Evan Carmichael answers a viewer asking about starting a business in Bosnia. He argues that limiting beliefs, not geography or poverty, stop entrepreneurs. In Brunei, registering a company takes six months; in Toronto, one day. The difference between success and failure is persistence and mindset.
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You may be limited in what resources you have, but you should be unlimited in your resourcefulness as an entrepreneur. I got a question from Denis, who's one of our readers, who says, "I'm in Bosnia and it's hard to start a business. There's poverty everywhere." It's hard to get a diploma. What should I do? And my answer for you, Denis, is: as long as you tell yourself that you can't be a successful entrepreneur because you're in Bosnia, then you won't be. We're all fighting our own battles. Everybody's fighting their own war. Now, I can't pretend to know what it's like being in Bosnia. I've never been. I've never tried to start a business there. So I can't say I'm in your shoes. But I do know that as long as you tell yourself a story of why you can't succeed and you believe that story, then you're never going to succeed. We all have obstacles that you have to overcome, but the fact is it's never been easier to become an entrepreneur in this digital age. It's never been easier to achieve success. There's so many examples all around us. That should inspire and motivate you and give you ideas to succeed. I remember doing a presentation in Brunei, in Asia, and for them it was a group of young entrepreneurs, and for them it takes 6 months to set up a business, to get through all the red tape and bureaucracy to start a business and open up a bank account. 6 months! And I was shocked. I'm here in Toronto, Canada, and I could set up a business within a day. I have my license, I have my bank account, I'm good to go. Imagine having to wait 6 months just to get anything off the ground. Would you do it? And there are a lot of guys there, a lot of young entrepreneurs who said, "You know what, that's too much work. Because I'm in Brunei, I'm never gonna make it. I wish I could be in America or in Canada." And you know what, those guys aren't gonna make it. There's another group who said, "You know what, it's hard. It's going to take me longer than it might in other places, but I'm going to do it anyway." These guys were young and they were ambitious and they were hungry. You can see that they were going to make it. No matter what obstacle you threw in their way, they were going to overcome it. And that's the attitude that you need to take as an entrepreneur, because it's hard. It's hard for everybody. You need to have the passion and the desire to succeed, to bust through all the brick walls that are going to be placed in front of you. Whatever limiting personal beliefs you have, whatever story you keep telling yourself, that's what's going to hold you back from achieving your success. Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. So I hope you'll apply that to your business and believe that you can still be a huge success. You could change the world, you can achieve greatness despite coming from Bosnia or wherever you are or whatever personal limiting beliefs you have. Good luck. For those of you watching, please give the video a thumbs up if you liked it, and I'd love to hear what kind of questions you have about your business if you want to leave it in the section, in the comment section below. So thank you, and I'll see you on the next episode.
