MBA2432 Q&A Wednesday: Am I too conservative to be an entrepreneur?

Summary

The $100 MBA Show - Episode MBA2432: Q&A Wednesday – "Am I Too Conservative to Be an Entrepreneur?"

In this insightful episode of The $100 MBA Show, host Omar Zenhom addresses a common concern among aspiring entrepreneurs: the fear of being too conservative to succeed in the entrepreneurial world. Released on February 21, 2024, this episode delves deep into the challenges of decision-making, risk management, and personal growth necessary for thriving in business.

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Introduction to the Episode

Omar Zenhom opens the episode by welcoming listeners to Q&A Wednesday, a segment dedicated to answering questions from the audience. He encourages listeners to submit their queries via email for future episodes.

Notable Quote:

Omar Zenhom [00:38]: "Welcome to the $100 MBA show. Because a better business begins with you, that's why we deliver practical business lessons."

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Listener's Concern: Brenda's Question

Brenda, one of the listeners, poses a heartfelt question:

Brenda [01:01]: "Am I too conservative to be an entrepreneur? Omar, I was trying to start my e-commerce store and I've been working on it for about nine months. The problem is I agonize and I think and I deliberate about every big and small decision before I make one."

Omar empathizes with Brenda, sharing his own early struggles with excessive caution when he first ventured into entrepreneurship.

Notable Quote:

Omar Zenhom [01:32]: "I can resonate with this. I've been in business for 20 years and I can remember my first year as an entrepreneur. As somebody who's starting this whole business thing was particularly challenging because I was way too cautious."

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Understanding the Fear of Risk

Omar emphasizes that while business inherently involves risk, being overly cautious can impede progress. He differentiates between calculated risks and paralyzing caution, encouraging entrepreneurs to strike a balance.

Notable Quote:

Omar Zenhom [02:13]: "There is risk involved, but it doesn't mean you have to be reckless. There's a difference between taking calculated risks in a timely manner and being overly cautious where it just hinders your progress."

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Lessons from Jim Rohn

Omar recounts a pivotal moment inspired by Jim Rohn, a renowned personal development guru. Rohn's perspective that all life decisions carry risk, and that avoiding risk equates to missing out on essential growth, reshaped Omar's approach to business.

Notable Quote:

Omar Zenhom [03:45]: "Jim Rohn said... 'Everything in life is risky. The moment you were born, things got risky.'"

He highlights that fearing risk leads to greater long-term costs than the potential losses from taking calculated risks.

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The Two-Door Decision Framework by Jeff Bezos

Introducing a strategic decision-making model, Omar references Jeff Bezos's concept of "two-door" and "one-door" decisions. This framework helps entrepreneurs categorize decisions based on their reversibility.

Notable Quote:

Omar Zenhom [05:15]: "Jeff says there are two-door decisions and one-door decisions. Most decisions are two-door decisions, meaning if it's wrong, you can pivot and try another path."

He explains that recognizing the nature of a decision can alleviate the fear of making mistakes, as most entrepreneurial decisions are reversible and do not jeopardize the entire business.

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Practical Exercise: Decision-Making Under Pressure

To assist listeners like Brenda in overcoming indecision, Omar proposes an actionable exercise:

1. Identify whether a decision is a two-door or one-door decision.
2. Set a Deadline: Allocate 48 hours to gather necessary information and consult with advisors.
3. Make the Decision: Commit to the choice and implement it promptly.
4. Assess and Adapt: If the decision doesn't yield the desired outcome, adjust accordingly without dwelling on the setback.

Notable Quote:

Omar Zenhom [09:17]: "Ask yourself, will I go out of business if I make the wrong decision here and have to reverse it later on? Most of the time, the answer is no."

This exercise is designed to build confidence and reduce the time spent agonizing over decisions, fostering a more dynamic and responsive entrepreneurial mindset.

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The Role of Perseverance and Luck in Entrepreneurship

Omar underscores the importance of perseverance, consistency, and resilience. He acknowledges that while knowledge and hard work are crucial, there are intangible factors—often referred to as "luck"—that can significantly influence business outcomes.

Notable Quote:

Omar Zenhom [13:02]: "Business is a combination between knowledge and information and just straight up hard work."

He encourages entrepreneurs to bet on themselves, emphasizing that personal growth and adaptability are key to navigating the uncertainties of business.

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Final Takeaways and Motivational Close

Concluding the episode, Omar reinforces that being overly conservative does not preclude one from becoming a successful entrepreneur. Instead, it requires a willingness to evolve, take calculated risks, and seize opportunities as they arise.

Notable Quote:

Omar Zenhom [15:48]: "When you do get dealt those cards and you know luck is on your side, you've got to be willing to take action and make a decision quickly and take advantage of that situation."

He encourages listeners to embrace the entrepreneurial journey with confidence and an open mind, assuring them that with the right mindset, they can overcome their conservative tendencies and achieve their business goals.

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Conclusion

This episode of The $100 MBA Show serves as a compelling guide for entrepreneurs grappling with excessive caution. Through personal anecdotes, expert insights, and practical exercises, Omar Zenhom provides a roadmap for transforming conservative tendencies into calculated decision-making skills. Listeners are left with actionable strategies to enhance their entrepreneurial endeavors, emphasizing that growth and success are attainable with the right balance of risk and resilience.

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Learn more and access over 2,400 business lessons at 100mba.net.

Transcript

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[Omar Zenhom]

Hey oh. Welcome to the $100 MBA show. Because a better business begins with you, that's why we deliver practical business lessons. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher, Omar Zenholm. And today's episode is Q and A Wednesday where we answer a question from one of you, one of our listeners. If you got a question you want to ask, go ahead and email me over@omar mba.net Today's question is from Brenda.

[Brenda]

And Brenda asks, am I too conservative.

[Omar Zenhom]

To be an entrepreneur? Omar I was trying to start my e commerce store and I've been working on it for about nine months. The problem is I agonize and I think and I deliberate about every big and small decision before I make one.

[Brenda]

Sometimes it takes me weeks to make one decision.

[Omar Zenhom]

I worry that if I make the wrong decision, it can cost me time and money.

[Brenda]

Am I too conservative to be an entrepreneur?

[Omar Zenhom]

Is this something that is just not what I'm meant to do?

[Brenda]

Would love your advice, Brenda.

[Omar Zenhom]

I'm glad this is today's Q and A Wednesday's question because I can resonate with this. I've been in business for 20 years and I can remember my first year as an entrepreneur. As somebody who's starting this whole business thing was particularly challenging because I was way too cautious.

[Brenda]

I was overly cautious.

[Omar Zenhom]

I. I was hesitating every step of the way and I made very little to really no progress. Until one day I learned something from.

[Brenda]

Jim Rohn that changed my life.

[Omar Zenhom]

It changed my business life, my entrepreneurial journey forever, really. And I want to share it with you today. Now, there is something we all have to agree on.

[Brenda]

Business is risky.

[Omar Zenhom]

There is risk involved, but it doesn't mean you have to be reckless. There's a difference between taking calculated risks in a timely manner and being overly cautious where it just hinders your progress. Don't worry, I got your back. And everybody else who's listening who has these thoughts, who are thinking about how they mitigate risk, how long it takes for them to take action, I got you. Don't Worry. Let's get into it. Let's get down to business. Back in 2002, I was building a small E commerce business on the side. And after work, I would go to the gym, I would work out, I.

[Brenda]

Would take my notepad with me, and.

[Omar Zenhom]

After my work, I would go sit by the pool and I would write tons of notes, tons of ideas about how to grow my business.

[Brenda]

I also had a very long list.

[Omar Zenhom]

That I called what if this happens? And basically, I would write down all the things I thought could go wrong. It was basically my worry list. And the more I dedicated time to that list, the more it caused me not to take action and more it worried me. Luckily, though, I used to listen to all these CDs when I was driving to work from great business minds and leaders like Tony Robbins and a guy named Jim Rohn. Tony Robbins worked for Jim Rohn for years. And Jim Rohn's seen as like, the father of personal development in the modern era. And in his lecture, he says something that changed my whole life. He said that one of the things you need to realize is that everything in life is risky. The moment you were born, things got risky.

[Brenda]

Any decision you make, moving to a.

[Omar Zenhom]

New house, getting married, having children, getting a new job, these are all risky activities. It's all risky. And he says what's really risky is not taking chances, is not educating yourself.

[Brenda]

Is not investing, is not trying.

[Omar Zenhom]

The cost of that is far greater.

[Brenda]

Than not taking action.

[Omar Zenhom]

And I never saw it that way. Wow. The price I'm paying, the time I'm wasting by not making decisions because I'm worried about taking risk is more risky. So I'm here to tell you that entrepreneurship is about taking calculated risks, going on adventures, learning from your experiences, and.

[Brenda]

Understanding you will not get it right.

[Omar Zenhom]

Let's go back to to Omar 20 years ago, when I was making those lists.

[Brenda]

The funny thing is that when I.

[Omar Zenhom]

Actually got my butt in gear after.

[Brenda]

Listening to Jim Rohn and started my.

[Omar Zenhom]

Business and started growing it, none of the things on my what if this happens list actually happened.

[Brenda]

Different things happened, different challenges came about.

[Omar Zenhom]

That I didn't foresee because I never started a business before.

[Brenda]

But it's crazy.

[Omar Zenhom]

I wasted all this time and energy making a list of things that didn't actually happen. And by the way, I had a list of things that could happen and a contingency plan for each one.

[Brenda]

Now, there's nothing wrong with mitigating risk.

[Omar Zenhom]

But you shouldn't allow that from stopping you from moving forward. One of the strategies I like to adopt is something I learned from Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.

[Brenda]

Jeff says there are two door decisions.

[Omar Zenhom]

And one door decisions. He says most of our decisions in life and in business are two door decisions. What does that mean? That means that you can go down a door. If that door turns out to be the right way, awesome. But if it turns out to be the wrong way or not the right thing to do, you can always go.

[Brenda]

Back and go into the next door, which is the right decision.

[Omar Zenhom]

Most decisions can be reversed, can be fixed. But he also says seldomly in life.

[Brenda]

And in business, there are one door.

[Omar Zenhom]

Decisions, meaning that you go down a door and once you make the decision, the damage of that decision is irreversible.

[Brenda]

Or very hard to reverse.

[Omar Zenhom]

It's quite costly to reverse.

[Brenda]

This is usually a humongous decision that.

[Omar Zenhom]

You cannot kind of miss. This is a decision like taking on investors who's going to take a big.

[Brenda]

Piece of your pie.

[Omar Zenhom]

So one day if you sell your company, you don't own 100%, you're going to have to give some of that money to the investor. That's a decision that's pretty much permanent. And it's hard to reverse. It's not impossible reverse.

[Brenda]

You can always buy back your shares.

[Omar Zenhom]

If you wanted to. But it's not as easy as some other decisions to reverse. But that's a pretty big decision that.

[Brenda]

Takes a very long time to actually implement. And there's lawyers involved and there's paperwork.

[Omar Zenhom]

And all kinds of stuff. But changing your branding colors, you can change those pretty quickly if they're not right. The name of your products or even.

[Brenda]

Your business can be reversed.

[Omar Zenhom]

Your pricing, your audience, all kinds of stuff like that. These are two door decisions. So see your decisions that way and understand that, you know, 95% of your.

[Brenda]

Decisions will be two door decisions.

[Omar Zenhom]

And you shouldn't be spending too much time because like Jeff Bezos says, it's.

[Brenda]

Actually faster to just make a quick decision.

[Omar Zenhom]

If it's a two door decision in the hopes that it's the right decision, and if it's the wrong decision, it's actually faster to be going down the path figuring out, okay, this is wrong, let me go back, let me go to the other decision. That's quicker than agonizing over a two door decision. And now for the other 5% of decisions that are big, big decisions, one door decisions, take your time, get some counsel, but it shouldn't stop you from moving forward. By the way, in my experience, there.

[Brenda]

Aren'T really any one Door decisions.

[Omar Zenhom]

When you're starting out. When you're starting out, you don't have anything yet. You don't have any customers. You don't have no traction. You don't have no product market fit. You don't even know if this thing's gonna fly.

[Brenda]

So you need to first try and.

[Omar Zenhom]

Experiment and fail until you actually have a viable business where people are buying things from you that they value.

[Brenda]

Now, the way you frame this question.

[Omar Zenhom]

Am I too conservative to be an entrepreneur?

[Brenda]

Everybody can change.

[Omar Zenhom]

And by the way, it's one of the things that entrepreneurs are known for.

[Brenda]

That they're always changing, that they're always growing, they're always developing.

[Omar Zenhom]

I'm not the same person I was five years ago, let alone 10 years ago, let alone 20 years ago. I don't even recognize that person. The point here is you're not a fixed person.

[Brenda]

You can change. You can develop. At one point in your life, you couldn't walk.

[Omar Zenhom]

You were crawling on the floor, and.

[Brenda]

Then you became a walker. You could walk, then you could run.

[Omar Zenhom]

And then you can jump. You can learn, you can adapt, you can change.

[Brenda]

So just because you're overly cautious now.

[Omar Zenhom]

Or maybe you feel you're too conservative, it doesn't mean you can't be an entrepreneur. It just means you're just gonna have.

[Brenda]

To put some effort into changing some.

[Omar Zenhom]

Of those habits and applying some of the things you're learning today so that you can become a little bit more.

[Brenda]

Of an adventurer and understand that, hey, I can have some calculated risk. I can make sure that I'm being.

[Omar Zenhom]

Cautious, but not overly cautious that's stopping me from moving forward.

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[Omar Zenhom]

I want to give Brenda and everybody an exercise to implement to get better at making faster decisions and over agonizing over decisions. Anytime you got to make a decision, ask yourself two door, one door. A good way to get that answer clearly is to ask yourself, will I go out of business? Will my business collapse if I make.

[Brenda]

The wrong decision here and have to.

[Omar Zenhom]

Reverse it and change it later on?

[Brenda]

You will find Most of the time.

[Omar Zenhom]

95, 97% of the time, the answer is no, it's not going to collapse. I might ruffle some feathers, people might get upset, but that's okay.

[Brenda]

They'll forget.

[Omar Zenhom]

You can, you can compensate them in some way, that's fine. You would have wasted a little bit of time, maybe waste a little effort, a bit of money, but it's still fine. So if it's a two door decision.

[Brenda]

And by the way, we're asking this question if it's two door or one.

[Omar Zenhom]

Door decision as a form of exercise, but most of the time it's gonna be a tutor decision. If it's a tutor decision, put yourself on a deadline, give yourself 48 hours. 48 hours is plenty of time for you to consult somebody, to do a bit of research. If you need to do some research.

[Brenda]

Gather all the information that you need.

[Omar Zenhom]

To make a solid decision to sleep on it, all the above, right? And by the way, remember, you will.

[Brenda]

Learn if it's a bad decision quickly.

[Omar Zenhom]

And then you can just reverse it and try something different, go down the second door. Putting yourself on a deadline forces you to do this.

[Brenda]

What you will learn is the first time you do this. And if you stick with it and.

[Omar Zenhom]

You'Re like, okay, 48 hours is up, I gotta make a decision. And you make a decision and you.

[Brenda]

Start moving forward and you start implementing.

[Omar Zenhom]

You start to realize, hmm, nothing happened, the ceiling is still above me, it didn't collapse, everything's okay. Or worst case scenario, oh, I had a little bit of a challenge.

[Brenda]

Oh, something didn't go quite right.

[Omar Zenhom]

But I, I'm still alive, that's fine, I can correct that, I can fix that.

[Brenda]

And the more you do this, put yourself on a deadline, make a decision.

[Omar Zenhom]

And follow through, the more confident you'll become, the faster you will make decisions, the faster you're gonna start realizing, wow, business is all about making decisions, quick decisions, timely decisions, decisions that I know that I can correct later on. Now, a word about risk I mentioned before, everything in life is risky. Learned that from Jim Rohn. Business is about risk. It's about taking a risk. This is why most people don't do entrepreneurship. They get a job because they feel like it's not as risky.

[Brenda]

This is all perception.

[Omar Zenhom]

By the way. You can get fired from a job, but understand that there are levels of risk.

[Brenda]

Meaning imagine you played a game where.

[Omar Zenhom]

You won 99% of the time you played. And every time you won that game, you got paid $100. You'd play that game over and over and over because you know that the Risk is low. I'm going to win most of the time, vast majority of the time, only 1% of the time I'll lose. And it doesn't matter if I lose because I've won so many times, I can absorb that loss from that perspective.

[Brenda]

Seems very logical, right? It's also the reverse. There's only a 1% chance of winning.

[Omar Zenhom]

So business is a lot about understanding what is the probability of success and what kind of success. You're not going to know this and measure these probabilities on your own in the beginning because you need experience, you need reps, you need to see things.

[Brenda]

Through a few times.

[Omar Zenhom]

You need a few years under your belt. I would even argue a decade.

[Brenda]

So there's no point of you worrying.

[Omar Zenhom]

About it as long as it's not a catastrophe ending. Where that's a possibility and you could absorb the worst case scenario, that's fine. You have to take that risk so that you can learn. This is the ignorance debt you have to pay off to become a good entrepreneur. Just like doctors have to go to medical school and do rotations and do hours of work in the hospital until they can become a doctor that is trusted. You need to go through those reps as well.

[Brenda]

Through trial and error, through failure, through.

[Omar Zenhom]

Winning, sometimes through not winning as much as you'd like. That's okay. Lastly, I have to tell you the truth. I've been in business for over 20 years and in a lot of ways, business doesn't make a lot of logical sense. Sometimes the odds are going to be against you sometimes. And somehow you will persevere.

[Brenda]

You will win. The human will is a very interesting thing.

[Omar Zenhom]

Perseverance, consistency, grit, wanting it bad is very powerful and can move the odds in your favor in a very strange way. I've seen it happen to me over and over again. I've seen it with other people, with my close friends in business. I always say that entrepreneurship is a balance between the material world and and the spiritual world in some way. I'm not trying to get woo woo here, but there are some unexplainable things that happen in life and in business that just go in your favor.

[Brenda]

There's something called luck, whatever you want.

[Omar Zenhom]

To call that, where things are going to work because of timing, because of circumstances, because of who you are as a person and all the things that had to happen right to make it happen. Business is a combination between knowledge and information and just straight up hard work.

[Brenda]

So what I'm saying to you is.

[Omar Zenhom]

That you're never going to know exactly.

[Brenda]

What is the percentage of risk in this situation.

[Omar Zenhom]

You can have data models, you can have AI working for you and all that kind of stuff, but when you.

[Brenda]

Throw the human element into it, you, you're human, things change. So I like to bet on myself.

[Omar Zenhom]

And I think you should bet on yourself too. Don't be over cocky or overconfident, but.

[Brenda]

Understand that, hey, there's a lot you can control. There's a lot in your ability to tilt things your way with hard work.

[Omar Zenhom]

Perseverance, grit, resilience that can really help.

[Brenda]

You in the long run.

[Omar Zenhom]

Thanks so much for listening to the $100 NBA show. I hope today's episode was helpful. If you loved it, hit subscribe, hit follow on your favorite podcast app. It's the best way to support the show. Do that right now on Spotify, Apple Podcast, whatever podcast app you're using right now. This allows you to get our next episode automatically, as well as access to our back catalog of over 2,400 business lessons. And by following and subscribing you, you support the show in a big way. It allows us to reach new audience members and reinvest with that growth into the production of the show. Thanks so much in advance for doing that. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. Sometimes I look back at some of my big wins in business and I think to myself, I don't know how that happened. Like that shouldn't have happened statistically. From a logical point of view, I should have failed. I should have lost.

[Brenda]

But I won.

[Omar Zenhom]

And there is an X factor.

[Brenda]

There is something there that you can't calculate.

[Omar Zenhom]

It's like, you know, the dealer dealing the right cards at the right time.

[Brenda]

And you going all in and betting.

[Omar Zenhom]

Big and taking the house. The point here is that when you do get dealt those cards and you know, luck is on your side or whatever you want to call it, you got to be willing to take action and make a decision quickly and take.

[Brenda]

Advantage of that situation.

[Omar Zenhom]

That's what business is all about, is seeing opportunity and claiming it as yours. Thanks so much for listening and I'll.

[Brenda]

Check you in Friday's episode. I'll see you then.

[Omar Zenhom]

Take care.

[Audience Member]

Sa.