This blog is a continuation of a series:
Why people fail at business.
Reason #1 was they don’t have a deep why, and thus, they haven’t made up their mind to succeed, no matter what.
Reason #2 is they quit.
And they quit too soon.
I’m sure you’ve seen a cartoon like the one below where the miner gives up right before striking gold (or diamonds). Little did he know he was mere inches away from changing his entire life.
There’s a common trait amongst wantrepreneurs. They are mostly in the Discover or Validate phase (there are 4 phases taught in our CCC coaching group).
In the Discover or Validate phase they are testing a new product or business idea. And just like everyone else in that phase, it requires a lot of research.
Testing the minimum viable product, problem, solution, market fit, and marketing system. It’s a lot of “let’s see what happens if I do this…”
The problem for quitters is they expect instant success and miracles overnight.
They believe that line from the old Kevin Costner movie, Field of Dreams, that “If you build it, they will come.”
These wantrepreneurs think that if they come up with the product and a logo and throw it up on Etsy, something is actually going to happen!
It might sound silly if you’re way beyond this phase, but it’s a very common belief.
What these people don’t realize is that it takes hundreds, maybe thousands, of micro-failures [called data points!] to figure out exactly where the gold is.
If you put a post on social media and don’t get any reaction or engagement — that’s not not failure, it’s a data point.
If you thought you had everything figured out, you researched your niche, your customer, your market, your problem, you did your best copywriting, best conversion strategies on Shopify, and NO ONE BOUGHT…. That’s not failure, it’s a data point.
You see, most people quit right there.
They simply don’t understand that everything your potential customers do or don’t do is a data point.
…How they interact or don’t interact with your brand is a data point.
…If they add to their cart and don’t buy — data point.
…When they purchase once, but not again — data point.
WHAT ARE DATA POINTS?
A data point is just a piece of information. One data point by itself doesn’t do much for you. But when you have LOTS of data points, now you have a picture.
When you put all the information together, it tells a story.
When you can realize what the story is, THAT’S WHERE THE GOLD IS.
When you look at the data story you can suddenly figure out things like “Oh, it’s not that people didn’t like my product, it’s that there was a technical issue during checkout that we need to solve.” BOOM!
Your job is to get as many data points as humanly possible in a short amount of time in order for you to determine a winning product, market, and sales system.
I think the key to not quitting is understanding this.
Does it mean that you should never quit a business idea if you find out it’s not a good one?
No, but I don’t call that quitting. Instead, it’s a pivot.
You pivot; you don’t quit.
On to the next thing.
But before you do that, don’t cut yourself short. Most likely you don’t have NEARLY ENOUGH DATA POINTS to make any kind of informed decision.
That’s why I take all my students through this validation process inside my coaching program. I’m not sure when it’s opening up next, but if you’re interested in joining, you’ll need to be on this list.
Did this blog resonate with you? Let me know by dropping a message in the comments.
