I accept that an entrepreneur should always have dreams that want to make real. These dreams already are the main motivation of this hard journey… You also possibly hear that most of successful entrepreneur have dreamed their success story before catching. Already, I think, somebody do not want to tell the dreams that not panned out.
However, do you hear any story that its success make real as disjointedly from its history? I mean that: now you are that you were past. Your success (or their success) is clearly result of your history. So you and me should know and analyze what are you. Your fears, your passions, your life experience, your characters etc. all of them comprise your fate in your way.
Malcolm Gladwell wrote the real stories of that we see with all magnificence as Bill Gates or Beatles in his book Outliers. According to Gladwell, the “outliers” people has a past that prepare them for their shiny life. This past contains that born in a true time, being a member of a true race or having a true family for his success. We can not think all success and livings without their past. On the other hand this reality cannot change that their hard works, hard choices or being idealist.
These factors can be both an advantage and disadvantage. For example, while being a Jewish has some advantages to be successful in some fields once upon time in America, for some other fields can be a huge disadvantage… Your hard works and tenacity will determine your ways in this life.
For me, as I wrote before, I was only a government officer and has not any specific job. I don’t have any time to get education for getting a new job. Actually I was (still) student at School of Law, but I could not wait for 2-3 years to graduate. Also, I know that I would not be happy when I become an attorney.
Therefore, I thought on finding myself to build a new life for a long time after I lost my job. What am I? What can I success? What are my weakness and strengths? I had to be realistic at all. For example, I want to be coder, but I am 34 years old and I know that I do not have enough time to learn coding to earn income.
In this stage, I advise prepare a template for you to see acknowledge about yourself. You can write all things about it to this template and will guide to understand what you are. But you must so realistic and sincerely for yourself…
For me, I added my dreams to my paper: to keep up my family, having an income that being happy with my basic needs, having freedom and create something without not being a part of a company or government… I can say that these are basic titles of my dreams for next my life…
After that I added disadvantages of my reality: 34 years old, having a wife and 2 children, being not expert any technically field (as engineer or doctor)… And advantages: having a organizing and management capability, working under heavy stressful conditions, having institutional experience…
Under these real conditions, I worked to find best and pragmatical ways to float in stormy part of my life. After a few months, I decided that creating an export company is best choice for me for some reasons. As first, it does not need mainly technical specialty. Actually I will be a trader and should market some goods which has advantage for export… I had to learn only the basic rules of an export process and create an institutional image for my “customers” at first.
In this stage, I want to share this reality apart from the subject of this chapter. I have just learn this motto after almost 10 months from the beginning my journey: We should not wait to make real our plan or dreams by the reason of an expert on our field. We will be an expert after or along our journey. I could not wait to be an export expert to make real our plan… I have to be an expert along my journey. And now, I think that had a right decision at the beginning.
Yes, let get back to the subject… I think that the first rule of be successful for entrepreneur is being realistic and having balance with dreams and reality… I believe that I was successful to balance between two facts. Only being realistic hinder that you make something that you dreamed. On the other hand, the result of being only dreamer would be disappointment.