My Million Dollar Idea Never Had A Chance. The Essence Of Focus.

I had a business plan.

I bought the domain name.

I had business cards made.

I established a P.O. Box address.

I had dedicated business phone lines.

I had everything I needed expect one thing…

The actual business.

My Million Dollar Idea

Eight years ago I came up with an idea that I thought would revolutionize how fitness centers operated and fitness services were delivered.

It was a software based program that would sit in every fitness center throughout the world available through what I called a “fitness kiosk”.

I spent years thinking, planning, experimenting, and learning as much as I could to figure out and understand what I needed to do to create my idea and bring it to life.

Fearful of taking on such a daunting challenge on my own, I quickly recruited a good friend on mine who possessed strong legal and sales skills that I didn’t.

I thought it was the perfect balance of all the skills necessary to get my idea off the ground and running.

My confidence soared with this decision.

All seemed perfect.

We were both thrilled and excited about the idea and believed we were onto something very big so of course it only made sense that we begin to think, act, and operate like we were already there and set up shop for a business we hadn’t even started yet.

There was no product, no service, no prototype, just an idea yet we went ahead and had everything else set up as if we had this thriving business already in place which we did not. What were we thinking?

We got so caught up in all the minor unimportant details of the business that we lost site of the most important thing of all, the actual product and service itself that I had envisioned, thought of, planned for, and experimented with but just never actually created.

We were so consumed with all of the meaningless small stuff instead of what really mattered most, having an actual product, and actual service that we could sell and not just the idea of it.

We had no trouble pulling the trigger on all the small meaningless little things but we never actually took action on what mattered most which was creating the actual product and service.

Focus On What Matters

The idea finally came to a halt and ultimately an end when we couldn’t agree on terms with software developers I was poised to hire.

Can you believe that?

Apparently we thought we were Microsoft or Apple.

Were we really that silly and ignorant?

As embarrassed as I am to admit it, we were. We thought we were big time before we had even done anything.

I’ll credit the fact that we did start, we took action which is always a gigantic step in the right direction.

The problem was, we got way ahead of ourselves and in the end, we lost site of why we started in the first place and what we were looking to do.

We Lost Our Focus

Yes we started, but we quickly lost our way.

Looking back now, I have no one to blame but myself for what happened.

It was my vision, my thoughts, my ideas, and it was me who was ultimately responsible to see it through and make it happen which I didn’t do.

I screwed up.

I lost my focus.

Regardless of how big or small our failures are or how often they happen, what matters most is that we learn from them, understand what went wrong, make the necessary adjustments, and then go for it again.

“More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren’t so busy denying them.”

~ Harold J. Smith ~

What I Learned

1. Start with focus.

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.

Getting started on anything is a huge success.

While I am happy about the fact that I did start and took action towards creating what I had envisioned, I lost my focus on what it was that I was looking to create and why I wanted to create it.

I lost site of what actually mattered.

If you’re looking to lose weight, regardless of how many different diet plans, exercise programs, or fitness classes you come across, remember that taking action and getting started is most important.

Having the latest and greatest plan, equipment, or health club membership is least important.

Focus on why you started, to lose weight, and get started.

Having the newest workout gear, the best gym membership, or latest fitness gizmo is unimportant and irrelevant.

Focus on what matters, losing weight, that’s it.

2. Question Your Decisions

Whenever there’s a decision to be made, the very best way to make sure the decision you’re making is the best one is to ask yourself whether or not your decision is getting you closer to your goals or if it’s taking you further away from them.

Focus your time and effort on tasks that are aligned with your goals.

If you aren’t sure remember, the best way to decide is to ask yourself, is this decision, this task, this activity getting me closer to my goals or taking me further away from them?

Ask yourself this question, be honest with yourself, and you will have your answer. 

If you’re looking to start your own business and open up your own coffee shop, focus on what matters most such as where it’ll be located and the square footage you need versus what color the building is and what year the building was built (unless of course this is of the utmost importance to your business) which are meaningless unimportant details where you do not need to invest your time and effort.

Focus on what matters, what’s most important and not the little minuscule unimportant details.

3. Remember why you started.

Whether it’s a commitment to weight loss, a business, or a relationship, remember why you committed to it in the first place.

There was a reason, a strong underlying reason you made the commitment to any one of these.

This is where your focus must remain.

It’s safe to assume that with any one of these situations I’ve mentioned, there will be challenges that come up along the way that may cloud your thoughts and potentially effect your decisions.

It’s during these times that we must take a step back and reflect on why it was we got started to begin with.

When in doubt, focus on why you first started, what’s important to you.

You might be wondering why I didn’t give it another shot after learning where I went wrong and how I could have done things differently, better, more effectively.

I still believe in my fitness software idea, it just doesn’t excite me as much I would like it to.

It didn’t keep me up a night with excitement and give me a sense of fulfillment as The Wellness Bucket does.

It may have been a great idea and the next big thing, it just wasn’t for me to create.

And so I move on, with lessons learned, wiser than I was yesterday, with more excitement and focus than ever before.

“Your Results Are The Product Of Either Personal Focus Or Personal Distractions. The Choice Is Yours.”

~ John Di Lemme ~

What experiences might you have had where you lost your focus?

When did you realize you had lost it and how has it helped you going forward?

What are some of your secrets to maintaining your focus?

Will you share them with me? I’d love to hear all about it.

Please share your stories, thoughts, and experiences with me in the comments below.

You’re awesome…

Cheers!

Mike

Image Credit: Catpix