There has never been a time when opportunities for growth were better. What once took 30 years to achieve is now being done in three years by many app businesses. Companies like Uber, Airbnb, and Facebook grew into multibillion-dollar enterprises within five to six years of launching, helping billions of people across the world. Such an achievement, unimaginable for traditional brick-and-mortar companies, can happen now, thanks to the scalability of app businesses. This means any entrepreneur can impact millions or even billions of people positively with their idea. For the first time in history, we have millionaires still in their teens and billionaires in their twenties, not because they are much smarter than entrepreneurs of previous generations, but because of this very opportunity to reach millions and billions of people via smartphones and apps.
What I most love about the app business is not just this unlimited, fast growth potential but the freedom and fun you can have in the journey. You can choose to work from anywhere, anytime using teams across the world. I am passionate about creating more fun and freedom in my life and others’. One needs to learn, grow, and evolve to have more fun and freedom. Growth by itself is not the goal. What is the point if you are learning and growing but never have any fun and the freedom to live life fully? I believe the app business is one of the smartest ways to create a life of freedom and fun.
If app business are so great, why many people with app ideas do not take the action required to create one? We all know the number 1 thing that limits people from having what they want is lack of self-belief and it is also the hardest truth for most of us to acknowledge and work on.
Believe you can:
Everything starts with belief. Life is what we believe it to be. Many people with great ideas go nowhere because they are trapped by fear or self-doubt. They don’t think they have the knowledge or resources to make it happen. They think it takes a special person with superhero app-abilities to become a successful app entrepreneur. In some ways, they are right – it does take a special person – but that special person is you! The truth is, your background and circumstances matter less than your belief in yourself and your idea, and your willingness to learn and grow along the journey.
There are many examples of people from all walks of life who have succeeded on the app journey and entrepreneurs who had no money, no technical knowledge, and no connections who succeeded big time.
Andrew Carnegie, the richest man in the world during his time, was born to a poor man who worked in handloom factory, grew up in poverty, and went on to become a great industrialist because of his hard work and passion for learning.
Samuel Walton, the founder of Walmart supermarket chain, grew up during the Depression delivering newspapers. He was managing a variety store at 26 when he had the idea that he could run his own store. He took out a loan to buy his first store. The rest is history. Forbes ranked him as the richest in the U.S from 1982-89.
Jan Koum, who sold his app business, Whatsapp, for $19 billion to Facebook, was born and raised in a very poor family in Ukraine and migrated to the U.S when he was 16. He used to sweep the floor of a grocery store as a job, learned coding, worked as an engineer, and then quit his job to work on his idea.
One of the characteristics each of these people shared is that they all believed in their idea and vision. This belief fueled the type of unending perseverance required to turn any worthwhile idea into a reality.
“Whether you think you can or you can’t – you’re right.” – Henry Ford
Believe you can – it is a choice. Take action and make it happen. Successful app entrepreneurs are the ones who go for it and persevere despite the challenges they face. You will need this attitude to turn your seed of an idea into the full-fledged, flourishing tree it can become.
Know your purpose
Successful people begin with the end in mind. – Steven Covey
Building an app business takes a lot of hard work and commitment. When a hurdle comes up, why will you push through it and keep going? A great read about the power of why is Simon Sinek’s book Start With Why. In this book, Simon shows how the world’s most successful people – like Steve Jobs, the Wright brothers, Martin Luther King, and others – were able to inspire people around them and achieve remarkable things. They all had a natural ability to start with their why – their purpose – which enabled them to lead and inspire people.
Why do you want to create your app business? What positive impact will it create in this world?
Let’s take a look at the ‘why’ of some great entrepreneurs.
- Make the world more open and connected to bring people together – Mark Zuckerberg
- To help people be more productive so they can achieve their greatest potential – Bill Gates, Microsoft
- To be original and have serious fun in (my) journey through life and learn from (my) mistakes – Richard Branson, Virgin Group
- To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful – Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google
Every leader’s ‘why’ is as unique as their DNA. When you connect with your ‘why’ that is true to your heart, you will be inspired from within.
Knowing your ‘why’ makes you a leader. How do you find your ‘why’? It requires getting in touch with your heart. You cannot find your why only by thinking from your head. You need to feel with your heart. You need to understand who you are as a person. It takes time. It takes work. There are numerous ways to get to know yourself. Meditation, journaling, self-reflection, working with a coach all can help to know yourself. For me, it was years of meditation and self-reflection. Dr. John Demartini’s teachings also helped me greatly. When I did his value determination exercise, I identified freedom, fun and growth among my top values. I am also a vision partner at The Entourage, Australia’s number 1 entrepreneur training company. At the Entourage, we spend a lot of time focusing on vision, mission and values. Entourage has kindly offered their members only templates for the readers of this book. I highly recommend this vision, mission, and values worksheet from The Entourage. http://bit.ly/2rMvG1M
My purpose is to create more freedom, fun and growth for myself and for others. My business and everything I do is driven by this very purpose.
Do you know your purpose? Start today. Inquire within. I highly recommend this exercise at https://drdemartini.com/value_determination/determine_your_values. It may take days, months, or years but eventually you can find it. When you find it, you can feel it in your heart. Know that your purpose can evolve as you know yourself more and evolve as a person. Start with the first version and keep working on it. I know everything I share is only based on what is true for me now and that it can change. It is important to remember that your purpose does not have to be this larger than life, change the world statement. It can be quite simple like “to be a great teacher”. It’s about being aware of who you are, knowing what excites you and what comes naturally to you.
Aspire to Live Bigger
A strong self-belief and a clear purpose are critical components of a strong foundation to begin the app creation process. But do you have to wait until you know your purpose? Did every successful entrepreneur knew their purpose before they started? Definitely not.
So what gets people started? In his famous Think and Grow Rich book, Napolean Hill wrote a full chapter on desire. In that chapter, he explains how desire is the starting point of most achievements in history. We all have a desire to live bigger and a good relationship with your desire can get you started. Check out this blog to take a look at different categories of living bigger.
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