[MUSIC] Hello, welcome to our course on getting the right mindset. In our last lesson we had you examine what your current mindset is with respect to starting your business. This lesson is part one of untying why nots, holding you to that mindset. What is why not you say? Well, consider this scenario. You run into an old friend or family member. After exchanging pleasantries, they say, hey, have you started that business of yours yet? You drop your head and say, no, not yet. And they respond, why not? N-O-T. The reason you might give to this question is a why knot. K-N-O-T. This why knot Is an unfounded belief or myth that has you bound with respect to starting your business or if you start it has kept you from moving forward as rapidly as you might have expected. These tend to be somewhat unique to the individual. But there are several that are common across the spectrum. There is the not enough cash knot. There's also the I'm not capable knot. Then there's the, there's not a good chance for me to be successful knot. And then finally, I don't have a creative enough idea knot. At the end of this lesson, our goal is to free you from two of these knots. The myth that you have to have extensive resources to start a business, thus untying not enough cash knot. We also will address the myth that entrepreneurs are born and not made, thus untying I'm not capable knot. People often believe they don't have enough resources to start a business. That they would have to invest, or borrow, or raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to start their business. Nothing could be further from the truth. The funds needed varies generally from the type of business one starts. National franchises could be as high as a half million dollars. At the other end of the spectrum are numerous home based businesses that could be started for as little as $1000 to $5000. The Kauffman Foundation estimated that the average start-up cost was approximately $30,000. Still substantial, but not insurmountable. The truth is that no business is the same, and many microbusinesses can get started, again, for as little as $1,000. These businesses are often home-based sole proprietorships with low up-front investments. Another low-cost option, of course, is franchising. Again, while your average Main Street franchise may require larger investments, again as much as a half million dollars, there are other home-based franchises that can be started in that 1,000 to 5,000 range. In 2009, the Kauffman Foundation found that the average start-up was about $30,000. In 2015, Intuit did a survey of 500 of these small business owners who used its accounting program. They found that their average start-up cost was right around 10,000 or less. The keyword here is start. It's true that most of you may not be able to have the resources to start your dream business, but you probably do have enough to start. In a future lesson, we will show you the process of building your business around the resources that you have in hand. You already have some experience with this with our first challenge where you created value simply with paper clips and index cards. Often times, a person has a really good idea or has come up with some great product they think would bring value to the marketplace. They may even have an actual opportunity to start. Despite favorable conditions, they never really get started. They hold firmly to this belief that they don't have the right pedigree, the right genes. They don't have the skills or experience to be successful. These are all misperceptions emanating from the age old myth that entrepreneurs are born, not made. Recently, researchers have formed a consensus that there are personality traits and behavioral skills that are common to successful entrepreneurs. But the debate burns on whether these are exclusive to their personality and to their intrinsic capabilities or if they can be acquired or learned over time. In order to see how much entrepreneurial behavior is genetic, Scott Shane, a famous researcher, and his fellow researchers compared the entrepreneurial activity of 870 identical twins. They compared these to 857 fraternal twins of the same sex. Entrepreneurs, they found from this study, was about 40% born and 60% made. Amy Wilkinson, in her book The Creator's Code, reported that entrepreneurial success can be broken down to a specific set of skills and capabilities. She concluded though, in this book, that most of these can in fact be learned. It's not unusual for individuals in any area or profession to be born with certain gifts. These gifts make them special or extraordinary in their particular area of endeavor. Being born with a gift, or being born in this case with the so-called entrepreneurial gene, may make entrepreneurial success likely but it doesn't guarantee it. In the same sense, not being born with the so called entrepreneurial gene may make it so you have to work a little bit harder, but it doesn't make success impossible. In most cases, it's not the expectation of hard work that frustrates potential entrepreneurs. It's their misplaced expectations of what results should occur from their hard work. You don't want to have another sad sax story. What a sad sax story? Let me share an experience I had and where I got the name. I heard my first Jazz recording when I was only nine years old. I fell in love with the saxophone. I begged my mom to let me take lessons. I even offered to pay for part of it out of my paper route money. After weeks of begging and cajoling and pouting, she finally gave in and let me begin to take lessons. After several weeks of practicing my breathing, learning how to parse my lips, learning how to prepare my reed and the horn, my teacher said I was ready to begin practicing playing a song. In my mind, this was it. I was ready to be a jazz saxophone musician. He gave me the sheet music to Mary Had a Little Lamb. It sounded nothing like the music I had fallen in love with. I knew I wasn't going to sound like a professional right off the bat. But even if If I was playing bad, I want it to sound bad playing a song like I heard on the jazz radio stations. This was a baby song. Frustrated, I quit the sax. Worst decision I ever made in my life. That's my sad sax story. And I don't want you to repeat that with respect to your dreams of starting a business. So hopefully we've eliminated two of the main why knots. Associated with myths in terms of starting a business. You don't have to have extensive resources to start a business. You just need the mindset to start in a way that's within the resources you have. Second, like all professions are skill areas. Some entrepreneurs are gifted at birth and others acquire the necessary factors for success through hard work, formal training, or just life experiences. Either can be associated with the road to success. [MUSIC]
