I've spent a fair amount of time lately trying to assess my appetite for business building. Working for a serial entrepreneur, and honestly just listening to him talk, you start to get a feel for what the right questions are when asking yourself what you could be doing to build a business. More on that in a minute.
Today I was trying very hard to learn some new things. The understanding and knowledge did not come as fast as I had hoped, and that bothered me. Normally I get a lot of joy out of the process of discovery, so it seemed odd that I'd be so dissatisfied. That's when I made the connection to the business building.
I want to learn faster because, in my mind, knowing more means that I can do more to build Internet "things" that can grow the very loosely defined ideas that I think are viable businesses. But when you start to ask yourself the right questions, it's not as simple as know more, do more.
When you really get into the weeds of building product, marketing and sales, it becomes obvious really quickly that these movements don't depend on how much I know, especially in the coding realm. If I were to make a serious stab at executing on some of these ideas I have, I'd need to pay for help. That's somewhat at odds with the things that I most get off on, namely writing code and designing UI and system architecture. I'd have to let go of some of that to really execute.
This isn't a bad thing necessarily, as it really gets me into the right thought process. I can choose what I'm really willing to do when I better understand the constraints. Heck, constraints sure can make you creative.
Now I need to get back to my learning. Fast.