Table of Contents
Do not chase Money… Chase need. This is the basic foundation block to qualify your business as a successful business. Ninety percent of all new businesses fail within five years. And one of the main reasons for this business failure is not meeting the NEED criteria while offering products or services.
Present or future need anticipation must be strong enough to provide a solid foundation for your business. If the foundation is weak, it will collapse. Sand foundations crumble houses. Businesses that violate the Need criteria enter the 90% failure category. The business, which solves the need with value addition wins. If you are in the business to solve the problem of people, you will make a profit. But remember that only a money-centered business does not last long.
What is the purpose of businesses? Why do they exist? To satisfy your selfish desire to “do what you love?” To satisfy your craving for wealth and financial freedom? Seriously, no one cares about your desires, your dreams, your passions, your “whys” or your reasons for wanting to be rich. No one cares! Yes, the world is a selfish place.
So what do people care about?
People are interested in themselves, not in you or your business. If your business can fulfill their need, they will connect to you. People care about what your business can do for them. How will it help them? What’s in it for them? Will it solve their problem? Make their life easier? Provide them with shelter? Save them money? Educate them? Make them feel something? Tell me, why should I give your business money? What value are you adding to my life?
Stop Chasing Money
One should not start a business just to make money. Stop chasing money and start focusing on needs. Stop thinking about business in terms of your selfish desires, whether it’s money, dreams, or “do what you love.” Instead, chase needs, problems, pain points, service deficiencies, and emotions.
Entrepreneurs fail because they create businesses based on selfish foundations. Remember that selfish foundations don’t yield profitable businesses; they lead directly into the 90% failure group.
You and your business attract money when you stop being selfish and turn your business’s focus from the needs of yourself to the needs of other people. Give first, take second. Needs come first, not money!
“Smith makes delicious food at home. One of his family members advised him to open his own restaurant. Smith got excited. He started dreaming like ‘It would be a great idea because he loves to make food’. Within a year, he lost all his savings and was forced to close the business. But he still loves to make delicious food.”
Before Smith started, he was destined for failure. He got into business based on a faulty entrepreneurial road paved with sand, a premise based on selfish desires: “I love to make delicious food, therefore I should open a restaurant”. The correct foundation is externally based on market needs, not internal selfish needs.
Instead of selfish motives, what should have Smith been thinking?
- Is there a need in my neighborhood for a restaurant?
- What are existing restaurants doing wrong or having gaps that I could do better?
- What improved food service do I offer to people?
“One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don’t choose your passions; your passions choose you.” – Jeff Bezos
Avoid Selfish Foundation for Business
You will find the following frequently asked questions on the various forums, which clearly indicate a selfish foundation to start a business-
“How can I make money starting a business?”
“What business can I start with $200 or $500 and still make $5K per month?”
“What’s a good home-based business?”
“I have a friend who manufacturers widgets; you think I can make money selling them?
“What can I sell on Amazon so I can get passive income?
“What should I import from China and sell on online platforms?”
“What’s the best business to start on a shoestring?”
“What’s hot crypto coin do I need to buy?
These aspiring entrepreneurs are “money-chasers.” They hop from one business to the next. Money chasers are basically consumers who haven’t still made the transition to producers. Across the world there are only 1% producers, rest 99% are consumers.
Attract Money By Forgetting About It
If you want to have big bucks, then start attracting money instead of chasing it. Money is like a mischievous cat; if you chase it around the neighborhood, it eludes you. It hides up a tree, behind the rose bush, or in the garden. However, if you ignore it and focus on what attracts the cat, it comes to you and sits in your lap.
Money isn’t attracted to selfish people. It is attracted to businesses that solve problems. It’s attracted to people who fill needs and add value. The higher the level of need your business is fulfilling, the higher the amount of money it is going to attract.
The amount of money in your life is merely a reflection of the amount of value you have given to others. Successful businesses share one common trait: The satisfaction of consumer needs as reflected by sales in the marketplace. The marketplaces and consumers, not you, determine if your business is viable. If you sell 10 million anything, 10 million people have voted that your product will help them, or satisfy one of their needs.
The only successful road that works is a road paved with cement—rock hard needs, wants, and solutions—not sand. Solve needs on a massive scale or in magnitude. It could be as fantastic as starting a software company as Bill Gates did or an Internet-based service which is having the potential to solve the problem of millions. If you own a website that services 10,000 people daily, you’re making an impact. If you own a real estate company that provides housing to 1,000 people, you’re making an impact.
Serve the Need of One Million People
Look around outside your world, stop being selfish, and help your fellow humans solve their problems. In a world of selfishness, become unselfish. Make one million people achieve any of the following:
=> Make them feel better. (entertainment, music, video games)
=> Help them solve a problem.
=> Educate them.
=> Make them look better (health, nutrition, clothing, makeup).
=> Give them security (housing, safety, health).
=> Raise a positive emotion (love, happiness, laughter, self-confidence).
=> Make things easier.
=> Enhance their dreams and give hope.
With this, you will be worth millions. So the next time you’re trolling the web looking to make money, sit back and ask yourself, “What do I have to offer the world?” Offer the world value, and money becomes magnetized to you! (Content credit to one of my all-time favorite ‘The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime’ by MJ DeMarco)
