The constraints of success

The sad fact about business is that you are bound by the things people will buy from you.

This is why businesses end up looking the same year after year. They develop a buyer profile, and that buyer wants a specific kind of thing.

Before I was making money, I was allowed to try many different things. After all, it didn’t matter what I launched because I wasn’t making money on anything yet.

Then, I started to make money on some things, and I doubled down on them. Then, they got even more successful and I doubled down again.

Now, I am making real money, and those people who bought my successful products want new things from me. I know that every product or service I release aimed at those people will likely make a lot of money…

…but then people get pissed at me for focusing on those products instead of ones that have a lower likelihood of success.

They don’t understand.

Every time I launch a brand new product, or even a variation on an old product, that targets less successful or unknown markets, I’m risking guaranteed money for an unknown return.

Most of the time when I launch new products outside of my known money-makers, they are failures. I end up wasting a lot of money for very little return.

You might be reading this and thinking that you don’t care about the money, but when the money comes in – enough money to let you do what you love full time – it’s really hard to say that, because when you do it’s like saying “I don’t care about my mortgage”, or “I don’t care about eating”.

Sometimes launching a new product does go well and I’m pleasantly surprised.

Usually, they struggle to break even, though.

Meanwhile, big money earners pay my bills. They are guaranteed hits. Therefore, most of my time MUST be spent on known moneymakers because that is how I pay my mortgage.

Frankly, it sucks.

There are really cool things I wish I could do, but I just can’t do them, because of the constraints of success. Unless a product can hit 10x their costs, I can’t rely on them reliably to succeed.

I HAVE to focus my attention elsewhere, or I’ll go under as a business.

Nobody really understands that until they are living it. I know I didn’t, but now I do.

Every minute you divert from your money-makers is a minute you are gambling with your future.

You have to do it because gambling is how you win big, but it’s really scary because these things don’t come free.

You are investing a lot into each product, either in money, time, or both.

I’m trying to experiment, but those new things I try keep failing, and the ones that I know work just keep working…

…so what am I supposed to do, huh?

Blow it up and start again?

I ask this question to you, not for an answer, but because I hope someday you’ll have to wrestle with these questions as well, and I want you to be ready for them.