Today is officially my last day in Bangkok before I head to Krabi. I was planning to explore today and enjoy Bangkok but my mind was running with all sorts of new business concepts, and I had to get everything out on Evernote.
I had a big epiphany after reading some tweets from Mike, the founder of Skillshare. I was feeling stuck with Network & Market, and I couldn’t pinpoint precisely why. It wasn’t until later that I realized it’s because I’m not 100% passionate or excited about network marketing anymore.
I deduced the cause to be that I don’t like it when people feel like their success is dependant on myself. Entrepreneurship is hard, and failure is high. I don’t want their success or failure directly tied to me. I understand that entrepreneurship is risky and I’m willing to take that risk. Most people aren’t. I don’t want to take the blame for their tough times.
Business is hard, and it comes with risk. I’ve seen too many people pursue it and end up worse off. It’s not always sunshine and rainbows. I believe strongly if you’re willing to take the risk, then you deserve the upside, but the risk is there.
The epiphany I had was that I viewed every business I took on as a massive business that I had to scale instead of seeing it as a “side hustle” to gain more passive income, so I didn’t have to worry about basic needs and money to reinvest into other businesses. This took the pressure off of making sure the infrastructure of the businesses needed to be perfect and just go out and build stuff.
A couple of things I’ve learned from Network & Market. I’m a three in the Enneagram personality assessment, and the three’s are the achievers. They want to look good and be admired. I realize it sounds egotistical and I shunned the idea before but deep down I know there is that desire I have. I’m not the only one, so there is a high likelihood that it’s a common thing. Instead of denying it, I’m learning to harness it positively and use it to direct activities that fall in line with that personality trait. Bear in mind, I’ve taken a few personality tests, and they all point back to the three type personality.
My learning lesson is that I should only do things that I’m proud of and enjoy doing that’s in alignment with my personality and values. If not, you’ll drag yourself and not get important work done.
The other thing I learned from the Network & Market build was that I took too long building a product that I wasn’t even sure people wanted. You only have so much time to work on business concepts. It doesn’t matter how talented you are; you can’t work on everything. With that in mind, MVP’s are extremely important before you build your product. The faster your validate your idea, the faster you can scale it or drop it.
Another learning lesson, tied to the last, is don’t factor in sunk cost. Just because you spent time and money on a business idea doesn’t mean you should keep spending more time and money even though it’s a sinking ship. Don’t let sunk cost bias keep you in the business if you know it’s not worth it. Time is your most valuable asset. That’s why doing MVP and testing your business before you spend a lot of time building out a product is important. Spend as little money and time upfront to test your idea before you commit. Get creative. It doesn’t matter how fast you work if you’re working on the wrong thing.
Also, instead of seeing all businesses as something massive you HAVE to scale, look at them as side projects and figure out ways to make them more passive income in nature. This will give you the leeway to take more risk and swing for the fences with bigger businesses that you enjoy and want to spend more time on.
I was felt a bit bummed and feeling like I wasted all this time building out Network & Market. I was planning to dump the project but instead, I’m pivoting to a straightforward affiliate model and creating evergreen content. I don’t want to create new blogs every week; facebook lives, etc. I plan to get exposure to my ebook as the top of the funnel and then lead to the affiliate offer. This keeps me away from having to do the day-to-day. I make much less, but at least I can work on other things I’ve wanted to work on.
With all these ideas, I spent most of the day jotting them down and visiting the favorite places since I’ve been in Bangkok. I ate lunch at this small joint near the condo. They serve these amazing rice cake with bean sprouts and seafood omelet things. Delicious. Afterward, I got a haircut. It was the best barber experience I’ve had bar none. Excellent service and solid cut. Then I headed over to my favorite massage place and got a two-hour foot and back massage. The lady I got wasn’t the greatest but not complaining. I’d say 2/3 visits were amazing so pretty good ratio. I’ll be back to this place when I’m in Bangkok again.
After showering and packing up at the place, I headed over to Asiatqique to grab some dinner. I had a big meal and whiskey to cap the night. It was my last day, so I wanted to splurge a bit.
Food was terrific, and it was nice to cap it off with a glass of whiskey with some fruit.
I headed back to the place and finished cleaning and packing. The goal is to head out early and meet my sister and mom at the BKK airport and then head over to DMK. Looking forward to checking out Krabi.