If you want to create a rocket and put your flag on the moon, let me tell you it is late my friend. If you want to sell a million flying cars in the states, it’s probably not the right moment. One of the most important things that will make you successful is to be completely aware of what you’re doing, know exactly the time to do it, as well as the current status of the market.
“Finding the right idea is almost as important as finding the right time.”
When I was having my coaching training the first lesson that they gave us was “The future is all possibility!!”, but if we want to see the OPPORTUNITY, we need to be good observers of what’s happening around us. I saw many business fail because they didn’t take this in to account. I have a friend who wanted to put a computer shop together for years, but when he started his company it was a complete mess. 6 months later, he had to close the store. Today, the idea wouldn’t be as succesful due to the fact there are big retailers with better prices in better places.
If I make a review of each of my four startups even when not all of them were successful and others are just beginning, I find that everyone of them was started when it came time. My first startup was a christian mobile contents company; it was the first one in Latin America and we’ve been alone in the market for more than 8 months. The second was a real state platform which provides websites to real state agents. We are still the only ones offering that service. The next was a new format to sell properties using videos over the internet and television- there’s nothing like that in Argentina yet. And the last one, a social media development company which was working on social media even when people didn’t know about Facebook in our country.
I really had that advice in mind before I started anything, but How can we know when It Is time??? Let me answer this with a short story in my own words.
“There was two rough fat woodcutters who were called the Kings of the handsaw. Nobody could beat them, till the day that two young and thin guys got into the business and started making twice the production that the kings were doing. Of course none of the woodcutters could understand what was happening, because they double their efforts to increase their production, but nobody could reach the young guys marks. So one day they decided to pay attention to the successful woodcutters and they found that they were taking 15 minutes every day sharpening their handsaw before doing anything.”
If we want to see when is the right moment for an idea or startup, we have to be sharp. How Can We Be Sharp?
Three “How-To” Methods of Staying Sharp:
- Take Advantage of Twitter Momentum: If you’re on the net, you have to be on twitter. There are at least two or three special moments in the day that have momentum and those are the moments between 6 and 7 AM PST (9and 10am EST). That is when people get up and check all the tweets from the people they’re following. In the morning you can see the biggest amount of hot news about technology, startups, and the market. Of course you can read blogs too, but tweeter works like a efficient filter of the hottest changes in the world. That early moment in the day people are concentrated on twitter, paying attention to the new followers, so that is the moment when you can find opportunities, where you can hear the world telling you “This is the moment”, or “Not Yet”.
- Take care of your blindspots. Our eyes give us 180 grades of visibility, that means that you always have blindspots where you don’t know what’s happening. So, I think that one of the most helpful tools is to follow someone that you respect on your field. In the past you had to go to a monastery, or to the heights on the mountains. Nowadays we have lots of ways to follow people such us twitter, blogs, rss, email newsletters, etc. If you don’t have at least one person from which you are learning constantly, try to get one because that will allow you to see something that your probably not aware of.
- Never lose your passion. The passion will help you take those risky decisions in the right moment, it will help you make unbelievable efforts when it’s required, and to fight for that dream that you have. If you fell like getting unenthusiastic, then you should open your eyes and get in contact with passionate people who are going to show you that success is still possible, and will put fuel into your entrepreneur’s heart.
Matias Paterlini
This article was originally written for youngtechstars.com. Original URL: http://www.youngtechstars.com/?p=263
paterlinimatias Entrepreneurship, twitter Entrepreneurship, opportunity, passion, success, ventures
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