I have a friend who is constantly sending me different business ideas. “You know, if we were to target this specific demographic of people by providing this service…” There is never a day I am with him, where he doesn’t think of some business idea. I’m often pretty skeptical about most of the ideas he presents because in my mind, I believe ideas are a dime a dozen. Everyone has ideas. The difference between a person who is successful and who is not comes down to execution.

This is where I believe you must choose your path wisely. At the end of the day, the only way to become successful is to execute on your idea. Ideas represent different paths forward in life and they are plentiful. You must choose which path you want to walk down and actually walk down the path. You must take the steps. If you choose a path for the wrong reasons, you may take the steps down the path only to realize the path you have taken is not all you thought it was. There’s nothing wrong with that, the sooner you can learn a path is not for you, the sooner you can go down another path better suited for you. Fail fast is the term that comes to mind.

Here is an example of what i’m talking about from my personal experience. Years ago a friend of mine gave me a CBD supplement and told me it will help me with the pain I was feeling from an injury I sustained while I was running. At the time, I was eagerly looking for ways to increase my cash flow and potentially turn a side hustle into a main stream of income. So as I stared at this CBD tincutre in the palm of my hands and an idea formulated. “What if I sold a CBD a supplement?”

Immediately, I started taking steps forward. I researched everything I could about CBD. I found out what customers pain points were on CBD (lack of knowledge at the time, what format and dosage would be best, finding the right brand and then price). When I found these pain points, another idea trickled in that specifically addressed these pain points. And just like that, I stepped further and further down the path. Fast forward to one and a half years later, and the little website I had was doing $10,000 / month in revenue. This is the first time I had ever done something like this and it felt pretty amazing. That is until one day I ran into an old friend (a different one from the one who gave me the CBD supplement in the first place).

My old friend, per usual small talk, asked me what I was up to these days. I explained to him that I run a CBD company online and it was doing pretty well. It was the first time I had ever told someone what it was I was doing and something did not resonate with me. When I said I run a CBD company to my friend, I felt embarrassed. I was not proud of what I had accomplished. It may have been their reaction (either their verbal or non-verbal), but I did not like answering the question, “What do you do?” with, “I run a website dedicated to CBD.” It didn’t sit well with me.

The next few days, I thought to myself and wrote in my journal. “I’m so far down this path… I have 2 options, I can either double down, keep going and eventually I will be successful, or I can stop, get off this path, take the lessons that I have learnt and go down another path.” Needless to say, I chose to get off the path.

I had an idea, I executed on the idea and during that execution, I realized I did not want to do this. I did not want to be this person. There’s no way I would have known that unless I went down the path and executed the idea, so i’m glad that I did it, however there is a catch. There is a balance that must be maintained. You don’t want to be the person that is jumping from idea to idea. You don’t want to be the person that can never fully complete something. But you also don’t want to stay in something you don’t like.

Ah ha…now this post is coming full circle. Choose your path wisely my friend.

Here are somethings to think about when you are choosing your path that might help you pick the right path to start heading down:

• There will be tough times, is this something you are willing to dedicate to, even through the difficult times? (This is where you write down what you think the most difficult things would be and if you would be willing to endure them. Just know, life will probably make the tough times more difficult than you can imagine right now, so multiply whatever you right down by 2.5x)
• Do you like who you will become if you went down this path? (Are you only doing this for money? This is a good time for you to think about who you want to be and if this path allows you to become that person)
• Are you willing to put in the work to make this successful (What does that work entail?)

I went through this check list with my current endeavor. I have set out to acquire manufacturing companies in the United States. As of this writing, I am 5 years down the path. I have been scammed, rejected more times than I can count, deals have fallen apart and endured quite the emotional roller coaster on this journey so far. It truly is not for the feint of heart. However, I will not stop. Why is this you ask? Well, I have thought of the person I want to become and this path is the path that allows me to be that person.

I want to be a business magnate in the American manufacturing industry. I want to take my holding company public. I want Americans to invest in American manufacturing through my publicly traded company. I want to tell people that I am an investor. I am a business owner. This lights me up. Just typing these words brings a smile to my face. So… I cannot stop. I will not stop. I will continue down the path. Through the ups and the downs, over the hills and the valleys, for I know that if I keep moving forward, I will achieve my goals.

I have chosen wisely. Have you?