Books that inspired me
I'm sure most of you have read 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad', which is the book that got me hooked up with (thinking about) passive income. I got fascinated by it and started reading more and more books about entrepreneurship, generating and managing money, ....There are many interesting books out there but these 3 did inspire me the most.
1. The Millionaire Fastlane
Probably not the most well-known book but it is definitely the one that influenced me the most.Anyone who doesn't want to be part of the 'normal system', but wants to become a millionaire one day, has to read this book. I would recommend this book to everyone starting their (online) business.
Written in a no-nonsense style, M.J. Demarco divides the entrepreneurs (and people) into 3 categories:
Sidewalkers:
those who blame everything on others. Nothing is their fault, they are the victim of the system. They are not open to changes. They are driven by instant gratification.
Slowlaners:
like the majority of the people, they have a 9-to-5 job. Work hard now and hope for a better future. Work for someone else, earn some money, save some money, ... And then they die. This approach has no leverage at all, you just need to have patience
Fastlaners:
These try to accumulate wealth within a decade, they create jobs instead of searching for a second or third job....
After dividind entrepreneurs into these categories, MJ. Demarco adviseses that every successful business has to commit to these 5 commandments:
Commandment of entry:
the more difficult it is to start a business, the more difficult it is to make lots of money out of it. If a millionaire business was so easy to start, everyone would do it.
Commandment of control:
if it is easy to disrupt or break your business, then you're doing it wrong. This means you are not in control, not in the driver's seat. If for example, your business only relies on IG traffic, you're not in control.
Commandment of scaling:
the more scalable your business is, the more money you can make. A small restaurant can only serve a certain amount of people (they can raise the price to make a little bit more). Online businesses have the whole world as clients. And raising the price of your product just a little bit can make you lots of money.
Commandment of time:
try to automate as much as possible, so your business doesn't absorb lots of your precious time.
And ... failures are just opportunities to learn and become better, they only stop people who are not committed.
'The FastLane Millionaire' can be found on Amazon:The Fastlane Millionaire
2. The Lean Startup
This one is more for bigger startups than my solo-preneurship, but this book did teach me some valuable lessons I still use nowadays. Especially the following two:- MVP: Launch as soon as possible a Minimum Viable Product.
If you don't do this, you will try to keep optimizing and optimizing your product (or website). And you don't know what the customers (or visitors) want or expect. Go into a conversation with them and find out what you need to do to improve your product (or website).
- Pivot: After every few months, rethink your strategy and product. Are you on the right way, are the results as expected?
If not, be brave enough to completely change your product (or website) and see if it gets more traction or not.
'The Lean Startup' can be found on Amazon: The Lean Startup
3. Traction
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