Is Knowledge the Key to Success?

I get nearly 1,000 emails per week from new entrepreneurs asking for advice in starting their new business. In this video, I’ll answer one of the most common questions I get.

This week’s question comes from Renny…
———————————————————
My current challenge is to get a comprehensive understanding of the end to end process of the e-commerce business. I want to get it right from the get go.

I believe knowledge is the key to success. The more I know the more I’m prepared for. I’m in the process of learning from any and all sources to become as knowledgeable and as prepared as I possibly can be.

I’m currently in a full time/high stress job in a diametrically opposite industry (IT) to the importing business. Time is what is holding me back but I’m taking steps to overcome this challenge.

Looking forward to the webinar!
Renny
———————————————————
Watch the video to see my answer 🙂

Leave a comment below and let’s continue the conversation!

Video Transcription:

Hello everybody and welcome to our weekly quick question videos where we answer a common question we get from people just joining the Start-up Bros community.

The Problem With Knowledge

This is something that we see all the time, people that are out for knowledge and not the result, right? The whole world is filled with academics, right, experts that have no earning power and create very little value for society.

Entrepreneurs don’t need to know everything to get out there and make the world a better place and create value for other people.

In fact, there’s a huge school of thought that says the less knowledge you have about an industry the more likely you are to be successful. Because you have a different perspective coming and see things in a different way.

The Solution to The Problem of Knowledge

So I absolutely think that you should not learn things in general if you’re an entrepreneur stop learning and start doing.

Because entrepreneurs are executors right? We execute, we do stuff, we don’t just sit here and research things because if you’re researching something you fundamentally cannot be building your business right?

If you’re on Google, if you’re on some forums, if you’re on Reddit, if you’re on You Tube, You are fundamentally not doing things for your customers that improve their lives.

So, I am really against this whole concept of learning things before you do them. I think you know what they always talk about the gut instinct, entrepreneurs have that gut instinct because they get out there and take action, they only learn through experience.

If you’re just learning things you’re going to have no context to which you can apply those things right?

You have to have the context to make the knowledge valuable for it to be useful at all in your life right?

The goal is not to learn everything, it’s to execute. Executing improves your customer’s lives as much as possible.  In doing that you’re going to build a successful business.

That’s kind of in a nutshell my thoughts on it Rennie, I think you should stop learning and start doing.

My Entrepreneurial Perspective Shift

One of the fundamental turning points as an entrepreneur was when I said” man I know a lot more stuff than these other people but I’m not as successful”.

I said “Man I need to stop learning things and start doing things”.  Learning feels productive but learning is not productive if you’re not producing something, you’re only consuming.

So I always want to be a producer.  I want to be producing value in other people’s lives, specifically my customers.

My goal is not to simply hoard information. My goal is to go out there and apply this information to create profound differences in people’s lives. That’s the only way to create a business.

Develop a New Mindset

That’s how you become successful as an entrepreneur by impacting the lives of your customers and creating value for them.

However, learning something will not get you to the next level, learning something will not help your customers. You have to get out there and apply it.

And it feels really safe to learn stuff right?

It feels safe, it feels like you’re taking a step forward but it’s not risky at all. You’re not putting yourself out there, you’re not taking a risk and business is inherently risky.

So when you’re out there googling things, or when you’re on YouTube and Reddit you’re not building your business.  You need to stop learning, you need to start doing and that is my answer to that very common question.

Guys if you like this video, give me a thumbs up give me a subscribe.  If you want to see me rant about some other question that’s on your mind throw in the comment box we’re going to be doing these weekly from now on so throw me a question and I will certainly rant about it for a few minutes.

All right guys hopefully that was helpful knowledge.