Spreadthinitus - GoFuckYourself.com

MarkTiarra · 02-23-2009, 01:23 PM

Got myself motivated to do another blog post... It's a theme I touched on before but it's even more relevant now.

For all the posts see:
http://www.guaranteeddesigns.com/blog/

Spreadthinitus:

It?s a disease that some say originated in ancient Rome where the emperors would marry many wives and still somehow father illegitimate children. Others claim it began much later in North America where industrious settlers felt they could and should do everything that was needed for their colony. Me? I first saw it happening in the late ?90s to myself when I attempted to run sites, start some new paysites, run a trade organization (The UAS for those who remember), launch an indy record label and have a newborn son. Yes I could do it all! Why not? That?s what a successful person does right? They take every opportunity by the horns and they run with it. This was the Internet. You can buy a domain for a few bucks and get a couple partners (or maybe they came to you) and it?s just an hour or so here or there and it?ll kick ass right?

Well in the words of an old martial arts sensei I had: ?Picture each thing you are trying to accomplish as being a belt tied around your waist with the challenges of doing it well as a weight attached to the belt behind you. The more things you do, the more weight you carry? but worse yet, even those things that seem light of weight? if you go in too many directions they all pull against one another and you only end up back in the middle.?

So many of us as Internet entrepreneurs are constantly thinking up new ideas and being presented with opportunities to get involved in other people?s ideas. In these bad economic times it?s even more tempting to try and wear as many belts as come to you. But the truth of it almost always is that the more you do, the better chance you have of simply ending up right back where you started. What makes it more troublesome is you end up back there with a sense that you are a failure. The things you took on to do seemed so simple, how could they not succeed? But the truth of it usually is that it was in the trying to do too much that it is impossible to succeed at any of those things no matter how simple. Focused energy and thought are vastly underrated compared to the ideal of ?hard work.? You can work hard all you want but if it?s hard work spread thinly (?Spreadthinitus? I say!) then you might as well be expending all that effort to see how fast you can run in place.

So this blog entry I hope serves as a little reminder (I know it is for myself) to not try and grow your business by adding more projects but rather by focusing your energies into making the best projects. When it does come time to expand into other projects/areas it can only succeed on a great level with the addition of personnel who add their focus to that project/aspect of the business. All the proverbial weighted belts can?t go around the same waist. Somewhere a genius mathematician I?m sure can give us an equation for personnel resources and focus needed to succeed against the weight of work and attention needed.

I hope this advice is useful to you or gives you pause for thought whether you are in that stage where it?s mostly your own efforts you need to maximize or if your business has made it to that point where you are growing it beyond an entrepreneurship. I know that I?ll need someone to remind me of this post this year, maybe more than once!

Good luck to you all and may your profits exceed you expectations!

who · 02-23-2009, 01:25 PM

Thanks for your blog post but this is not your blog.

notime · 02-23-2009, 01:26 PM

I just read "Good luck to you all and may your profits exceed you expectations!" and continue the reading the rest now...

MarkTiarra · 02-23-2009, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by who

Thanks for your blog post but this is not your blog.

Umm yeah but people seem to get annoyed if I make a post just saying go to my blog so I post the whole thing here with a link if you care to go. Is that a crime?

02-23-2009, 01:23 PM	#1
MarkTiarra Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: NJ Posts: 3,833	Spreadthinitus Got myself motivated to do another blog post... It's a theme I touched on before but it's even more relevant now. For all the posts see: http://www.guaranteeddesigns.com/blog/ Spreadthinitus: It?s a disease that some say originated in ancient Rome where the emperors would marry many wives and still somehow father illegitimate children. Others claim it began much later in North America where industrious settlers felt they could and should do everything that was needed for their colony. Me? I first saw it happening in the late ?90s to myself when I attempted to run sites, start some new paysites, run a trade organization (The UAS for those who remember), launch an indy record label and have a newborn son. Yes I could do it all! Why not? That?s what a successful person does right? They take every opportunity by the horns and they run with it. This was the Internet. You can buy a domain for a few bucks and get a couple partners (or maybe they came to you) and it?s just an hour or so here or there and it?ll kick ass right? Well in the words of an old martial arts sensei I had: ?Picture each thing you are trying to accomplish as being a belt tied around your waist with the challenges of doing it well as a weight attached to the belt behind you. The more things you do, the more weight you carry? but worse yet, even those things that seem light of weight? if you go in too many directions they all pull against one another and you only end up back in the middle.? So many of us as Internet entrepreneurs are constantly thinking up new ideas and being presented with opportunities to get involved in other people?s ideas. In these bad economic times it?s even more tempting to try and wear as many belts as come to you. But the truth of it almost always is that the more you do, the better chance you have of simply ending up right back where you started. What makes it more troublesome is you end up back there with a sense that you are a failure. The things you took on to do seemed so simple, how could they not succeed? But the truth of it usually is that it was in the trying to do too much that it is impossible to succeed at any of those things no matter how simple. Focused energy and thought are vastly underrated compared to the ideal of ?hard work.? You can work hard all you want but if it?s hard work spread thinly (?Spreadthinitus? I say!) then you might as well be expending all that effort to see how fast you can run in place. So this blog entry I hope serves as a little reminder (I know it is for myself) to not try and grow your business by adding more projects but rather by focusing your energies into making the best projects. When it does come time to expand into other projects/areas it can only succeed on a great level with the addition of personnel who add their focus to that project/aspect of the business. All the proverbial weighted belts can?t go around the same waist. Somewhere a genius mathematician I?m sure can give us an equation for personnel resources and focus needed to succeed against the weight of work and attention needed. I hope this advice is useful to you or gives you pause for thought whether you are in that stage where it?s mostly your own efforts you need to maximize or if your business has made it to that point where you are growing it beyond an entrepreneurship. I know that I?ll need someone to remind me of this post this year, maybe more than once! Good luck to you all and may your profits exceed you expectations! __________________ Retired Pornosticator

02-23-2009, 01:25 PM	#2
who So Fucking Banned Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: ICQ #23642053 Posts: 19,593	Thanks for your blog post but this is not your blog.

02-23-2009, 01:26 PM	#3
notime Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: cyberspace Posts: 8,021	I just read "Good luck to you all and may your profits exceed you expectations!" and continue the reading the rest now...