A few days ago, we kicked off the $1K Challenge that I’ve been mentioning here and on socials for the past few weeks. We’ve got 1,300 people from 100+ countries taking part, all working towards making their first $1,000 online. But more importantly, they’re here to learn the key skills of independent income generation that’ll hopefully serve them for the rest of their lives.
It’s been really cool watching everyone’s introductions roll in. We’ve got doctors, software engineers, project managers, data scientists, business analysts – basically a whole bunch of very smart, very educated professionals who were probably pretty good at school.
And this week, I’d like to share an idea I’ve been noodling on for a while – a pattern I keep seeing show up not just with our challenge participants, but with anyone trying to build something of their own: the good student vs the good entrepreneur mindset.
If you’re reading this email, you probably were (or are) a “good student” – like me, you probably did well in school, you ticked the right boxes, and your parents are/were probably proud that you have a respectable career… But, to succeed as an entrepreneur, you kinda need to unlearn some of what school taught you. The traits and skills that made you a good student can often hold you back from being a good entrepreneur.
When you feel fear, what do you do? As a student, if you feel fear, it’s because you just haven’t prepared enough. You need more preparation. When I was stressed about an exam, my mum would say, “If you just studied harder, you’d feel better about it.” And she was right – more preparation always helped in school.
But as an entrepreneur, when you feel fear, you want to think: “Great, I’m stepping outside my comfort zone, and I’m going to take action.” More preparation is actually the opposite of what you want to be doing. Fear in entrepreneurship usually means you’re about to do something that matters.
How do you approach problems? In school, the whole idea is that you want to find the one right answer. There’s usually a correct solution to the maths problem or the essay question, and your job is to find it.
In entrepreneurship, you want to test multiple solutions. This is a completely different way of operating.
I’ve had conversations with so many people who say, “I just don’t know what business idea to start.” They’re hung up on this because they think there’s a right answer. They’re following the school method – if I just do enough research and preparation and introspection, I’ll find the right answer, and then I’ll never waste time.
But real life doesn’t work like that. Almost no one who is currently financially free got there from their very first idea. There aren’t right answers in entrepreneurship – you just have to keep testing things out.
What’s your relationship with mistakes? School teaches you to avoid mistakes because there’s usually only one chance to submit the thing. If you have to retake an exam, it’s considered a big deal. “What are you, some kind of idiot?” – at least that was the vibe at schools like mine.
But in entrepreneurship, you want to learn quickly from your failures. You want to fail fast. No one in school tells you to fail fast, but in entrepreneurship, failing fast and iterating quickly is absolutely the way to go.
How much do you care what others think? In school, we care deeply about peer approval. You really, really care what other people think of you – your teachers, your classmates, your parents when they see your report card.
As a good entrepreneur, you have to stop caring what other people think. Your colleagues, your cousins, that old boss you had – their opinions don’t pay your bills. The only opinion that truly matters is your customer’s. I’m pretty sure that despite my best efforts to highlight this during the challenge, this hurdle will hold at least some of our students back. For some of them (hopefully not a lot), the fear of what their friends or family will think will stop them from putting their offer out there, and immediately end any hope they have of pursuing independent financial freedom.
When do you take action? School teaches you to learn everything first. You don’t put something into practice until you’ve done all the theory. Complete the textbook, understand all the concepts, then maybe do some practice problems.
In entrepreneurship, you want to learn just enough to take the next step. This applies whether you’re building a business, starting a creative project, or just trying something new.
Don’t wait until you’ve learned everything before you start. You don’t need to know your entire business plan before you test your first idea. You don’t need to master every aspect of photography before you take your first paid gig. You don’t need to be an expert writer before you publish your first piece.
Learn just enough to take the next step. Then take it.
In my experience, it seems that about 80% of the obstacles people face when building something of their own are emotional, and about 20% are technical. The thing that will probably hold most people back isn’t a lack of technical knowledge – it’s emotional obstacles disguised as technical problems.
Your brain will tell you, “I just don’t know what the right approach is yet. I need to do more research.” But actually, it’s an emotional problem: “I’m afraid I’m not good enough” or “I’m afraid people will judge me.”
The good news is that if you can recognise these patterns in yourself, you’re already ahead of the game.
Whether you’re building a business, starting a side project, or just trying something new in your life, these mindset shifts can make an enormous difference. Most people never even try because they’re waiting for the perfect moment, the perfect plan, or the perfect level of preparation.
But that moment never comes. The only way to get good at something is to start doing it badly first. And our students in the $1k challenge are already starting to discover this 5 days into the challenge, which is awesome to see.
Have a great week!
Ali xx
