Have you ever watched paint dry?

Have you ever watched paint dry? I have, but until now I’ve never watched seeds turn into tiny little plants or waited for some tiny little green stem to show up in a pile of dirt. The package said it would take seven days. My attention span is all of about ten minutes. So why am I telling you this and why should you care?

Most people won’t care and even in my so-called target audience of “entrepreneurs”, still, most won’t care. I’m ok with that And if I only reach a few people or just one, that’s also just fine with me. This book is a compilation of blogs or notes that I’ve written while building my own business the book gets into some of the feelings, the ups and downs, and raw emotions and dealing with it while watching the business germinate and breathe its first life.

I’m now around three years into the business and some of the blogs or chapters I wrote weeks or months ago. I Brad Camp am the author, the words are my own, no one is writing or editing this for me.

So here goes. I’m an entrepreneur. My starting point to my venture is a thought followed closely by a pencil and a piece of paper. I know now that this is where an entrepreneur starts and it’s different than being an affiliate marketer, a multi-level marketer, a representative or a partner.

In explaining this book and the point of it, I first want to describe who it’s written for. It’s being written for me about four years ago, for when I was starting out and just had that thought of building something and I had no idea of what it would transform into, how it would form, grow, transform, no clue of the target market for the business, or if it would have value.

I never knew it but I was about to set out as an entrepreneur and more than that I was going to maybe go a little bit further, the closest I can define it as is “trailblazing”

The trailblazing to the best of my description seems to be, like being placed on a large piece of paper, on your knees with a pencil in hand, no eraser and you just start drawing. The paper seems to go on endlessly in all directions, there is nothing to trace, nothing to copy and no clear directions to follow. If this is you and you just recently landed on this piece of paper I feel for you. In one way you are lucky because you don’t know what you don’t know, in another way, unfortunately, you don’t know what you don’t know or you might calculate the risk vs reward and walk away from the initial thought and blank piece of paper before your expenses add up way beyond what you had ever dreamed imaginable.

Years ago now, I was a painter. I painted houses and buildings. I was an employee and I made an hourly wage. I got paid every second Friday and in the winter time the work was slow and the bank account went pretty dry. Once I knew how to paint and got sick of the ups and downs my brother encouraged me to venture out on my own and start my own business. Shortly after starting my own business, my brother tragically passed on. Over the next 8 years, I continued to work in the painting business and had no idea of what the difference was between working in the business or working on the business. nor did I know what it was to be an entrepreneur. 6 years in and the economy tanked, the year was 2007-8 and I lost my phone number, email, and Internet because I couldn’t afford to keep up on the bills.

Now, The year 2017 and I just planted some seeds in my office and watered them. Then, seeing that there was nothing else that I could do for them I had to give up, walk away and let time and nature do it’s thing. The next day I looked at the dirt and nothing looked any different, The following day nothing, and Nothing the next day either, the dirt looked a little dry so I added some more water. Yet another day went by and I questioned myself. Did I do it correctly? Were the seeds dead?

Then just about six days in I saw a little bit of green and all of a sudden it hit me. I had done my work, planted the seeds and just needed to wait. So, if instead of watching and wondering, I just kept planting, would there also be more new growth the following day.

It may sound silly as I transfer this learning to my business but shouldn’t I just be planting and building, making my product or offering better and more valuable to my clients or customers?

To worry about the number of views or traffic can be very time-consuming and also very unproductive. So instead of being worried about how many people are getting reached with your one offering move onto another or upgrade the first. Then let nature do it’s work and your satisfied customers recommend and refer others to you. Just keep on working!