Stupid, lazy entrepreneurs

Make an effort as an entrepreneur, and be grateful when others spend their time helping you. In this video from 2010, I need to let off steam after receiving some messages about Amino and help with online shops.

Make an effort as an entrepreneur before giving up

Some people wrote to me but didn’t want to create an account on Amino because they thought the technical side was too difficult. That frustrated me. If you want to run an online business, you also need to spend time learning the basics.

I’m happy to help with questions. But if I have to do it every time because someone won’t learn for themselves, it doesn’t solve the problem in the long run.

A discussion forum offers different perspectives

Someone had asked a perfectly good question and was unhappy with the answers. When I found the thread, I thought the first replies were precise, friendly and useful.

Later, others also pointed out something in the online shop they thought could be improved. It wasn’t quite the question being asked, but it could still be relevant to the business.

It’s a discussion forum. People bring different experiences and perspectives. You don’t have to agree with everything, but it’s worth listening to people who are trying to help.

Say thank you for other people’s time

What I reacted to was seeing someone snapped at for offering free help. There are real people spending time helping another entrepreneur learn something.

So ask questions, learn to use the tools, and say thank you. My sharp tone in the video is about making that effort: Entrepreneurship is hard, and you won’t get far just waiting for others to sort everything out. I tell my own story of learning and building companies in Iværksætter til jeg dør.

I need to let off some bloody steam

Over the past few days, I’ve had some messages that leave me so frustrated I can barely breathe. Enough, for fuck’s sake. That’s why the tone of this video is so sharp.

I’ve started getting emails from people who have an online shop or something similar and want help and advice. I write back telling them to go to Amino first and see if they can get help there. Then they tell me Amino requires a username and password, and they can’t really manage the technical side.

If you can’t even create an account and ask a question in a discussion forum, I honestly don’t think the internet is for you. In my frustration, I say perhaps you’d be better off doing groundworks and concrete construction. Not because there’s anything wrong with that work. I use it as an image of a job where I imagine you don’t need to press all sorts of buttons to keep up.

But if you want to be an entrepreneur, you can bloody well make an effort.

I found the thread myself and read the answers

A woman emailed me that day saying she’d asked a question on Amino, but it was impossible to get a useful answer. What the hell is she talking about? I thought. There should be useful answers.

She couldn’t manage to include the address of the post either, so I had to find it myself. When I found the thread, the question was perfectly fine. There was nothing wrong with it at all.

The first answer was spot on. It answered exactly what she’d asked. The next offered another angle on the same question, links and all. It was almost as if the help had been chewed up and then spoon-fed to her, with water on top to help it go down. A lovely, professional, friendly answer.

The third was at least as good. I kept reading and thought: Where the hell does this go wrong? The first five or six replies were spot on.

An extra tip about the online shop went down badly

Around the seventh or eighth reply, someone pointed out a flaw in her online shop. They thought it was reducing conversions and explained what she could do to make more money. Someone else agreed and said they’d experienced the same thing.

Then she came in and said she’d asked about something else and hadn’t requested their comments. Besides, it wasn’t a bug, it was a feature.

Several people calmly tried to explain that they thought she was making less money that way. They explained it really clearly. She came back with another insult, while others continued helping with her original question.

All in all, there may have been around 25 different questions and answers in the thread. That annoyed her too: Why were so many people replying? She just wanted one useful answer. What use were the others? And some were answering things she hadn’t even asked about.

People are helping you completely free of charge

Come on, for fuck’s sake. It’s a discussion forum. You ask a question, and other people turn up and help you for free. You can’t then bite the people trying to help.

If it were just one or two people, I might take it more calmly. But I’ve noticed a tendency among some entrepreneurs that makes me think: What the hell is going on? Do you think you can sit down in front of the TV, press a remote control and make money?

If you find Amino difficult, spend the bloody time figuring out how it works. If people reply about other things relevant to your business, say thank you. Wow, brilliant! There are actually other people spending their time helping you.

My help doesn’t solve your lack of effort

Yes, sometimes I get a bit bloody tired. If you’re fucking lazy, thick as a brick and think entrepreneurship works with a remote control, don’t bother. Entrepreneurship is hard. Everything is hard.

I could sit down and help with questions because someone’s too lazy to use Amino. I might even do it. The problem is that it’ll be the same next time, and the next, and the next. It doesn’t do a damn thing to solve the problem.

Use your energy and intelligence. Put some drive into this, ask questions and be grateful for the help you get. Have a good day, and good luck.