceful you are, there are still some ideas that require money in order to be brought to life. These ideas can be technology based or can simply be products needing to be manufactured. The bottom line is without money, certain ideas cannot come to life but is that really the case?
You see, there is a misconception out there about the word resourcefulness, as many believe it simply means you must find alternative resources when certain resources are scarce, like getting free help instead of paying for it. While that is one level of resourcefulness, it is also not the full meaning of it.
The most precious and powerful resource an entrepreneur has is himself, and by that I am not referring to your ability to campaign for yourself, but rather figure out the way to start, rather than the way to operate.
The idea of entrepreneurship is not to take an idea from nothing to a million dollars, but rather to take nothing and create value for people around you. While some of you believe that your journey begins tomorrow when you figure out how to launch your idea, your journey actually began yesterday, a month ago, or even a year ago. The idea itself, the business part of things, and the success or failure, all have their own distinct place in the timeline of an entrepreneur but so does the prequel to it.
The journey begins when you choose, not when you sell. Sometimes we must be able to start with smaller ideas, smaller businesses, and smaller concepts in order to gain the experience, knowledge, and funding needed to take on bigger and more important projects.
Think about Elon Musk who took on reviving the concept of electric cars and getting people into space. While these ideas may have been in his head at an early age, it wasn’t until he executed on Paypal that the funding and goal was within reach. His journey didn’t begin with Space X and not even with Paypal, but rather by learning to code and creating software that he sold before he was even 18.
While I am not encouraging you to lose sight of big ideas, the life changing ones, or the ones that will make your mark in history, I am encouraging you to rethink how you view such ideas and instead focus on your ability to take on smaller projects that will enable you to eventually take on these larger ones.
Entrepreneurship is no different than Corporate America, you are required to do the jobs you don’t like and learn things you don’t think you need until you get to places where you can impact and change the system. It is no different in entrepreneurship and just because you choose to work for yourself does not mean that your first company will immediately be grand.
I’ll leave you with some thoughts that can perhaps help you in understanding my point. Anything is possible, and fixing some of today’s biggest problems is also an option; but going around asking others for money so you can fix one of the world’s largest problems never having fixed a smaller one on your own before might be pushing it.
Don’t forget that solving problems is something we all do from a very young age and that is the day your entrepreneurial journey started, even if you were not quite aware then that what you were doing mattered.
