Mike Stott

Guess what. I’m not here to teach you how to get rich – there’s plenty of books and sites out there doing that – such as this famous book which I’ll be writing about in a future post (a bit like the first business book I read).

This blog post is about why starting out just to make money, is the wrong thing to do.

But what if I lost my job during the pandemic, I need money!

I’m not saying trying to make a living through your idea or website is a bad thing. It may even be a necessity. To come up with the idea to start your own side business because you lost your job, or supplement your 9-5 with some extra income to support your family. That’s a good thing.

But, if it’s just mega money that you’re starting that idea for, or trying to “make a quick buck” then you’ll find it super hard to keep motivated on your idea to grow it to what you want it to be. You’ll find yourself burning out before you’ve really got started.

Don’t start with just wanting to make money, start with trying to help people, to solve problems to make the web a better place.

So why should I start focus on a new idea?

I’m a big fan of sharing your story, sharing what works for you what books have helped you along the way. There’s plenty of reasons to start a new idea:-

• You want to learn something new.
• You wand to write more, and find writing therapeutic.
• You want to make money.
• You like helping people and solving problems.
• You want to share your story and teach.
• You like to connect with people, make new friends online and grow your network.

Hey, wait. You want to make money is on the list?!? But you just said it’s the wrong thing to do. No – starting out JUST to make money is the wrong thing to do. Combine as many of the bullets from the list above together, and you’ll hopefully find a niche you can put consistent effort into and you’ll come out the end of it richer.

Not necessarily richer through more money – but through improved skills, new connections and heck, you might even get a marriage proposal through someone you connected with online (in a non-creepy way).

In todays creator culture there’s so many places you can grow your idea and there’s people doing very well from starting that idea – check out the video below where I highlight 5 of them.

So – what are you saying I should do?

Do what you can do, not what you should do. I’m not here to tell you what you must do – just to advise honesty, integrity and recommend that you start out with the goal of helping people. Your first post might be a terrible one (look at how bad my first post was) but the important thing is to keep on trying.

There’s no get rich quick scheme, there’s no magic bullet. Just be consistent with your idea and be genuine and you’ll end up richer at the other side.