A short coaching talk by T. Harv Eker advising people not to quit their jobs immediately to start a business. He recommends keeping income, starting a business part-time (evenings/weekends), gaining industry experience or working in the desired industry first, and testing a niche before fully committing. He cites failure/success statistics to argue that entrepreneurs already in an industry with a solved niche have much higher success rates.
Questions this video answers
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Here's what I would say to a lot of people. They ask me all the time if I'm going to start my own business, for example, and I'm in a job right now, should I just quit my job and start my own business tomorrow? The answer that I say to most people is if you're like 1% of the people in the world, you could probably do that and get away with it. But I don't like that idea. Let me tell you why again. I have over 3 million students. I hear this all the time and I hear what happens for people. So you're either a wader, you're going to wade into the, into the water, into the pool, or you're going to dive into the pool. The problem with diving is you haven't even tested to see if there's any water in there and you can dive and you can hit your head. This is the biggest issue that I find is, hey, I'm going to go for broke. When people go for broke, they're usually broke. Okay? The stress is incredible. This is what I want to say to you. Make the change, okay? Go for what you want, but keep your income. Keep an income going. Don't just drop your income and start a business and pray, okay, you might make it. Probably it's just way too much. Why do that to yourself? Keep an income. Start your business part time, evenings and weekends. But Harv, I don't want to work weekends and evenings. All right, you just answered your question. Don't start a business because you're never going to make it. You are not a whatever it takes person. That's great. Enjoy. Do what you're doing. You're never going to open a business. You're never succeed in business because you've got to do what it takes. And sometimes it takes working 16 and 18 hours a day for weeks at a time. That's just the way it is. I'm sorry to break the news to you, but that's the way it is. So if you're not even willing to start your business part time to check it out and see if it's working and how it's working and can you get business, etc. Etc. Forget about it. Don't even bother and just enjoy your job and do your best you can there, because you're not, you don't have what it takes. On the other hand, what do you do? Keep an income. And this is what I suggest you do. If you're looking to make a change to a certain arena, a certain Industry. And you haven't really been in that before. Then go to work in that industry, make an income in that industry. But Harv, I was making 100,000 a year. And as a programmer, which I hate, and it's boring programming, accounting stuff and I'm good at it, but I hate it. I love golf. I want to be in the golf business. Okay, so get a job in the golf. But I can only make like 50,000 a year. Are you worried about $50,000 a year? Listen, this is what. Cut your expenses. Go to work for somebody in the golf business for a short time. Go to school on their dime. Who cares about the 50,000 that just allows you to break even, to be able to pay your necessities. Right now, that's all it is, just food, water and shelter, okay? And get in business. When you're in that for a few months, you're going to learn what's needed to get into the new business. You understand that if you just jump off and say I'm going to, the stress is incredible and you probably won't make it. So you wade slowly by starting on a part time basis and getting involved in the business, possibly with somebody else learning on their dime. You're not, it's not about work. You're going to school right now. And then once you find a niche, that business that hasn't been tapped or the business you're in, then you can start in that business. Now I want to give you a number that's going to blow you away. Listen closely. Only 20% of new businesses succeed after the first five years. That means 80% fail. Unless the person was already in that business. If they were already in that business and they started with a niche that, that they found a need, that they found a problem that they found that they could solve in that business and they started their own business. 72% succeed, okay? You're talking about literally 400 times better chance of succeeding than if you don't are not involved in this and you just dive in. All right? So if you're not liking what you're doing, you gotta make a change. You try stuff on. You get involved with other situations, you go to school at other people's dime, you wade in, you start part time and you make sure your business has got some legs and then you can let go of your current situation when you see for sure that this is working. And that's what I've talked to and told to thousands of people and, and I can tell you I've gotten thousands of emails back that this method works.
