At my recent PLF Live Event I had someone come up to me and ask me what the ONE THING was… the one thing that has meant all the difference for me and my success – the one thing he should focus on as his business grows.
And that's a really tough question!
When people ask me how they should get started… well, that's easy. I always tell them to start building a list. And the second thing is to only focus on selling stuff that you know the people on that list really want. If you stick to those two things, it's hard to go wrong with your online business.
But what's the one most important thing to focus on in your business? The one thing that makes all the difference?
Well, my answer was “opportunity cost”…
Wikipedia says that opportunity cost is “the cost related to the next-best choice available to someone who has picked among several mutually exclusive choices.”
That's sorta hard to understand… I just think of it as “what you have to give up when you choose between two or more different choices.”
And that cost is NOT restricted to financial cost. For an entrepreneur, the biggest opportunity cost is often time.
When you first start out, you will likely have limited capital. And since you'll be doing most everything yourself, you'll definitely have limited time.
So picking the right opportunity is HUGELY important. Making the wrong choice can set you back weeks, months or even years.
That's what opportunity cost is all about… you have to realize that chasing an opportunity has a greater cost than any financial expense it requires.
I don't want to scare you into inaction… because taking no action has a HUGE opportunity cost. I just want you to realize that when you decide to go down one road, there are several other roads that you won't be able to go down… or at least they will be greatly delayed.
Of course, once you start to have success, then the issue of opportunity cost becomes even greater.
This is the deal… the more successful you become, the more “opportunities” you will have. This is what we call “deal flow”… you start to have success, you build up a series of assets, you prove your worth… and all of a sudden everyone wants to do a deal with you.
And deal flow is a GOOD thing. That's how the rich get richer. That's one of the reasons why it's easier to go from $100,000 to a $1,000,000 than it is to go from zero to $1,000.
But as you get into the deal flow, it's easy to get distracted. You only have so much time, energy, attention, assets, etc… and every time you make a choice to pursue an opportunity, you are giving up something.
Usually, for entrepreneurs, that something is time.
I just heard Dean Graziosi use this analogy… he said it's like he has a bookshelf that's completely full. If he finds another beautiful book he wants to buy… well, he can. But that means he has to take one of the other books on his shelf and throw it away.
So remember… having choices in your business is great. But those choices have an opportunity cost.
Making the right decisions around that opportunity cost is one of the biggest factors in the success of your business.
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Jeff Walker