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]