Being an entrepreneur is a passion that can’t be ignored. I learned my most valuable lessons, with hands-on experience. Yes studying hard and getting good grades is a plus for sure, but it’s not a must. Steve Jobs and many others did not complete University.
If like so many others, you believe what you’ve been told: “If you didn’t study and get your degree, you can’t and won’t make it!” Think again my lovely readers, that is bullsh*t (not for everyone! Just making a point that it’s also possible differently!). I traveled around the world for seven years teaching scuba diving. I landed on a tiny island. I build a boutique property from scratch, everything arrived in a horse cart. My business soon branched out to make more, and just one year later I was making six figures.
First lesson: Never Ever believe people that say it can’t be done. One of my excellent friends in the center of Brussels, where I was originally born screamed at me last summer: “ Julie! Let’s sell d*ck!” Rude? I know… Bless him and the LGBTQ+ community. The point is, he obviously loves d*ck, and well he made his passion his work, and he’s rocking it, and his products didn’t even make it online yet.
Ok, let’s step away from the rudeness for the ones that are already thinking of leaving. What is your greatest idea? Let’s call it your Muse. Ideas are like muscles.
From today, I dare you to fill an entire paper a day with ideas! After six months of doing this, ideas will just start flowing, it will have become a habit.
Entrepreneurship is like jumping off a cliff and sewing your parachute on the way down
– Julie Spark
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Finding the Big Idea
How can one find their big idea?
If you see a need in the world, and you take a financial risk to fill that need. BOOM! You’re an entrepreneur. I never intended to become an entrepreneur, I just didn’t want to work for anyone else.
Which question do you ask yourself everyday as an entrepreneur?
- Find a product to sell
- Find people who are willing to pay for it
- Find a way to get paid
I’d been backpacking around the world for almost 7 years, teaching scuba diving. I remember sitting at my favorite beach bar in Gili Air, feet in the sand, sipping a cold Bintang with Dad. He looked straight into my eyes and said:
“You’re almost 30 now, don’t you think it’s time to stop backpacking? I feel like you like this island? Why don’t you start a business here?”
I smiled and answered, “I’d love to Dad, but I have no money. You know I’ve got holes in my pockets. You’re the one paying my flight tickets to move from one job to another.”
He replied, “I have a little bit of money, why don’t you ask around, and see if you find anything that inspires you…”
Generating ideas for me, are also linked to my happy place. I get my best ideas in the morning. When I wake up, I crawl out of bed, and collapse on my black couch, looking out at the pink and green bougainvilliers crawling over the neighbor’s bamboo fence. Topped with just half a meter of blue sky and coconut trees. That is when my mind wonders. Where the magic happens, because I carve out time, to be alone, to allow the connections to come for my ideas.
My phone stays on airplane mode for at least three more hours. I usually wake up at 6:30, without alarm. Between 7 and 11am, I’m on my couch reflecting, I haven’t even taken a shower yet. That is the moment where I can tap into my creative contemplating energy, in silence it’s when I connect to that space. That space where I create magic (that zone of genius).
That is where I develop my biggest ideas, because ideas are presents from the universe. In silence, I can hear the whispers of the universe, I let my mind wander and I write down the downloads.
For Sarah Blakely, the founder of Spanx (self-made billionaire!) it is in her car, even if she lives just six minutes away from the office, she systematically drives around for 60 minutes before checking in. Tapping into her zone of genius. Einstein had his downloads while shaving.
Where do you get your downloads from the universe?
Slow Exploration
Find your happy place, grab your journal and ask yourself the question “why” a lot. Ask yourself if there is a better way? Write down everything that comes to mind. Write down all the possible solutions. The more I write down ideas, the more pop up, and the better I get at it.
My mind never stops inventing things, it’s always creating the next best thing, I literally had to dump all my ideas in a list, just to save them for later. There was a time in my life I would just pop them out one after the other, but that didn’t end well. Depression, burnout, staff members hating me… I’ll spare you the boring details of my highway to hell. I think us solo- entrepreneurs have all been there at some point in our career. Being aware of it, learning from it, and making sure that never happens again, is the secret.
The Long Journey of Execution
Do you know yourself?
Are you aware of who you are?
Because the better you know yourself, the more successful you will become. Before arriving at that level of mastery, you must pass by the long journey of execution, and execution is not easy. You learn it on the way but it is worthwhile, and remember do not give up when you are in the dip.
Vision without execution is hallucination
– Thomas Edison
When you have that vision, and you know your why, as long as you don’t execute it, it has zero value.
Now that you have written down all the ideas, you listed them, now you have to bring them into the world.
Is it possible?
Can it be done?
How can we do it the best way?
Steve Jobs did not invent email, he did not invent cameras…he simply created a product, where you had all these things on one device. You do not have to find the next best new thing, you can also find different elements and simply bring them together.
And how do you take that big idea, from an idea stage into the market?
Having ideas is not enough, I have 76 new ideas a day. To have the universe as your ally, you must set one foot before the other.
Clarity comes from engagement, not thought.
– Marie Forleo
The next big thing is to take action. Visualize where you want to be in the future, come and take a snapshot of that.
I sit in silence every day and connect with the universe, and with the deepest part of myself, where I find my answers. Because in the end, I consult with a lot of people, but I always make the final decisions myself. I try to avoid the influence of others, especially from the strongest influencers in my life. The voices of the people we love most can often become so loud that you can’t listen to yours anymore. Once I understood the difference between an advisor and a dictator in my life, that is when I stepped into my true power.
I reach for the sky, and the sky is the limit, I have always functioned like that. My first boss was such an inspiration for me, he believed in me and he saw some magic, and for his own benefit he cracked it out of me and I flew straight up into the sky. Merci, P.
Sometimes all you need to believe in yourself is to find someone that believes in you.
Someone that wants you to aim high, because that person knows that you can reach it. I hope I can be that person for you, I hope I can be that person that inspires you to believe in yourself. Inspire you to use that energy for yourself. Letting go of that fake feeling of insecurity, which doesn’t exist. Do not let fear dictate your life.
People generally do not set their goals high enough. P told me to flip everything to my advantage, everything is a question of perception and you can turn everything into a positive.
I was sitting in his office one day, and I told him, “I am so sorry, I know I am so impatient.” He smiled at me and he is by far the best salesperson I have ever met in my life, and he told me well that can actually be an advantage. It means you don’t waste any time. I smiled at him and I nodded because he was right. I did not waste any time.
Faith is essential for creating a life that you truly want. I’d say BELIEVE. Until things never go the way we want them to go, sometimes you don’t have what it takes, it doesn’t mean you have to give up. And you must keep believing, especially in the darkest times.
The Plan
Reality
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Entrepreneurship is like jumping off a cliff and sewing your parachute on the way down. Julie Spark
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This inspirational video is for you if:
- You want to figure out if you’d like to be an entrepreneur
- You are ready to learn the art of teamwork so that you can easily have the key skills required to have a successful career
- You have never worked in an organization (where you truly felt seen and heard previously)
- You are excited to be guided by entrepreneurs who’ve walked the journey and will support you along the way
- You want the knowledge of how to navigate the digital online work jungle and how to maximize your career success
“Work is the first connection we have with a group of people and when we know how to authentically feel save and share our service with them, we realize that work is a high-level creation of unique beings coming together.”
