The reason why Wednesdays were invented? Another episode of the One Thing Series! In this series I have asked successful entrepreneurs and those doggedly pursuing their goal of self employment one question: “What is the one piece of advice you would give someone if they told you they were starting a business and you could only tell them one thing to help them out?” Today’s guest post is Jonathan Tollefson, who is the owner of PARX, LLC, which is dedicated to “Boarding the Midwest All Day Every Day”. Here is Jonathan’s One Thing:
In a world where options and ideas are endless, it is easy to start one idea get discouraged, and then start in on another idea. Before I started my business, I jumped from idea to idea to idea. It was a never-ending circle that never allowed me to gain traction. This always lead to failure.
My one piece of advice to someone who is just starting out in business, is that everything will take longer than you think. You have to be patient, you can never give up and perseverance is key to becoming a success.
One of the main reasons I jumped from idea to idea is because I would plant the seed, and then never gave it enough time to sprout and become a full grown plant. This lead me straight to my next idea. The business never grew fast enough. I guess I was looking for an overnight success.
What I quickly found out is that overnight successes are few and far between. I found out that a lot of the people who I thought were overnight successes worked on their ideas for years before they became the successful business owners that they are today.
What these people did is they complete the circle of one idea before they started in on another idea. By jumping from idea to idea, I never allowed myself to complete the circle. I would start the idea, get it to the point of where it was time to spread it to the world and then I would quit and start in on another idea.
To tell you the truth, there are many days that I think I should stop what I am doing and start in on another idea even though I have spent thousands of dollars to get PARX off the ground. It still is not happening as fast as I want it to.
I think this is a battle that everyone will go through as they start out on their journey. Everyone wants the microwave approach; short, fast and easy. It’s the American way right? I am here to tell you that it just doesn’t happen that way. For some it will happen faster than others, but never get discouraged. Your idea is good so believe in yourself, persevere and never give up. I hope someday someone is talking about you and your overnight success even though you spent countless hours and countless nights turning your idea into something that makes you and hundreds of others happy.
It is going to be a battle and I encourage everyone to stick with it and push forward no matter what happens. Excuses are for the weak, so knock down every roadblock that stands in your way even if it takes time to figure out how you are going to do it!!
Jon T
