Commitment is the new business owners enemy

I’m not too sure if this is a situation that other people would get into as easily as I have in the past – but I have just recently dealt with the folly of committing myself too easily to other people and it’s a mistake that sucks up your time, energy and direction. If you want to build a successful business from start-up DO NOT MAKE ANY COMMITMENTS TO ANYONE. Stay focused, stay passionate and most importantly – STAY ALONE.

 

I first learned that commitment is a deadly act in the 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene:

 

Law 20

Do Not Commit to Anyone

It is the fool who always rushes to take sides. Do not commit to any side or cause but yourself. By maintaining your independence, you become the master of others – playing people against one another, making them pursue you.

Although it seems like Law 20 is callous and manipulative, I’ve always believed there is a great truth to the concept. If you never commit to anyone, you never have anyone to answer to. You can enjoy the freedom to make decisions for yourself and every minute of the day can be spent doing what you know needs to be done. Having freedom is profoundly important when starting a new venture – because you need to have complete focus and clarity if you want to achieve your goals. Commitment to others will bring things to the table that will consume you and break you away from what you set out to do.

Breaking this rule will put your new business in jeopardy as it did to me and my partner. Last winter we disregarded the notion of non-commitment when an opportunity came our way. As my partner and I set out to start up The Biz Media – we were excited, focused and ready. We pieced together our business plan, started developing our website and did immeasurable amounts of research- we also started to sell our services a little bit on the side to get the ball rolling and to put some money in our pockets. The framework was being built and the early signs of business success were starting to come into focus.

Then we almost committed business suicide.

We started working on a project with a film-maker who offered a great amount of knowledge and wisdom to us. He also paid us a decent amount of money for our video production and editing services. It was steady work, a great learning experience and for the most part greatly beneficial. Commitment was the only mistake. We got too excited about the opportunity to work so closely with someone we respected that we ended up going out of our way to be an asset to him and his vision. We became a team.

Over time we got closer and closer and while things were going really well in our collaboration with the new film-maker – The Biz Media was becoming malnourished. Sure we were making money and gaining some experience but our business concept was suffering big time.

After 9 months of negligence, we ended the collaboration with the filmmaker when we realized what we set out to do would be a faint memory if we didn’t get right back to it with undivided attention.

An important thing to consider is that a start-up venture is like a new-born child. Giving birth to one is consenting to a full-time commitment that has little room for distraction. There will be times when you’ll have sleepless nights and you will have to make other sacrifices that will drastically change your lifestyle for years but if you are not able to be on the clock to attend to the needs of your new child 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – you are preventing your child from having a healthy and happy upbringing.

Collaborating with other people can be a great thing and if you’re on the right track you probably will have a multitude of different collaborative experiences in your career. But do not ever forget that your new venture is a living, breathing entity. It needs you to be there constantly to ensure its survival. A commitment to another person or party can only be made if it is directly for the benefit of you AND your company. The only healthy exception to this would be volunteering your services in any type of philanthropic endeavor – which is good for both your business and your community.

Never forget that first spark you had when you decided to take the leap of faith and start your own company. Add fuel to that fire and stay focused even when opportunities come your way that look pretty. Commitment to any other cause will do nothing but erode your business dreams and nothing will hurt you more in the long term than having willingly neglected your own child.

GREAT QUOTES:

“Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps.”

David Lloyd George
1863-1945, British Statesman, Prime Minister