4 Lessons I Learned From Executing My 2nd (Failed) Business Idea

This is the second time I am taking a leap in creating a system that can create large sums of wealth for me. The first time I did, I shared the story of how it ended woefully and I lost money. 

Almost exactly two years later, I am at it again. This time it is a more huge system that if it works will create a substantial upgrade in my finances and open doors to other businesses. I’ll be sharing the 4 lessons I learned while giving you the story of how everything went.

1. It will take more time to perfect a functional system than it looks on the surface.

I was to create a digital product that came with bonuses and when I examined the content I was creating, the resources I had on ground and my skills/experience in creating such type of content, I estimated it would take me 1 week of intensive execution to complete. 

Now, intensive execution I did but it ended up taking me 4 weeks to complete. It would have taken me less time if I just wanted to spin out content but I was committed to giving my best. 

I wanted it to be that final product that every person that bought will be satisfied with. The bulk of the time was spent on research — finding solutions that apply to every category of person that will purchase the product, not just solutions that work for people like me. 

If I hadn’t set the mark of one week it would have taken me about three months to complete. But that one-week goal kept me on my feet as I was still working to finish it in “7 days” even on the 18th day. lol! 

But giving it all it needed was worth it after all, and I have a product I am proud of.

2. Building a system that works is not as difficult as it seems; it only takes a lot of grit and self-encouragement.

I can say that the easiest part of the execution of this model was creating the content. This is probably because I’ve spent the past two years consistently creating content. 

The real work was in the technical part: creating the sales page, hosting the products online, getting the graphic design done, automating the system of payment and delivery, and so on. 

Although these were things I knew I could do, it was first intimidating when I looked at the systems some of my mentors had built. They were so flawless that I was scared I would miss out on some things.

The scariest part was that after making payment something might come up and people won’t get the product; or there’ll be a hitch that will make me lose all funds. Baseless fears!

None of that happened. Although many unforeseen steps came between Content Creation > Hosting > Sales,  they were all Googleable. 

Truly, everything is figureoutable; you only need to take the first step and you will find out about the rest when they are needed. You can’t learn everything before you start.

3. Every big system is a combination of several micro-skills and micro-knowledge. 

This is reminding me of my secondary school Biology lessons where we were taught the CTOS model. That every biological system (e.g the digestive system) is made up of several organs which are made up of several tissues which are also made up of several cells. 

It is the same with every business system. As cells are the building blocks of bodies, micro knowledge and micro-skills are the building blocks of businesses.

Now, I can say this is the reason why point 2 is true in my case. Building the system would have been more difficult for me if I did not know about SEO, copywriting, content creation, eBook creation, graphic design, web design, and sales.

I would have had to outsource everything and that would have increased the cost implication for me. Although I still had to outsource some of the graphic design because of time, everything still worked out together because of years of learning several “irrelevant” things. 

It seems all entrepreneurs, although they have one primary skill, usually learn all the skills to some extent until they’re financially stable enough to outsource the other skills and focus on their areas of specialty 

Just keep learning; in the end, no knowledge is wasted.

4. Sound advice can still mess up your business strategy if that advice is sound only to another system.

My strategy for this business was 100% passivity. I wanted to automate the entire system and let it sell without any input. But one day before the launch, I was sharing the business idea with a mentor and his friend was there with him. 

I explained how I didn’t need anybody to help me in the promotion since my strategy was SEO. His friend began to advise me on how it was impossible to succeed in business without the help of other people. 

While it seemed he was just sharing his thoughts, I was hearing… “you are the reason your business cannot succeed… your strategies are against God’s mode of operation blah blah blah…” 

And after less than two minutes of advice, it seemed everything had scattered. I was completely confused and already doubted if the business will be successful. 

Now, everything he said was true; businesses need people to succeed but that advice didn’t apply to my model. While it is true that having many hands on board will accelerate your growth, it is also true that the fastest means to scale is automation. 

What I needed to do at that point was remind myself of my model and discard his advice. His, although sound, idea would have messed up my four weeks of input if I was not convinced of my business model. 

Low prices work for ShopRite but that is not Yomi Casual’s model.

Conclusion

Every business system you develop is a learning ground for a bigger project. I still find it amazing that execution magnates like Zuckerberg and Musk still learn execution from their businesses every day. 

These are not the final lessons needed to build your unconquerable empire but they are another of those micro-knowledge that will make the next execution easier.