This post will only take 2 – 3 minutes to read…
So the topic of this post is quite important to me, as I’ve realised some huge things over the last 6 – 8 months. But before you read this article let me just say this. I’m only 20. What I mean by that is: I don’t know everything. This is just what I’ve realised over the last year or so. So the topic I want to talk about is “Instant Gratification” and how important and vital it is to get rid of that mind-set before you jump into the business world, and life for that matter.
Let me just clarify what Instant Gratification is. It’s the mind-set that has you believing that you can create million dollar businesses overnight without even knowing anything about an industry, or following a ‘6 figure business course’. It’s basically what people think as the ‘Holy Grail’ or shortcut to success in life. Society is so used to ‘Instant Gratification’ because of technology rapidly changing and advancing over recent years. For example, say you want to watch a movie. In less than 5 minutes you could be watching it because of services like Netflix. It is the same if you want a pizza. In 15 -30 minutes you can have it delivered to your door. You have to do little or nothing to get these things. Now I’m not knocking this system, it’s fantastic that these services exist. However, because society is in this mind-set, I find they try & translate it over to entrepreneurship with the ‘Instant Gratification/ Get Rich Quick Mindset’.
So, for example, you know those success stories you see in the news about 18 year olds selling apps for millions? Don’t base your entrepreneurial career on trying to do the same thing. In today’s society, the news loves to post stories like this – the thing is, they never talk about what was happening behind the scenes. To me, this has a negative impact, especially for young people (because lets face it, we are very impressionable in our teenage years) because it creates a false vision of entrepreneurship, when it’s actually more work than people think. A lot of it is smoke & mirrors and it’s definitely not what it seems. Most likely that 18 year old who sold his app for millions has been coding since he was 12. So he’s been through 6 years of failing & learning and working on new ideas.
I’ve learnt plenty about this sort of thing over the last year. Mainly because I run a podcast/ Web show where I interview some of the top young entrepreneurs who have built successful businesses. This has led me to understand young entrepreneurs, how their upbringing has played a large part of their success, their work ethic, and ultimately why they have been so successful.
The news tends to post about these overnight successes and in the short term I admit there might be a positive effect because it can motivate people to get started with a business/app etc. However, once they fail a few times, most people tend to give up because they aren’t getting the same results as those ’18 year old overnight successes’. That is why I think It gets young people stuck in the mind-set of ‘Instant Gratification’. It looks like the shortcut to financial freedom. You can create an app or another business and be a millionaire overnight, and if it doesn’t happen, you should give up. That’s why whenever I see a story like that; I check the background of it.
I’ll admit, I’ve done this a few times with my interviews, but it’s something I’m always working towards improving – uncovering the whole picture, not just the success and glamour. The majority of the time, news stories focus around a young entrepreneur doing something amazing but never focus on these things:
- The type of environment they grew up in (Did they have entrepreneurial parents,)
-Did their parents have important jobs with a lot of connections? (You would be surprised to hear how many parents help kids secure big deals)
- How long have they been working on their business (no overnight success)
These aspects are rarely highlighted but in reality play a HUGE part in why that teenager was successful.
This isn’t meant to dishearten or discourage you to start your entrepreneurial journey, but it’s important to understand what ACTUALLYhappens, instead of what you see in the news etc. Now you can look at what I’ve said as negative, nonetheless, it’s still true. Or you can look at the flip side and realise that you now have a MASSIVE benefit because you’ve realised this at a young age and you can get rid of that ‘Instant Gratification Mind-set’.
Just keep this in mind: Nothing is usually what it seems & question everything you see.
