The Myth of Starting Small

You are always told to start small. You are also told not to stay small. But we need to face the reality of Starting small. Does everyone has the capability of starting small? How will starting small help me become big? What are the things that need to be put in place before I can start small?

The fact is, not everyone that started small and ended up big, some are still small and may still remain small, some failed while starting small and they gave up while some started small and ended up big.

If you were to ask me whether starting small is meant for everyone, my answer would me be an ambiguous one, Yes and No. Before giving my reason for this ambiguous answer, let’s take a look at what it means to start small.

To an average Nigerian, starting small means to start from scratch, starting from nothing or little, starting when you had no recognition from anyone, starting when no one believes in you, that is starting small. Which is correct.

But I would like to define starting small as starting with the basics with the mindset to develop a strong foundation to be big from the basics. An understanding of the basic gives you a clear focus on how to become big.

For instance, a solid foundation in mathematics would help you to understand further mathematics, so you have to understand mathematics very well which is the perquisite before you can perform well in further mathematics.

So back to my ambiguous answer on starting small.

Is starting small is not meant for everyone?

No- because without a basic understanding of what is required of you to start small you might find it difficult to end up big. And for the other answer, Yes- because you need to learn how to start small before you can become big. So what are the myth we need to address for starting small.

• Just start anyhow.

The issue about this myth is,it is not complete. Don’t just start anyhow, start with a learning mindset because you will encounter challenges that you will need to go back to learn some new skills, read to gain some insight and also you might need to be mentored. So don’t just start anyhow, start anyhow to learn.

• 2.Start small so that you can start making money.

A lot lot people start a business just to make profit. Hello, nobody is saying that making a profit is bad, infant it is actually important to make a profit. But that should not be your focus. Your focus should be to bring and add value, so from the value you are adding you would make profit. So, instead of starting to make profit why not start to add value.

• You don’t need to have some basic knowledge /skills to start.

Starting without an idea of the skill or knowledge about the business is disastrous. Some business might require no skill at all to start but you might need to have some fundamental basic knowledge such as understanding the marketplace, know your target audience, the needs of the customers and so on. Even if started small without any of these (skills or knowledge),You might need to acquire some knowledge or skill when you are making it big. You can see you need to have some basics.

• Start by doing what you love.

Yes, it is a good idea to start a business or go into something you love. But the problem with this statement is not all what you love would bring value to the customers.

For example, I love to read. Yes it a good thing to be a bookworm but what value is it bringing to the market, potential customers, etc. The only way it can be valuable is to make what I love valuable. Therefore, I have to develop myself more by reading more,then make it valuable by teaching, public speaking, writing(blogs,articles,etc), becoming an author, etc, which would bring value to my target customers.

So don’t start with what you love doing, make what you love valuable.

Whatever business you doing or career you are into, you need to start small before you can be big. But don’t start small without having all the basic requirements or you might end up small.