We All Start Somewhere

Find your profitable business idea

What if you could build an online business that PAYS YOU to live the life you’ve always wanted? No matter how weird or “niche” your skills are, you can turn them into a successful online business.

“It seems like it will take 20 years to get anywhere”

Here’s today’s question from Shirley, and she writes:

“I am certainly no expert on any given topic or skill. I don’t know what I can contribute. I am just a regular woman who has many interests. A jack of all trades, master of none. So what’s holding me back is lack of confidence and not having an idea. And then there’s also an overwhelming amount of information out there. And as I attempt to learn it, it makes it seem as if it will take 20 years to get anywhere.”

There’s a lot to unpack in this question.

The first thing I want to say is that we all start off somewhere. Take a look at any Fortune 500 CEO. They probably worked a paper route as a teenager.

We all have to start somewhere, and we can eventually work our way up to a much higher level of success.

Especially in the beginning, the most important thing is to do the best you can and don’t worry about ALL that you have to do to become successful.

The next thing I want to say is that when I was starting off with my online business, I used to compare myself to people who were 10, 15, even 20 years more advanced than I was. Looking back, that was such a silly thing to do.

I remember looking at this one guy’s site, and he had what was called a “process map.”

A “process map” is like a chart with these satellite bubbles. The first one was products, customer service, marketing, and all this stuff.

And under the marketing bubble, there were ten different satellites and lists coming off of that.

I looked at it and was so overwhelmed. I remember thinking “there’s no way I’m ever going to do this. There’s no way. It would take me 50 years to do it.”

Then, I closed the page, and I let overwhelm take control of me that day.

Over time, I actually learned how to do marketing, copywriting, inbound lead generation, and much, much more.

Only later was it that I looked back, and I realized I basically created that process map and MORE.

How did I manage to do that?

Instead of trying to tackle ALL that the process map covered, I just said, “You know what? It’s good to know that that chart exists. But right now, I’m only going to focus on one thing. I’m going to learn copywriting because that’s what I need to do.”

I knew I would tackle some of the other stuff later on, but if I’d tried to do ALL of that at once, I would’ve overwhelmed myself and quickly failed.

I had to learn to enjoy the process first, before I could ever get to that point.

It’s like how I used to run track when I was in high school. I wasn’t very good, but I learned to love the process.

I never won a race. But I got out there, and I did my best. As I did that over time, my racing times improved and I got better.

It works the same way with business. You don’t have to be the world’s most sophisticated business person today.

What you need to do is get your idea out there and start making progress.

“Don’t try to be 40 before you’re 40.”

This idea comes from the story of when I was going to buy my first car. I wanted to buy a Mercedes. I could easily afford it, but I realized where do you go from there?

Where do you go once you buy a Mercedes when you’re in your early 20s? It just makes no sense in the long term.

With your business, don’t try to be 40 before you’re 40.

Some people come to me and say:

“Ramit, what kind of sophisticated, A/B testing conversion should I do?”

I respond: “How many subscribers do you have on your email list?”

They say “Forty-two.”

And I tell them, “Don’t try to be 40 before you’re 40. You don’t need to be A/B testing things when you only have 42 subscribers. You need to write amazing content and create stuff that people want.”

That’s the most important part, and, later on, you can scale from there.

If you’re looking at other people’s business and you’re saying, “Oh, my God! It’s going to take me a thousand blog posts to get there.”

Do you know what step one is?

Write blog post number one. Go to sleep. Wake up the next morning. Take a look at the comments, if there are any. Write blog post number two.

You can’t worry about everything at once.

And if you keep showing up every day, you may actually get to the position where you look at a very detailed process map — or another person’s business — and you’ve actually done much more than they ever did.

For now, just take it step by step.

If you’re curious about starting your online business, the first thing you can do is learn how to find a profitable idea.

Download the free guide below and get started.

Find your profitable business idea

What if you could build an online business that PAYS YOU to live the life you’ve always wanted? No matter how weird or “niche” your skills are, you can turn them into a successful online business.

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