Good morning, Believe Nation! Today’s message is start small. Over to you, John Williams.
♫ I wake up every morning ♫ Espresso keep me going ♫ I wake up every morning
First work that I did in the Hollywood Film Studios was as a pianist. In the old Columbia Studios where they had a contract orchestra, there was an opening position for piano which I auditioned for, and I was hired by the then music director Morris Stoloff, who the young people will not remember.
So, that meant that every day, Monday through Friday, four or five days a week, I sat in the orchestra at Columbia Studios playing under Mr. Stoloff’s direction and watching him underscore films about westerns or love stories or scary films or comedies or whatever and had a first hand view as an orchestra member of how this process of creating and fitting music to film went, and two or three years into my time in the orchestra there, the same gentleman said, “Would you prepare the music “for one scene for next week’s recording?”
So I did one scene for next week’s recording and apparently worked out well enough that he said in two weeks, “Would you do two scenes for us? “We’re a little short this week, maybe three a week later.” So it was a series of steps or increments if you like to say I progressed from the piano bench of sitting in the orchestra and playing the piano to a young man sitting not far from the music library writing the music for next Tuesday’s recording.
***
Evan: I think it’s really important for entrepreneurs that you have a big vision but start small. You have a big vision but you start small. And a lot of entrepreneurs have a hard time doing this. You’ve got the two types of people, the first are the people who think big and only want to act big.
You’re the dreamers, you’re the non-conformists, you have this big vision for how you want to change the world and what your role in it is going to be, how you’re going to be the next Steve Jobs and take a dent out of the universe. I love it but you have to do something, right?
“Two types of people, the first are the people who think big and only want to act big.” – Evan Carmichael
And so many of those entrepreneurs just have these ideas and then they get frustrated ’cause they never get their big break because they don’t want to take small steps, they want to take giant leaps forward where you need to understand that to take the giant leap forward you have to start with the smallest step. And a lot of times people see that as being beneath them.
Well, I don’t want to do that little tiny thing, I’m a big dreamer, I’m a visionary, I want to take huge, giant steps. But doing nothing, which was what most of these visionaries do, they do nothing, just sit on your idea, never gets you to that big, giant step. You’ve got to take small, consistent actions and what that does is helps you get better, it helps you learn the market more, it helps you improve your skills, it helps you improve your connections, helps you create more value.
And then that small step becomes a slightly less small step and becomes this even slightly less small step and you get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. And if you do that consistently, you’ll look back and say, “Wow, I took this giant leap forward.” And people will say you became this overnight success but really it’s because of years of taking small steps and slowly making those bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
So you need to act. I love the big visionary thinking, I absolutely love it. You’re going to take over the world, have a huge impact, solve a major problem, I love it but you have to do something. Start small. You want to be the next huge YouTuber, I love it, amazing, but you’re not going to start until you get the gear and the lighting and the microphone and the set up and all of that.
“People will say you became this overnight success but really it’s because of years of taking small steps and slowly making those bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.” – Evan Carmichael
You’re not going to start till you have an editor and a producer and all this stuff. You’re not going to get that. Nobody’s going to give that to you. And if you had it, you would suck ’cause you have no experience or practice. So it’s okay to take out your phone and start recording like that. Start, take action, get better. And those small steps will lead to the bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger steps. It’s so important. So many of you are just lost in your dreams that you don’t do anything. You’ve got to do something. Then there’s the other entrepreneurs, who start small but then they also think small.
There is no bigger vision. They stay stuck where they are. And maybe that’s a part time income, maybe that’s even a full time income, maybe that’s even the point where you’ve built up to the point where you can provide opportunities for other people as well. You’ve got a team but your vision is still limited. Those people could push to think bigger, to have a greater impact. You’re great at executing but you’re not great at pushing harder ’cause you’re stuck in always trying to be practical mode.
“The visionary needs to learn from the hustler who will grind out every little small step and that grinder, hustler could learn from the visionary in thinking bigger how to explode their company.” – Evan Carmichael
And so there aren’t that many entrepreneurs that are a good balance of both where you have the big vision but you’re willing to grind it out and do all the small steps. And so whatever category you fall into, you could learn from going to the other side. The visionary needs to learn from the hustler who will grind out every little small step and that grinder, hustler could learn from the visionary in thinking bigger how to explode their company.
*******
And so the question of the day today is I’m curious, I want to know from you, your big vision, number one, what your big vision is and two, what the small step you’re going to do today is to build that business a little bit further forward. Leave it in the comments below. I’m going to join in the discussion.
I also want to give a quick shout out to Omar Karamat. Omar, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word, I really, really, really appreciate it and hope you’re enjoying the read.
Thank you guys so much for watching, I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is, much love and I’ll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of Entspresso.
♫ I wake up every morning ♫ Espresso keep me going
Alright, Believe Nation, for those of you who want a little more knowledge on starting small, here are some extra bonus clips that I think you’ll enjoy.
BONUS
J. Cole
Best way to establish yourself on the internet is to start small, once again, be humble, approach one of these blogs, first of all, you got to make sure your music is correct ’cause there’s a million niggas online doing music but once you feel like your music is truly correct, stay humble, start small, go to like some of the smaller blogs that they don’t get as many hits as the NahRights but maybe they’ll post your shit if they like it.
You know, shout out to DC to BC and like Pardon Me Duke and people like smaller blogs, Perfection. Maybe if they feeling your shit, you got a shot, if they put it up, there’s a way better chance that the big blogs’ll pick it up.
“Best way to establish yourself on the internet is to start small” – J. Cole
Especially after seeing, you know, if Perfection picks it up, then maybe DC to BC puts it up and maybe Pardon Me Duke puts it up. That is three more smaller blogs that still have good followings that are putting your shit up so the bigger blogs like a 2DopeBoyz might pick it up now.
And then after they pick it up now… So that’s the best way. Just start, have big dream and then just start small, But the internet is not the end all, be all, man. It’s a lot more to go.
Daymond John
Many entrepreneurs fail due to over funding. So you look, we’re in a beautiful location, Trattoria el Mulino, it’s a legendary family in the restauranteur business and they’ve been doing this for years.
But if you look at somebody that decides that they can cook and they want to work on grandma’s recipe, they’ll go out and they’ll get a hundred thousand dollar loan, they’ll open up a restaurant, they have no experience doing that, they’ll have a beautiful place, great staff, but they didn’t sell not one piece of food in their entire life and they didn’t understand the operation of the business.
“Many entrepreneurs fail due to over funding.” – Daymond John
Eight months in, a year in when they realize why they don’t have any customers, because they didn’t have a customer base in the beginning. They have a hundred thousand dollar loan now on the business and they haven’t figured out the business. Then all of a sudden, they have to close down. I started off literally with $800 worth of hats, and that was the beginning.
Azim Premzi
What would be my advice to students who want to start an organization like Wipro?
Man: Yes, sir.
You know the reality is you’ll have to start small. Like we started small. You must have a very clear understanding of why you want to do it, and what focus you want to build. And the focus you want to build in terms of starting an organization, is something that must be deeply passionate inside.
“Unless you have a very clear commitment to the focus which you build in terms of what you want to build successfully, and have the flexibility to change that focus because you’ve not judged the market properly.” – Azim Premzi
Because you’re going to go through ups and downs. In many cases you’re going to fail. Certainly in parts of your journey you’re going to have major failures. So unless you have a very clear commitment to the focus which you build in terms of what you want to build successfully, and have the flexibility to change that focus because you’ve not judged the market properly.
Markets don’t run after you, you know. You have to run after what the market demand is, what the market demand you can create. But you have to be persistent and you have to be prepared to make sacrifices because you will have to make sacrifices in the early stages, and some very major sacrifices.
And most of them will be financial sacrifices. Because you won’t get cash flows the way you hoped to get cash flows. Unless you have a brilliant, genius idea. Then you’ll get cash flows.
The post Start SMALL – John Williams – #Entspresso appeared first on Evan Carmichael.