And it takes a lot of the pressure off
Somedays, I see so much potential in others it physically hurts.
Friends, acquaintances, even family members who have so much to offer and so many ways that they can help.
Some of them work extremely long days for an employer, or work for themselves and are always behind on their bills.
They allow others to capitalize on their hard work, day after day, year after year. But they don't benefit.
Why is bias toward action so scary?
I think I get why.
Working at a job is comfortable. Not paywalling your intellectual property and charging what it's worth is comfortable.
Paying for an expensive hobby out of your own pocket is comfortable. (Who am I to argue? It's your money after all.)
Comparatively, going out to get something for yourself is scary.
It's not a sure thing. It will meet resistance. People will not accept your offer.
Probably most of all:
There's the possibility that it will flop.
Not gonna lie, that can happen.
My latest “project”
An acquaintance has a very cool but very expensive hobby: reef keeping.
It's also not particularly easy. Salt water tanks, temperature, delicate chemical balance, and persistent maintenance demand his constant attention.
He picked up the hobby during the pandemic and has gotten proficient at it, mainly by working through numerous setbacks and watching much of his coral die. His current 44-gallon tank is doing pretty well now!
I approached him and suggested that he could pay for this hobby by packaging what he's learned and selling it, and I'd show him how.
“Start a channel and post a short” is scary
This was my first action for him.
(If you think you'd respond well to this kind of coaching, drop me a line and mention “reef keeping”. We'll chat 🙂 )
We're still looking to get past this step.
It may be that this was too little detail, akin to showing him how to draw an owl.
(I'll see if that's it when I email him again.)
I did say this in that email:
I recommend not overthinking it. Jump into it with the same enthusiasm that you jumped into reef keeping. The main result is getting it done. Quality is a distant second.
What I should have said
I could have done better, though, and said this:
“Very few people will even see the video, so the risk for publishing it is low.”
That's because it's his first video. He doesn't have an audience yet.
This should take a lot of pressure off.
It's one advantage of being a beginner at anything: Almost no one will be there if you suck.
And the people that are there will likely be encouraging.
(Of course, it doesn't have to suck! But it's fine if it's not polished, needs work, etc.)
So just hit publish already!
Thanks for reading!
Hi, I'm John and I encourage entrepreneurship in people, including myself.
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Also ICYMI: If you think you'd respond well to this kind of coaching, drop me a line and mention “reef keeping” and we'll chat 🙂
Photo by David Clode on Unsplash