I base my life on goal achievement.
I think it’s the key to begin the way to a life of fulfillment, which inevitably ends up in that feeling of happiness we all seek.
If we ask anyone in the street what he wants to be, “happy” is the answer. When we ask any parents what they would like for their kids, “happiness” is the answer again. They never say “rich”, “strong”, “tall”, “beautiful”, or “smart”.
It’s a curious thing…
The ancient philosophers have been wondering all their lives the meaning of happiness, and you can find out all kinds of answers.
For me, “goal achievement” is the right one.
- The one that gives sense to my life.
- The one that motivates me to do things, to convert diffuse goals into daily action items that will take me to the destiny I have created in my mind.
- The one that takes me to that feeling of happiness so nice and desired.
I decided to start writing on Medium because writing has been my life’s dream. I love it. Sooner or later, you should start working on your dreams. Nobody but you will do it.
As I said in this article’s title, I’ve earned my first 27 cents on Medium today.
I guess that doesn’t mean anything to you (I hope and wish you have more exciting things in your life than this “stupid” issue), but I’d like to share a thought that I’ll try to make useful to you.
I never want to waste people’s time and you, as a reader, deserve all my respect (and my gratitude), just for reading what a guy like me, an ordinary guy, can tell you.
That’s why I always try to share useful and pragmatic ideas, thoughts, behaviors, and stuff that’s been critical to me and, of course, that worked for me.
Let’s dive in!
I started writing on Medium on September 8th, 2020. Yes, just one month ago.
The last couple of weeks, I created a bank account and, as usually happens in life, nothing’s easy. I had an incident that delayed the whole process.
Finally, as generally occurs too (the mere passage of time uses to solve everything in life), I got my account activated a couple of days ago.
I joined MPP (Medium Partner Program) and connect through Stripe my “suffered” bank account. It worked! Thanks Medium, thanks Stripe, and, why not, thanks “dear” bank!
Then I moved all my articles (22) behind Medium’s paywall.
I just needed to wait… How naive we newbies are…
Just in case you’re a newbie like me, these are my figures for 30 days.
I’d like to thank two publications for taking care of me: The Innovation (thanks, Esat Artug) and Data Driven Investor (thanks, Justin Chan and Irshad Ahmad). It’s impressive the fantastic work these two publications are making, helping new writers “spread our word”.
Today, two days later, the bell rang.
27 cents were in.
This sensation took me back almost 20 years ago when I sold my first service in the first company I created. It was a 2 hours stewardess service for an event: 50 euros.
That can sound funny 20 years later, when we are a holding of 3 different enterprises, with more than 40 employees, generating 7 figures per year.
But it’s not.
As you can see, I still remember those 50 euros.
They were the beginning of everything, mainly because I had spent, previously, 6 months working on a non-stop basis for 16 hours every day without earning a cent.
I was almost thinking about leaving my project and starting looking for a new job in any other company. My “entrepreneurship spirit” was practically dead.
That’s why, as an entrepreneur, you shouldn’t neglect these moments.
These milestones are beautiful, motivating, and critical. They are much more important than you may think if you just focus on the money.
Money should never be a goal by itself. Money is the consequence of working hard, tough, and, mainly, well, in the right direction, listening to the market, improving each day, being better step by step.
If you do so, it’s just a matter of time that money will come.
Money is just a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) of how you are performing. Don’t “pay” it more attention. It’s at the same level as customer satisfaction, quality of your products, or any other you may think.
Whenever you receive a payment from anyone, that means you’re giving real added-value to the market, no matter how significant that figure is.
If someone pays one cent for a product or service you’ve made, it means it’s worth it. Especially in this era, in which it seems you can have everything for free.
That’s what those 27 cents mean.
Now, I might be for 3 years just earning that amount each month, but that wouldn’t matter.
Someday, things will work.
It always happens if you keep on working, paying attention to modifying how you do the stuff, learning, asking the ones who know how the story goes, reading, polishing your processes, diversifying, training, sharing… You can do lots of things to, finally, succeed.
The long term always pays off.
That’s what motivates me. On the way, you will improve, you will grow, you will be better.
We’re not usually fools.
Sooner or later, we learn how to do things. It’s just a matter of time. Time’s always on your side if you have a long-term mentality.
“I’m ignorant but not stupid, so that I can learn.”
— Jeffrey Madoff.
So, if you are an entrepreneur, pay attention to these little signals the market sends to you. They are indicators of your performance.
They’ll show you if you’re going in the right direction. If your product or service is demanded, needed, or valued.
Paying attention to these signals is how you plan your movements, how you design your strategy, how you implement it, and how you take action.
Action means movement.
If you move in the right direction, success will be waiting for you at the end of the road. Focus your energy on making the right action items every day, without stopping.
Keep testing. Keep improving. Keep growing.
Last but not least: enjoy your journey. That’s where true self-fulfillment lies, and where you will find happiness.
And, all that, just for 27 cents.
Photo at the top courtesy of Aline de Nadai on Unsplash.
