How to follow your enthusiasm and make a living from it

[Applause]

when you’re a kid you’re never afraid to

dream you dream of following your

father’s footsteps or becoming a doctor

or even a professional football player

and you don’t question whether it’s

possible but as you get older you’re

told that you should be more realistic

and that what you truly want out of life

is unachievable a few years ago when i

decided to quit my job and try to become

self-employed that’s what i was told it

will be impossible to make a living from

it you will need a degree for that but i

thought why not try so

i’m with my friend peter today we are

starting a new project together why

shouldn’t it be possible for me to

follow something i’m passionate about

and see where it all leads me i don’t

need to have an exact plan now but let’s

just start and figure out along the way

and so i struggled i failed i cried and

there were times where i had no idea

where all of this is going to take me

financially

[Music]

at the end of starting this journey i

can already tell you even if there were

insecurities uncertainties and fears

just to give it at least a shot and not

have to live with the regret was already

worth it and it brought me to

experiences and places i could only

dream of but to be honest my dream was

never to only make a living from what i

do my dream was to inspire and enable

others to follow their enthusiasm

if you ever had the crazy idea of

becoming self-employed or starting a

business even if you don’t have any

experience at the moment or huge amounts

of money to invest

i like to share the story of how that

beginning part of my journey actually

turned out and the three lessons that

i’ve learned from it

but right up front i want to be honest

and transparent with you is it for

everyone to start a business in that way

which i will share with you today

i don’t think so with all the amazing

things that this kind of journey can

bring to you there are also downsides

it’s a big chance that you have to

that you will be lonely a lot of times

that you will have to work long hours

and that you’re still insecure if you

can pay next month’s rent

at least that’s how it was for me

so starting a business or becoming

self-employed is already hard as you

could imagine but not knowing in which

industry i should even start made things

a bit trickier

but that brings me to the first of three

lessons i like to share with you today

just start and figure out along the way

three years ago my first business idea

was to host a speed reading course

within a few days i put together a

presentation

bought an expo table roll up book the

course room and borrow the camera and

the laptop of friend to even produce a

marketing video for it

total investment

around thousand bucks

what do you think how many people signed

up for that course

right

zero

even though not a single person had

signed up for the course

the whole project led me to figure out

more about videos which i really fell in

love doing

it is like steve jobs said

you can’t connect the dots looking

forward you can only connect them

looking backwards

but what keeps most people from just

starting their own business is not

having a steady income

in that case what worked for me was to

build up savings

and with savings i mean around 5000

swiss francs

and on the other side to cut down all my

expenses to an absolute minimum that

meant selling my car or even doing a

trip abroad because i figured out i

could live there much cheaper than at

home

so

i slept in two dollars a night hostels

with 20 other people and ate togethers

with the with the locals on the street

i can tell you

i loved it

because it enabled me to spend all my

time working on something i deeply care

about and developing my skills

if you now think yeah that sounds nice

if you’re 20 single and don’t have any

other obligations right

but if you’re in your 40s maybe you have

two kids and a mortgage to pay that

doesn’t work

and i totally got that and i wouldn’t

recommend you doing it my way

but still maybe to try to find ways on

how you can lower your expenses by just

a little bit

so that you maybe only need to work four

days instead of five so that you have

one full day a week slowly building your

own business

lesson number two learn the fundamentals

of business by the practice of doing

them

what do i mean by the fundamentals of

business

first off marketing

it means how potential customers get to

know you and also get attracted by you

second is sales

it’s how to turn those potential

customers who are interested in your

product or service into real money on

their bank account

and last but not least is delivery it’s

how to provide a great product or

service that people will love and

recommend

at the beginning of starting a business

doing all three things at once from

scratch can be extremely hard

that’s why another way is to search for

an opportunity to do it for already

existing business and only focus on one

or two of them for at least three to six

months

to gain the experience on how it’s done

this will be extremely valuable for you

in the future and will speed up the

process

just market and sell a product that’s

already existing and also proven is much

easier than creating it yourself

for me that meant just market and sell a

video app and not having to worry about

developing it on my own was much easier

than doing all three things together

what i figured out as well even if i

like to read study and learn practicing

skill

is 10 times more valuable than just

learning about it in theory

fundamental skills like these are best

learned out in the field

in winter 2019 while working for a

fundraising agency for three months

and standing in front of train station

and other public places

i’ve learned extremely valuable lessons

about sales

i was talking to over 500 people a day

and tried to persuade them to sign a

direct debit

this turned out to be the best sales

bootcamp ever

it also told me that

i should never be afraid to ask because

if i never ask the answer will always be

no

in terms of marketing

you need to find a way how people can

find your product or service and also

you

yes that’s right you

i think one of the reasons i’m honored

standing here in front of you today is

because since i’ve started i always

tried my best to document my journey

along the way as transparent as possible

on platforms like instagram or linkedin

people will never just buy a product or

service they always buy the story the

values and the emotions that’s behind it

so sharing that with the right people

was never easier

and to do it over whatever social media

channel you choose today is only an

investment of time

the last and one of the most important

parts of the business fundamentals is to

focus on creating value for one business

you know and understand

first you need to know what is a real

value to the people you’re trying to

sell your service to

for that i would recommend you to talk

and more importantly to listen to them

my mentor always said

try to walk in their shoes

that means taking at least 20 to 30

calls with people you’re trying to help

in the future

but just listen and ask the right

questions about their problems

take notes

and sooner or later you will find

patterns in which you can position your

product or service

lesson number three

find a mentor

when we start driving a car we have a

driving instructor when we start

learning a language we have a tutor but

when we’re starting a business we might

think we won’t need any help and that’s

a big mistake i had to learn the hard

way

you will have high chances to focus on

things which maybe are completely

obsolete

for example a lot of people who start

their own thing might focus on building

a new website or a video but in reality

what you may be trying to sell has not

even a demand

i was no different

i had a misunderstanding that if i

wanted to have a successful business i

need to have a huge following to get

clients

of course this might definitely help but

it’s not needed

so because of that i’ve spent a lot of

time creating huge amounts of content

instead of just reaching out to the

right people or businesses that i could

already help by a direct message or

phone

this all led me to going broke one year

after i quit my job and tried to become

self-employed

but

luckily i’ve met this one guy who

changed my life

and this is how i met him

i remember i was fascinated about

starting a business from just your

laptop so i thought to myself

hmm

where can i find those people who have

already done that successfully

and i figured out that there is a pretty

popular co-working space in bali called

hubbut

where a lot of those digital

entrepreneurs were working

so in february 2019 after working at the

fundraising agency i took all the money

that i’ve earned bought a brand new

laptop a drone and a one-way ticket to

go to that place

on the first day i’ve arrived

i’ve met that guy on the reception

and we became friends

it turned out that he was an

entrepreneur already for almost 10 years

and successfully sold an app in his home

country

as luck sometimes plays he became my

first real mentor

a few months later when i needed to head

back home because

i was running out of money right at that

time i received a phone call from him

asking if i would be interested to sell

licenses of his video app and build out

the business here in switzerland

i said yes and with his help it all took

off

i’ve managed to get some renowned

agencies as our clients in just a few

months

and everything that i’ve learned then

was later on the blueprint i reused to

build my own video business six months

later

even if it’s crucial to just start and

figure out along the way

to make sure your journey has a high

potential of actually being successful

having a mentor can increase your

chances of succeeding

immensely everything is easier when you

can get advice from someone who already

went down that road before

that’s why it’s very important to have

someone besides you who can give you the

priceless advice to either stick on

something that you would maybe give up

too soon or let go of a stupid idea that

you think is brilliant and waste all

your time and energy chasing it

in today’s time

a mentor luckily doesn’t have to be only

someone you find on a tropical island

far away

you can learn from the world’s best

through the internet via courses videos

and coachings

to this day i’ve never attended a

physical class of filmmaking or

economics

but i think i spent hundreds of hours

studying online courses on these topics

at the end it all comes down to your gut

feeling

if after all these stories and ideas you

still have that wow

i wish i could start my own thing

then you should definitely do it then

you should forget about your fears

disregard the fact that the timing isn’t

right

and just do it

but keep in mind try to find a mentor

who already did what you want to do

learn the fundamentals of business by

the practice of doing them

and just start and figure out along the

way

like the famous quote says in 20 years

from now you will be more disappointed

by the things that you didn’t do than by

the things that you did do

so throw off the bowl lines sail away

from the safe harbor catch the trade

winds in your sails

explore

dream

discover thank you

[Applause]