Should you DETOUR from your dream? - #AskEvan

Should you detour from your dream? I'm gonna answer that question in today's episode of Ask Evan. So I recently got asked another question from one of my YouTube audience— love you guys— Vanessa, who wrote in to say, "Hi Evan, just found out about you and your videos and I'm loving it. Great job." Thanks Vanessa. "Now I have a question about hard times that I've been facing lately. How do you know if a detour, if it's part of the process of reaching your dream or a path you shouldn't take because it's not related to the process of reaching your dreams? You see, I've already did what you just said not to do. I've spent all my money and put my full-time efforts into creating an online business, and it didn't work. Now my situation is worse ever. No money left, literally. Debts, living with my mom, and then you're stuck, but you can't give up. I think like that, but I tend to procrastinate and say, I'm not giving up, I'm not gonna do it later, now I need a job. And it's true, we need to make a living even while working towards our dreams, pay the bills, survive, and so on. But taking a job now that's not my dream job seems like a detour to me, So should I do it? Could the detour be a part of the way or not? 'Cause I also know that I won't be happy anymore with anything less than what I want. So Vanessa, I'm feeling your pain, I'm feeling the sacrifice that you want into your business, and I'm gonna give you 3 strategies to help you stay on path. Number 1 is follow your flow. The most important bit of advice I can give you, I think, is to follow your flow. And if there's something that you really love doing, something that you're being pulled towards trying, then you gotta go for it. Even if it doesn't make any sense right now, following your flow will help make sure that you're always excited by your business, always happy with what you're doing, and always leads you to creating something of importance. Every time I followed my flow in trying— wanting to try something new, it's always led to something either great or at least something that I now don't have any regrets doing. So one example is making this YouTube channel, right? I thought, "Hey, I'm gonna make a YouTube channel. I'm curious about it. I'm gonna follow my flow and go into it." and now it's become a major part of what I'm doing. And there's been other projects that I've tried and I didn't love and I dropped them, but now I don't live with regret knowing that I didn't give it my all to at least try and know if I got an answer or not. So follow your flow. Number 2 is work to learn. The reason to get a job most people think is just to make money. And yes, you have to pay your bills, you have to pay your rent, you want to be able to move out of your house and not live with your mom anymore, and I get that, and it's hard and you're struggling. And that can be okay to go get a job, but the reason to get a job is to learn. You work to learn. You want to work at a business where ideally you can learn how to be a better entrepreneur. Don't just get a job flipping burgers just to make some money. Go get a job where you're going to learn something from somebody. And ideally what I try to do is find a company that has 10 employees or less, somebody doing exactly what you want to do, and go offer to work for them and get as close to the entrepreneur founder as possible and take on as many responsibilities as possible, not just doing what you were hired to do. Try to get as close to the entrepreneur founder as possible and take on as many responsibilities as you can, because that's going to teach you how to run a successful business so that when you go and you launch your business again, you have more skills. And this way you're getting paid to do it, right? You're getting paid to make mistakes, you're getting paid to learn, you're getting paid to understand how your industry works and make contacts. And it's a fantastic way to do it while not risking everything like you did the first time around, right? So go get a job if you need to get a job, that's totally Okay, I'm not the guy who says go all in and start your business and burn all your savings because then you end up in the situation that you're in now. So go get a job, but don't see that as a detour. Use that job as an opportunity to learn and to grow and understand how your industry works. And number 3 is don't let your dream die. You know, this is a big dream of yours to start your own business, this online company, or whatever it is that you want to start up. Don't let it die. Start on the side, start part-time. Yes, you go and get this job and you're making some money and you're able to move out of your mom's house. But don't let that hold you back from saying, "Well, I tried my business and it didn't work out." Start part-time, that's totally okay, right? But make sure you're dedicating some time to it. 'Cause a lot of entrepreneurs, after they try the first time, they say, "I'm not an entrepreneur, I'm never gonna make this work, I don't know how to do this." And they let their dream die right there on the table. And the funny fact is most entrepreneurs, they don't make it the first time around. They've had a lot of failures before they find the idea and they have the experience that helps hit them, you know, into the big leagues with a home run. So spend time every day on your business. At least half an hour every single day, no excuses. Half an hour at least, bare minimum, every day focusing on your dream, to keeping it alive. And as you start making some progress and making some money with your business, ideally you quit your job to the point where you feel like, "I'm not learning anything new at my job anymore, and I'm making enough money from my own business now to support myself." Maybe not live a huge life of luxury and, you know, buy new cars and get a big house, but enough to support yourself so you know you're not going to have to go back and move in with your mom again. So remember, follow your flow, work to learn, and don't let your dream die. Thank you so much for watching. I'd love to know how you guys have handled that situation. Share your deepest story of failure, I guess, in the comments below and how you overcame it. I'm going to join in the discussion and I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you guys so much for watching. Continue to believe. And I'll see you soon. Oh, and don't forget, if you have a question that you want me to answer in the next episode of Ask Evan, leave it below and I'll see what I can do.