#AndyTalks 015 – Who can you help?

I regularly PM people in an entrepreneurial forum.

A common theme is that people don’t know where to start when they create a business.

In this video, I’m taking a morning walk along the canal, and discussing a way to get started in business.

TRANSCRIPTION

I regularly PM people in an entrepreneurial forum that I’m in. A common theme that comes up is people don’t know where to start with creating a business.

It’s a great quote by Mother Teresa that I really like. “Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.” I think that’s quite profound advice.

Often what you’re looking for is right under your nose. Instead of thinking, “What business can I create? Just think who can I help and who do I already know I can help?”

I asked a guy recently, “Who can you help this week?” And he’ll be the first to admit, he over complicated it. He started thinking about — “What skills have I got? What can I help people with? What business would I like to grow from helping these people? Can it scale?”

So he was tangling himself up in knots before he even got started. I asked, “Is it more simple than that? Instead of thinking about your skills and the business you’d like to grow, think about the people around you and what ever problems they’ve got.”

It’s like I opened the floodgates for him.

He suddenly started looking around. He even looked really close to home at his mother and the problem she was having and how he might help her.

It’s only a small switch, but when you think about other people and their problems and how you can help them, things change.