Episode-1947- Spirko’s 12 Rules of Business
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Every day I get emails about starting up a business. Some really concern me because they are like,
“I am thinking of buying 20 acres, my friend recommend your stuff on permaculture and I want to build a permaculture business on my new land. Do you think it is possible to get to a decent income in two years”.
Whoa! Shut the front door! This scares the shit out of me, some guy is going to make a major investment here, I can tell by the email he doesn’t even really know what permaculture is, has no experience farming or ranching and likely no business experience either.
It also isn’t just permaculture all sorts of businesses, I have X idea, this my basic Y plan, do you think it will work. The only honest answer is I have NO EFFING IDEA.
Let me put it another way, say someone said to you,
“I want to build a full time income podcasting about subject XYZ, not just enough to survive on, but to make a really decent living on. Do you think my idea will work?”
Now you might think I know this guy Jack, and Jack makes a great income, his show is almost 9 years running now, he does great so, sure it will work. But you see the other shoes, don’t you about a metric shit ton of them? Here are a few…
- Will this guy work as hard as Jack does
- Is he as good or can he become as good or better on the mic then Jack
- Will this person effectively market the product
- Will they develop the necessary technical skills
- Will they keep up a frequency that engages people long term
- Will they develop a truly valuable product to sell
- How committed are they to success
- Do they even know anything about subject XYZ
- Will they use drugs and squander initial success
- Do they have a ficken clue about running a business
- Is his chosen topic diverse enough
On the last one let me say you have no idea, I was told no way I could do a show a day for very long, see how that worked out right? In my business I am the key variable and in any business the entrepreneur is the key variable. This has led me to 12 rules I will discuss today. Much like my tenets or modern survival they are more how to think rather than what to do, so that you can develop your own plan and strategy and further answer the key question for yourself.
See when you say to me “do you think _____ business will work”, I have no idea but my gut is NO it won’t, no matter how good the idea is. Why? Because you are asking the question and you don’t already have your own answer. So I would say no at that moment, if you plunge into it t that moment you will likely fail.
You should be saying to yourself, “how can I make this idea work”, and when you have answers to that, my opinion won’t mean shit, and when you get to that point, most likely you are going to succeed.
Spirko’s Twelve Rules of Business…
- You can improvise your way to success but only a plan makes you sustainable
- Follow your passion but understand passion doesn’t pay the bills
- No one will ever care about your success more than you
- Good customers are better than gold, bad customers are cancer – irradiate them
- If you start saying, “things will pick up” with no plan you will soon be out of business
- Become a life long student of your subject, but learn by study and application
- You had better be able to explain your revenue model to a 12 year old
- Working hard at the wrong things is worse than doing nothing at all
- If you are talking/marketing/targeting someone disinterested find someone else fast
- Every business can succeed, and every business can fail
- A revenue channel or business unit is not a business, only a piece of one
- Successful marketing is getting others to tell your story for you
Resources for today’s show…
- Join the Members Brigade
- The Year 1947
- Join Our Forum
- Walking To Freedom
- TSP Gear
- PermaEthos.com
- TspAz.com – Support TSP When You Shop Amazon
- The Granddaddy’s Gun Club
- Near You – Francis Craig
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I’ve had difficulty playing TSP podcast via iTunes today and also midway through yesterday’s episode. Other podcasts playing fine… about to listen via website now, always possible it’s me, but just FYI in case there might be some tech problems! Thanks for the show, I’m really looking forward to this one!
Yeah, it’s me! I dug up an iPad and the podcast is working fine…
I’ve listened for years, never bought in the MSB, but did invest in elisha’s farm.
That said, I’ve got a suggestion for expanding your sphere of influence.
You already have a hotlink to twitter on your page, I suggest Hiring/coding a more versatile hotlink capability similar to the capabilities youtube has. The easier it is to share your content, the more likely it will be to happen. I know that I would have used the feature just now had it been there, and in relation to today’s show, that’s untapped potential.
Even if not, Love the show, and will keep listening. Your brand of candidness is forever refreshing.
Jack you’re very well versed in many subjects. Making meads, hunting, fishing, guns, ammo, economy, politics, investing, global warming, healthcare, ducks, chickens, planting trees, shrubs, food storage, grilling, gold, silver and so on. I know you’re proud of your humble beginnings as a podcaster and its evolution to a 6 figure multi income stream TSP daily show. I doubt you asked anyone how to start a podcast or what mic to use. You can research a topic for 10 mins. and do an entire show on it. You admit to an extreme memory and VERY high IQ and that gives you an advantage over most people. 99% of people starting out podcasting will never have the success you have even if they follow your advice word for word. You’re in a league of your own Jack and I think you know this.
Jack you’re very well versed in many subjects. Making meads, hunting, fishing, guns ammo, economy, politics, global warming,food storage, grilling, gold, silver and so on. I know you’re proud of your humble beginnings as a podcaster and its evolution to a 6 figure multi income stream TSP daily show. I doubt you asked anyone how to start a podcast or what mic to use. You can research a topic for 10 mins. and do an entire show on it. You admit to an extremem memory and VERY high IQ and i think that gives you an advantage over most people. 99% of people starting out podcasting will never have the success you have even if they follow your advice word for word. You’re in a league of your own Jack and I think you know this.
Going to respond with only, “If you think you can or if you think you can’t, either way you are right.”
Of course we all have talents in somethings and are average in others and are poor at others. I for instance am very poor at playing musical instruments. However I am sure if I had the work ethic for music that I have for many other things I could be very good anyway.
Then there are actual innate limitations. While I am a good martial artist even when I was young and training hard I never considered competitive fighting. Due to a major shoulder injury suffered in service and being almost blind in my left eye it is just not possible. I had the scores and wanted to fly helicopters in the Army and come in as a Warrant Officer, you don’t do that with one blind eye though.
When we look at anyone and say, “they have an advantage” we are generally comparing them to ourselves. I think this is part of why people like me seem to lack empathy because we simply expect that others will understand what we are saying, to be blunt until someone tells us, we don’t know how smart we are. A gift and a burden of high functioning Asperger’s.
In the end though, people should focus on THEIR PASSION and THEIR GIFTS. We are all geniuses it is just a matter of how and what we are geniuses at. I mean you do realize I can’t even spell worth a crap right?