I Know So Little

The more I learn, the more I learn about how much I don't know.

August 01, 2019

I’ve been trying to figure out a good way to talk about this. I’m not an expert. I don’t know what I am doing most of the time.

Most of the success I have had has been based on a few good principles that pretty much everyone can follow.

If that’s the case, why should anyone listen to what I have to say? Sure, following my journey might be entertaining, but when I talk about best practices I’m only referencing what’s worked for me.

What’s worked for me won’t work for 90% of people reading what I write.

This is why it’s hard for me to justify selling my knowledge. The only way I would feel comfortable is if I produced something that fulfilled the need of someone who already knows that my experience will apply exactly to their situation.

Because of this, it’s hard for me to justify selling introductory content for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Other people have built way bigger businesses than me, using totally different tactics. Some people use those other tactics and build businesses way smaller than mine.

There’s so much more to it than the tactics. It has to do with market, timing, competition, product, branding, design, etc.

Why should someone follow the way I build businesses? Everyone should do what they think is best, and figure it out for themselves.

Am I supposed to be a complete expert on all of those things? I don’t think so, maybe not to the level that I would sell a course or produce a book on what I know.

What’s my thing?

What’s the one or two things that I can be a complete expert in that I can help people with?

I strive to be a polymath. Someone who knows a little bit of everything. I want to be able to run my whole business, and automate everything that would require another person.

But by being a polymath, I don’t necessarily have a great depth of knowledge in certain areas.

Do I spend my time focusing on being above-average at everything, or by being the best at one or two things?

I think my plan to answer that question has two parts:

  1. Build up as much knowledge as possible across disciplines, and use that knowledge to make lots of money and gain equity + status.
  2. Use that equity to then specialize and spend my time becoming the best in the world at one or two things.

My first goal is to make enough money to make sure I don’t ever have to worry about making money.

My next goal is to use that leverage to niche down further and become the best person on the planet in that space.

So, at first my thing is to be everything. A one-man-show. That’s my thing.

But don’t be surprised in the future when the switch flips and I niche down into one space. That’s how I will probably sustain myself financially,

My best advice

Stick to first principles. Things that are always true, across the board. That’s the best type of content, and the only things worth listening to or reading.

Everything else is mostly noise, and you’re much, much better off learning it for yourself.

What are first principles? Things like the fundamental teachings of the Bible. Or, @naval’s tweet-storm on building wealth.

These things help build your character. They don’t directly help you with your business, but they help you become the best version of yourself (which is the best way to build a great business).

You’ve seen businesses that fail because the founder is a jerk and has a shady lifestyle. And If you can’t get out of bed to work everyday you’re not going to build anything worth selling.

Build yourself. Build your character. Become your best person, and then build a business. You’ll have a much better time.

This is why you see a lot of founders post things on Twitter about fitness, sleeping, meditating, etc. You are the core piece to your business. If you don’t exist, or are maimed, you can’t do what you need to do to keep building your empire.

Take care of yourself.

So, why should you listen to me?

I’m not sure you should. But, I do try to teach what I know, and help other people. If you get something from it, great! If you don’t, that’s okay. It wasn’t for you.

I want to help people make money on the internet. I am figuring out how to do that for myself, and if you can carve a path that’s similar to mine, you might get a lot from this blog.

Otherwise, I think I will be at my most-useful when I niche down in to a space where I can be a leading expert. Then I can deliver real value that isn’t based on guesses and ‘what worked for me’.