How many times should you start a business?

My Taekwondo teacher gives me a hard time if I miss a class.

Basically, you better have a good reason for not being there.   He doesn’t care if you had a headache, or a social function to be at.   You miss Taekwondo, and it is entirely your responsibility.   And that’s it.  

The very first time anyone turns up to the class they get an introductory lesson.   This means standing and listening to him talk about the discipline, and then attempting to kick as high as you possibly can.   My teacher is about seven foot tall, and he holds the kick pad out at arm’s length, so reaching it with your leg is pretty difficult.   Besides, you’re new to the whole thing, so you are no way near supple enough to make it.   It is not pretty, you spend those few minutes looking stupid.

This is, of course, your first test, because if you can stand looking really useless and still turn up to the next class then you are showing an inkling of committment.  

In this first class he also shares his philosophy regarding persistence.   He asks how many times we should try something before giving up.   And he asks for a number.

I remember my response.   There were some students behind me at the time so I was fairly self-cosncious.   But I threw in ‘twenty times’, thinking this sounded a large enough number to sound serious.

‘A hundred times’, replied my teacher.  

He runs two classes a week.   He makes you pay for a year upfront.   He does this so that every new student is committed to 100 lessons before they consider giving up.

It’s an interesting approach.

How Many Times Should You Try In Business?

The marines state that you have to practise a new hand-to-hand combat technique 3000 times before it becomes instinctive.   When I say instinctive I mean doing something perfectly and without thinking.  

When you start a business, you have the option of giving up every day.   You can be ‘absent’ literally, by not doing anything, or you can be ‘absent’ by just going through the motions.

My Taekwondo teacher insists that we have no right to give up on anything unless we can say we have tried it a hundred times.  

What does this mean for your home business?   If you make ten sales calls today, and one hundred tomorrow, which is going to be your best business day?

When is it right to quit email marketing?   When you have written five emails, or one hundred?

How many times are you just going to think about it?

If you ask my teacher how to become a black belt, he’ll say…

A black belt is just a white belt who never gave up.

How many times should you ‘try’ and start a business before you give up?  Once, or one hundred times?

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This is the first post in the Smart Mind, Body and Spirit category of the blog.   While this area may not (immediately) sound like it has anything to do with homeworking, it most certainly does.   In fact, if you don’t pay attention to this stuff from the very start of your homeworking career, you can pretty much throw all of your home business plans out of the window.

Why?   Well, I’m going to make an assumption.   It’s a pretty safe one.   I am going to assume that you fall into one of two categories right now.   Your life, in other words, is either Type A or Type B.   This has nothing to do with personality types; it is just something I have created, so go with me on it.   

The Two Types

Type A lives are spent in an office or some other four-walled environment.   In other words, you have a full or at least part-time job.

Type B lives are spent at home, working.   Whether you are enjoying it or not is irrelevant for the purposes of this post.   You are at home and you are working, that’s it.  

Now, your mind, body and spirit have a massive impact upon your life, whether it is a Type A or B life.   If you need to know why, just ask yourself this question: what happens if I get sick?

Before I go on, I’m not talking about serious illness, I’m talking about a bad cold, or a stomach bug, or a migraine, basically any of the millions of reasons that get thrown up at about 7.30 am every Monday morning.   That kind of sick.

The Type A people get paid to be this kind of sick (the majority of them at least).   At the very worst, they have to have some kind of interview when they return from their sickness, where a manager asks them some questions that go on file so that they can be reviewed if this kind of sickness turns into absenteeism.   The whole process is generally harmless, and never turns into a major problem, because sickness like this is usually intermittent.

The Type B people, however, do not get paid to be sick.  

Why You Cannot Afford To Get Sick

The Type B people are totally responsible for the income that comes into their Type B life.   If they get sick, they have to rely upon their Type B life savings, or get their Type B behind back in the saddle pretty damn quick, so that they can catch up on the income generating work that puts bread on the table.  

So you can appreciate why your mind, body and spirit is so important.   If your mind isn’t working, you can’t be creative, you can’t concentrate, and your income suffers.   If your body suffers, you can’t work to your best potential.   If your spirit suffers, you aren’t motivated; you can’t stay strong, and so on.

So that is why we are going to be looking at how you can develop a Smart Mind, Body and Spirit.  And I do not in any way exaggerate when I state that this could well be the most important area of this blog.  

We are going to be taking a look at one of the most vital sources of Smartness in the next post in this category.   That source is water, and we are going to see just how crucial water is to the life of the Smart Homeworker.  

So until then, get your Type B behind back in that saddle, and work smart. 

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