If you don’t tell people how to buy, then don’t be SHOCKED when you never sell anything.

Seems obvious, but the amount of websites I see where they make it insanely difficult to buy something or even to contact them is crazy.

That’s like begging for people to come to your store and then forcing them to solve an escape room to buy your product.

1. Put your shop button above the fold
2. Make it clear what you are selling
3. Make it easy to checkout
4. Follow up with clear information outlining what’s next.

That’s it!

(Watch S3 E01 of Nathan for You to see what I mean)

The website/business space feels a lot like the book publishing one.

What I mean is (and I am sure you can relate), that almost everyone has a book that they want to write “someday”.

This is the same with business. Almost everyone says they have an idea for a business they would love to start “someday”.

Like the books though, “someday” never comes.

Why?

I don’t know for sure, but I have some ideas.

1. They are afriad
   • “What will people think? People will talk badly about me. What if I fail?”
     
2. They don’t know where to start
   • “What am I supposed to do first? Then what? Is that the right first step?”
     
3. They feel like they aren’t good enough
   • “Who do I think I am? I’ve failed before what makes me think this time is different?”
     
4. They are distracted
   • “I have to do this and that and this, I don’t have time right now for anything else”
     
5. They don’t think they can
   • “I don’t have the skills or the intelligence to do this”

The issue is that these turn into life-long beliefs. The book never gets written, the business never launches and the “what if” becomes permanent.

So how do you avoid this trap?

Realize that there is no such thing as the “right time”. There will always be reasons to wait. The first draft will be terrible, the first product will have flaws, but you can only improve if you start.

The real question isn’t whether you’re ready (you’re not), whether you have enough time (you don’t), or whether you’ll succeed (you might not). The real question is: Can you live with never knowing what would have happened if you had just started?

Because in the end, “someday” is just another word for “never” unless you decide that someday is today.

No one talks about this.

The real reason so many of us won’t start and get stuck in “research” mode.

We hear all of the time, “it’s hard to put yourself out there and to take a risk”.

But the reason isn’t just “that it’s scary”.

It’s that to put yourself out there, to declare what you are trying with the real possibility of making mistakes along the way requires insane amounts of humility and ego-injury.

You have to be willing to take a position, even if that means upsetting people who you like.

You have to be willing to look foolish, to be thought of negatively and to be misunderstood — all things that hurt the ego.

Especially when you are doing it in front of people who might be secretly wishing for your downfall or who might be actively speaking negatively about you.

You have to be willing to do all of this and more — REGULARLY and that is what stops most people.

Because the truth is we’ve all been on the other side.

We’ve been the one that snarks “did you see what so and so said?”

We’ve been the one that has thought “wow that is never going to work, what an idiot”

We’ve been the one that has participated in the negative “so he’s doing THAT now?” roundtable.

So when people say “don’t worry about what people think, they aren’t thinking about you anyway”

We all know that is BS because we’ve thought and spoken about others and seen others do the same.

The fact is, you have to be OK with all of that. You MUST make peace with the negatives real or imagined.

Because that is the only way.

But if you can find a way to manage this, you will be in rare company. Because the fact of the matter is most people will be too scared to even start. The bravest of that group might make small token motions towards taking the leap. But eventually they will all stay coward in the corner.

This is the hack. It’s one I’ve struggled with for years, but the last month has taught me that if I can rip the band-aid off and go all in, I can leverage something that most will never do.

If you struggle with this (and are catholic) check out the Litany of Humility, it’s a hard prayer but a really good one.