It’s a damned if you do, dammed if you don’t type of response.
Most of the arguments, advice, or any other talking heads or resources related to business make these exact points, and then beat people over the head when it doesn’t work or if they don’t do it exactly right.
Also Thinking that they have to come up with a brand new concept/idea for a business.
This is beat into the head of most “how to start a business/marketing programs” - make something new, or find some novel way to set yourself apart
Thinking that they can start a business with no particular skills or connections or any competitive advantages.
Again, the whole hustle culture and talking faces like Russell Simmons, Robert Kiyosaki and the like push the narrative of “smart people with skills get jobs working for the business owners who can make friends and connections”
Whenever you see a billionaire or celebrity talking on TV about how they made it, they never give any technical advice, it’s “never give up and believe in yourself”.
So yeah, skipping the whole “skill” part and trying to reach out to make connections ends up taking priority.
I dont disagree with you that people should consider these things, but the whole narrative behind hustle culture and entrepreneurs as a whole is that you aren’t shit if you aren’t one, and all you have to do is get started and believe in yourself, forget the naysayers, so you will have a lot of people who start businesses and interact with people with those idioms as their foundation.
The competitive advantage is huge - a question I ask myself as I think about new ventures is ‘what unfair advantage do I have’? And the answer is almost always not much - If I come up with something that seems like a competitive edge I like fire-testing it with friends who have successfully launched companies - they usually have good questions about whether the advantage I see is real, important to the market, etc
It’s a damned if you do, dammed if you don’t type of response.
Most of the arguments, advice, or any other talking heads or resources related to business make these exact points, and then beat people over the head when it doesn’t work or if they don’t do it exactly right.
This is beat into the head of most “how to start a business/marketing programs” - make something new, or find some novel way to set yourself apart
Again, the whole hustle culture and talking faces like Russell Simmons, Robert Kiyosaki and the like push the narrative of “smart people with skills get jobs working for the business owners who can make friends and connections”
Whenever you see a billionaire or celebrity talking on TV about how they made it, they never give any technical advice, it’s “never give up and believe in yourself”.
So yeah, skipping the whole “skill” part and trying to reach out to make connections ends up taking priority.
I dont disagree with you that people should consider these things, but the whole narrative behind hustle culture and entrepreneurs as a whole is that you aren’t shit if you aren’t one, and all you have to do is get started and believe in yourself, forget the naysayers, so you will have a lot of people who start businesses and interact with people with those idioms as their foundation.
The competitive advantage is huge - a question I ask myself as I think about new ventures is ‘what unfair advantage do I have’? And the answer is almost always not much - If I come up with something that seems like a competitive edge I like fire-testing it with friends who have successfully launched companies - they usually have good questions about whether the advantage I see is real, important to the market, etc