Do Shortcuts Exist To Becoming Your Own Boss?

“The best defense is a good offense” —Dan Gable”

Which one you believe is the single scarcest resource in the world?

Think about it, you are living it every day.

Today I decided to write our today post, from a different angle than what I considered initially as a good idea.

Last weekend I had a lunch with an old friend (still friend of mine but a long time to see him…), and while we were catching up the lost ground, one topic came into the discussion. As you can imagine somehow has to be related with entrepreneurship.

Long story short and because I know you couldn’t care less about me and the bloody discussions that I have with friends………. I will go to the theme straight away.

It was about an article that he read with best tactics how to accelerate your business. I found the subject fascinating and I said to myself ok Andreas good topic for a post.

Anyhow, because our tips are for young aspiring entrepreneurs and how to build their startup I modify it a bit…. In addition instead of enumerating a list with best tactics I decided to take the alternative root and point out what many startup experts argue that is the single most important tactic for shortening the learning curve (accomplishing our ultimate goal) of becoming our own boss.

OK let’s go back to our question. Did you come up with any good answer?

Anyway the answer has to do with something that every single person on this planet (as far I am concerned) face every day.

Yes you guess right (I assume….) the answer it’s time.

I think all of us want to make the best of our time and provided that we have this absolute goal in our mind (of living life on our own terms) the question is:

Do shortcuts exist to becoming your own boss?

Is there a way to make things happen earlier than what the conventional logic dictates? Here we are let’s find out what the experts suggest that is the biggest time hack for attaining that objective.

How to accelerate your entrepreneurship path with a single only action

The answer is the Convergence principle. I went through all my favorite startup experts and entrepreneurs and 3 out of the 9 they argue that the answer is the Convergence.

I will leave one of them to elaborate what is Convergence;

“Convergence is the tendency of group members to become more alike overtime. In business, this is sometimes called a company “culture,” in the sense that people who work there tend to have similar traits, behaviors & philosophies”. – Josh Kaufman

You might ask me why?

If you have in mind what type of entrepreneurship career you want to pursue it’s the best and most efficient way to gain momentum and have a shortcut in your career. A pile of research indicate and proof that the people we spend time with, have a huge impact of who we become.

Do you believe the Silicon Valley miracle happened just because those individuals are brilliant?

Of course they are brilliants, the vast majority of them are bright individuals with huge potentials. Nevertheless what the market insiders argue, is that the most important factor for the success of the Silicon Valley is the surrounding eco-system.

Of course an eco-system is composed by numerous elements but one critical dimension is the Convergence phenomenon.

Think about it. Do you have any friends or even yourself that experience this outcome? Did sometime in your life felt that you were influenced either positive or negative from your peer group?

Let’s be honest, who isn’t and I am not referring only from the positive aspect. If we agree about what this principle “bring in the table” as a side-effect to us, let’s share how we can utilize it for our benefit and not at our expense.

What to do and not to do

a)     Don’t hang around with people that don’t believe on you and constantly undermine you

b)     Don’t waste your time with pessimistic individuals which believe that someone else apart from themselves shape their destiny

c)      Don’t be with people that perceive aspiring entrepreneurs as a dreamers (yes we are dreamers but our actions support what we want and will eventually become, it’s no matter of if it’s matter of when)

d)     Don’t be around a group that invent excuses why I can’t do it and find one that will argue why I can and I will do it

e)     Do find people that live your dream and make them your new peer group (talk is cheap, if you want it enough you will act, there are so many entrepreneurship meet-ups virtually everywhere)

f)       Do find blogs, forums or sites with individuals like you, it will act as group mastermind (to support each other along the way; the path is doable but has many obstacles, accept that reality and move forward)

g)     Do change peer group even if that decision is difficult; life is about choices and trade-offs, you have to decide what you value most and prioritize accordingly

h)    Do find people that share your vision of becoming your own boss (passion is contagious) which is recipe for success and will keep your standards high (did you ever play a game and your performance affected by the other party? I am just asking).

Environment is everything, if you don’t believe me ask relatives, friends or role models of yours about the convergence method and find out if their opinion “converge” with mine and many others (for more check out that post).

That’s it for now, as always I wish to enjoyed the post and take some actions.

P.S. Please take a second and tell us if you believe shortcuts exist and if yes which are?

“You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with” — J. Rohn

[Contributed by Andreas Aravis, founder of No More Startup Myths. He is a 25-year old junior startup development specialist, blogger and aspiring entrepreneur.]