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After two years of coming up with my idea, I finally launched the platform ‘Scout Me Online.’ All the reasons why we procrastinate, avoid or delay in making decisions committing to a specific task are because we believe we need to have something or be perfect. And when we don’t have those, or we doubt ourselves, which reinforces our current belief.

So what took me two years to just execute my idea?

In short simple answer, read the quote from Jordan Belfort. “The only thing standing between you and your dream is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.”

All the crap that came to my mind is:

  • You’re not ready yet
  • You need some advice
  • You’re waiting on someone or something
  • You need the right skills so now you have to go learn before you can even start to implement the idea
  • You the need the right people to build the front end of the platform
  • You’re waiting for your business partner to give his time to build the platform because he has other priorities
  • You need to save more money to pay yourself for a year or more
  • You need security, where money is coming in from somewhere
  • You need investors to help make your idea become a successful business
  • And many more things which you probably hear or experienced

Fear

In other cases, it is all to do with fear of what if it doesn’t work, or how bad it will be considering you’re coming to the age of 30. I had this common belief: as if by 30 I should be married, have a house and be financially secure. All other fears are things that just make us procrastinate, but thankfully, I was following a system of goal setting and continuously learning from motivational speakers who share their strategies.

I remember this quote from one of the speakers – “We all are afraid of failing, that the winners are more afraid of not doing it” – because someone else might do it first and you will regret that you didn’t take action. Or in some cases, not enough action.

The quote from Jordan Belfort wasn’t the deciding factor to quit my job. I had come across many quotes and motivational speakers. It was that moment in July 2016, where I was looking at the back of my room door and noticed that I had a goal that stated, ‘I will quit my job in July 2015’.

What did I do to make that shift?

This was July 2016 and I just realised that, if I continue to believe all my reason as to what I need, it could take another two years. I didn’t want to wait any longer; I just knew I had to just go to my current workplace and hand in my notice.

While I was waiting for these big sales to close at my job, part of me felt like I needed to accomplish these big deals before quitting – but I realised I was making excuses. So, I just called each customer, one by one, and told them my plan. I asked them, realistically, would they be making a decision in this month or this quarter? When most of them said no or they weren’t certain, I just knew I had to send an email to my manager now!

Outcome

  • I quit my job
  • I gave up my 50% share to my former business partner in my previous IT company who was meant to be my CTO for the new venture – Scout Me Online
  • I have two different mentors: one specialises in marketing and the other focuses on start-up
  • A friend connected me to two people who had the skills to build a platform and made a special agreement
  • Came across lot of business owners in a Meetup event who wanted me to work for them or alongside
  • Read 19 books within six months to learn many things that I needed to know
  • Launched the platform on the 6th of December 2016
  • Our MVP had a small traction with 408 active users and about 49.1% returning customer while a few players were getting scouted
  • Had one big football magazines publish our interview and another sharing our platform to their audience for the next month

How do you go about it?

First step: you need to have goals/target with a deadline date! Without the deadline date, there is no urgency, and when there is no urgency, you will prolong your action or make any decisions regardless of whether you’ve been doing business over a year.

Second step: don’t worry if you haven’t got an accurate or a perfect plan, because there will always be something that becomes an obstacle, error, or mistake – so just act now and iterate as you go along.

Third step: just get a pen and a paper and write anything that comes to your mind around the idea.

Fourth step: use the power of the question “what do I need to do to get started” and just act.

Fifth step: when you come across obstacles, such as the something you’re not sure of, find someone who does or learn from books and online resources (such as YouTube). In most cases, you need inspiration or case studies to give you the information to go out and test it.

Overall, I have learnt many things on the way and found that in most cases, I will come across problems and just need to tackle them by prioritising and setting deadlines to act, and just continue to improve, learn and gain experience.

There are many strategies that I’ve learned but you will figure what works best for you and iterate along the way to process and take action to perform better.

Just remember: don’t try to be perfect. You’re always going to make some errors; just take action, learn and have fun in the process.

By Kyam (Abdul Quiyum) 

About the author

Kyam is the founder and CEO of Scout Me Online. He has spent 12 years playing football from grassroots to semi-pro in the UK, and almost got a professional contract in Singapore with a premier league club ‘Gombak United.’ He has a degree in Sports at the University of Hertfordshire and spent 4 years in sales b2b with Pitney Bowes. After failing to become a professional football player, he has now launched a new start-up Scout Me Online to help football players from around the world and all levels to get scouted at a click of a button.

Email: [email protected]

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Featured image via Yayimages.