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I had a very important and simple experience recently that taught me a huge lesson. My friend told me he booked the room, teaching me an important lesson through a simple act. And really demonstrating to me the difference between certain personality types.
You see, there are really only three people who manage to survive financially in Israel (excluding those who move here retired or other ways in which they start off with lots of cash):
- Work in high-tech
- Find some job where the money is coming from outside the country
- Become a successful entrepreneur
The first anyone can do, just not everyone wants to. If you hate computers and other types of technology, you’re just choosing a lucrative livelihood over happiness.
The second is really just 90% luck. You were in the right place at the right time talking to the right person. You nailed a fantastic opportunity. And now you are the fortunate envy of everyone around you.
Starting a Business in Israel
But the third one, now that’s worthy of a whole lot of discussion.
I’ve known a lot of people in Israel who’ve started their own businesses. And the purely speculative statistics are jarring. It appears to me that at best one in three are able to completely support themselves with the business they’ve created. The rest eventually, for a wide assortment of reasons, are forced to close their metaphorical doors forever.
Or run away from Israel.
Not that starting a business is easy in other places. Perhaps a little easier. But there’s something absolutely terrifying most of us feel when we consider starting any type of business venture.
Daunting Questions
Is my idea authentic, or novel enough that someone will want to pay for my goods or services?
Is the overhead too daunting? How can I pay this much money without severely panicking?
Do I have the patience necessary to go from day one to actually seeing things through to a completely successful and thriving business?
But from everything I’ve read, these questions, despite being ubiquitous, are not the issue that will prevent a business from reaching the pinnacle of achievements.
Your idea might be inauthentic. Heck, it might even be a downright ripoff of someone else’s idea. It doesn’t mean it couldn’t or shouldn’t succeed. Just because someone runs a great hand-crafted pottery business in Atlanta doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start your own in Portland.
Yes, the overhead will be daunting. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t suck it up and just shell out the cash.
And your patience will absolutely be tested. You will worry about not being able to make ends meet all the time. You will want to close up shop over and over again until you taste the sweetness of victory.
They Get Things Started
But there is one thing that separates the winners from the losers. There is one thing that separates those who create a successful business from those who spend their entire lives getting endless paychecks from ungrateful corporations.
They open the business.
They get things started.
They jump in, while the rest of us sit around coming up with reasons not to.
And that’s where I get to my story.
He Booked the Room!
A friend of mine and I recently reconnected. During our conversation he came up with a bit of a business proposal, which I found intriguing. He’d been running these seminars that were quite successful, and thought he could expand to a demographic that was more suited to my personal experiences. I liked the idea and thought it totally worthwhile to explore, and explore we did! We came up with a system for how to incorporate what I had to offer into what already existed.
But things got stalled, as they often do.
Life got in the way.
I was too busy one day. He was too busy another day.
And even though we both theoretically wanted to jump in with both feet, life was dictating that we ever-so-slowly poke our pinky toes in the water.
But then we had this ground-breaking moment. We were discussing things, and he told me he booked the room for our first session. On Thursday! It was less than a week away.
And it hit me like a ton of bricks. Our program may or may not be successful. It may or may not even be a good idea.
But the difference between me and him is I’ll hem and haw about the details for the rest of my life. What’s the best day and time? Where should we do things? What’s the optimum number of participants? Are we actually ready?
But him, he booked the room.
He booked the room!
And that’s what it takes to succeed in this world.
Fear of Failure
Fear of failure is powerful. And can stifle even the greatest minds with the most innovative ideas.
But at the end of the day, 100% of those who cross the threshold from nothing to overwhelming success took a dive and tried to do something. They plunged into the unknown with only hopes and dreams to carry them there.
What would the world look like if Jeff Bezos didn’t try to sell books to people online? What if Mark Zuckerberg didn’t give college students an opportunity to connect with people through the internet, attempting to succeed where Friendster and MySpace failed?
If they didn’t try, we wouldn’t be buying items to our heart’s desire on Amazon or posting pictures of our kids’ dance recitals on Facebook. The two would have phased away into obscurity. And the world would have no idea what it was missing.
The Successful Book the Room
Instead, they booked the room. They took a chance where others would have doubted themselves… and now they impact the lives of billons of people daily, and they are both among the wealthiest human beings alive.
The trick isn’t to always succeed.
No one could guarantee that. Or even come close. Even these two giants continue to make errors and have made many mistakes in their lives. It’s not the ability to coast through the world flawlessly that lays the foundation of greatness. It’s the ability to try something risky that makes this a possibility. And the lack of willingness to take that risk ensures failure.
Nothing guarantees success. But the one who ultimately does succeed tries where others wouldn’t. The one who succeeds is the one who books the room.
