Flush the Toilet: Young Entrepreneurs

All entrepreneurs know what a successful business looks like: Positive Cash Flow. Or, for most of us youngsters, not having to work for someone else.

In the past when I started turning the gears on a new business idea I thought merely of how I could get it into positive cash flow, and how richly I could live. I found myself becoming demotivated pretty quickly, even though I knew the business had a chance and it would be a valuable service to its users and clients. I started questioning my lack of motivation, going as so far into questioning my abilities to ever really make it as an entrepreneur.

So when I started the business I am gearing up now, I did a little soul searching. Actually, I think it was more like my soul found me (that sounds a lot cheesier then soul searching for some reason) when I got an unsuspected gift. A little back-story first.

I started investinmeplease.com shortly after having a conversation with a couple college buddies of mine about investments and the million dollar homepage. A couple weeks later after launching there was a small newspaper article written about it, and some people bought some shares of me. One such person, I will refer to as GoodKelly, bought 20 shares. I started a correspondence with her and we shot a couple of emails back and forth. You see, the gift came two weeks later when I opened a piece of mail and found a card and $20 pizza hut gift card inside. Im in college, so we all know what an amazing gift that was. I emailed her telling her so and asked her If she could tell me more about herself. It seems she used to work as a Credit Analyst in NYC, made a lot of money, but after 6 years, grew unhappy with herself, and moved. In 2001 she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and not a lot of time to live. A light bulb went off on 9/11, and she started devoting her life to helping other people.

It was this that finally made me realize why I kept being demotivated with my business ventures, I wasn’t inspired enough. So I set out to inspire myself, and my business. I came to the conclusion that I will not consider myself or my business a true success until I am able to build one house a year, and give it to a needy family. I know this sounds crazy, but it really has worked in motivating myself. I feel now that my business has more meaning and its going to take a pretty successful business to meet this goal.

So my suggestion to you is, find a bigger meaning for your business. Some businesses already have that meaning built in, and thats great. If you or your business do not, and you find yourself not motivated enough, think of a way to inspire yourself by selflessly helping other people.