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Second Guessing - Decision-making mayhem

Most people when they initially decide to get involved with developing their own businesses they have decisions to make.  It reminds me of that song by The Clash called “Should I stay or should I go?”  Most people aren’t blessed with long term vision and entrepreneurs act like they’ve got “business startup ADD”.  When you first start out you aren’t sure whether the decisions that they make will work or won’t work.  This causes a lot of second guessing to go on and this means that you can be caught revisiting a decision you made months ago.

If you notice whenever you meet someone that runs a successful business most if not all times they are clear with their path for the business.  Now you may ask yourself “Have they always been that way?” and I am sure that some people are like that but I guarantee that most are not or don’t second guess themselves when they first start.  I personally think that most of this comes from a few key areas where successful business people are strong… Commitment, Confidence, what your decisions are based on and if you buy what you are selling

Commitment

If you have an idea that you want to take past the conceptual stage than commitment is key if you don’t the idea will simply remain an idea.  If you aren’t committed than chances are that you won’t follow a business idea with as much tenacity as you otherwise would do.  In order to commit to a truly great idea and turn it into something you have to believe that it is going to work and that you’ll work on it 100% regardless of current situations.

There have been times when I was completely committed to an idea and it worked.  I’ve also noticed times when I acted on an idea that I wasn’t completely committed to and it either ended after a series of hiccups or it simply ended never moving past the initial idea or concept.  The first set of questions that you need to ask yourself about the business that you are going to become involved in is:

• Can I see myself doing this everyday?
• Is this what I want to do?
• Am I ready to see this through until its successful?
• Is it possible or feasible?

If you don’t ask yourself these questions or questions like these and give yourself a firm answer how are you going to go through any struggles that may arise to truly succeed?

Confidence

It seems that some people are born confident but the truth is that very few people that you run into that you’d deem “confident” didn’t start out that way or really are not.  People that are confident seldom worry about a decision they made.  Currently I had to come to a decision with my own business pursuits and it wasn’t something I figured out in a day and instead it took me the past few months.  The truth that I learned was that I cannot be all things to all people.  Development in general teaches you that you develop specialties because you cannot learn every programming language the best… there are certain ones I am confident in and others I know nothing about.

Getting back to the confidence aspect of this point, the point is that you sometimes have to be confident with yourself to tell yourself the truth about what you are doing and whether or not it is a wise move.  I will probably always be involved in development but truth be told I am more interested these days in developing my applications and systems for market then taking on more and more freelance work.

Sometimes having the confidence to tell yourself that something isn’t working is the hardest thing because you could be passing up money, further work, etc.  If you see it as that you are moving towards as a goal it becomes a very different story.  You are confident in your decision because you know you are making the best decision at that time with the data you’ve been given.  It’s kind of a “Flight or Fight” mentality of sorts and while some people may not understand it; the people with your best interests know this is the right choice.

Basing your Decisions on Money

Most people at some point in their life have based a decision on money.  Sometimes it was for the best and other times it was for the worst but that is hindsight and it always looks different after the decision is made.

It becomes a little sticky because business relies on your ability to generate money so naturally every decision involves the thought of money being spent, earned, lost, etc.  Many people have varied opinions on decision-making of this nature because it is really an “individual” thing.  If money is the only thing you are thinking about when you are making a decision then I think that you aren’t thinking hard enough.  If I choose to stay developing applications for others I would be doing it solely based on money.  The funny thought I had the other day was “I’ve developed for years and never built anything for myself” and BizCandy is my first to doing that.  I am not building BizCandy solely because of money but rather because I want to develop a system for conducting business, testing out new modules, learning, making money and growing.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to make money and in fact I’d encourage you to think about how you are going to make profits from the get-go but if you are solely doing anything in business for the money you’ll be sadly disappointed and probably give up way too soon.

Do you buy the hype?

I personally think that this is an important question, “If you wouldn’t buy what you’re selling then why is anyone else going to?”

Business owners and entrepreneurs alike are seen as “decision makers” because the dollar stops with them.  This means that besides the confidence and the commitment that you feel for what you are doing you really have to ask yourself “Do I buy into this?” or simply put “Do I believe in what I am doing” and if the answer is anything else other then “Yes” you need to move on because you are wasting time or perhaps give yourself the time to get used to the ideas for are having while you research them.

When I first started getting into business a few years ago I found myself second guessing almost all the time as if ever decision was life or death.  The thing that you have to realize when you first start out is that it’s never perfect and most times it’s less then perfect.  What sometimes separates the successful from those who dream is “doing” and pressing on regardless of what is going on around them.

There is never a perfect time to go into a business but there is a time when you become confident enough to believe that what you are doing is possible.  While there may be optimal times, most times this is not the case.  If you have a look at most successful people in your circle of family, friends, acquaintances and contacts you’ll notice that most didn’t start out under the best of circumstances; they simply started.

Luc