2-3-4 Friday: Making pain generative 

‘Seeking to spark the most potential within you per word of any online newsletter’

1 thought

In 2012, after graduating from university, Charlotte chanced upon the world of Search Engine Optimization. This is the skill that’s involved in making your business rank on the first page of Google, so that more will discover your business.

She didn’t know what she was doing, but tried making a business in lorry rentals, just to figure out if what she was learning worked.

Surprise, surprise, she soon got a call asking for lorries. But she had no lorries to rent out. It was just an experiment!

Soon, she found herself fielding more than 200 queries a day, and trying to figure out how best to move things. She realised this was a job she could do, and started her own content marketing agency.

When asked why she did it, she said, 

I was bored of school, so I decided to try something new. 

Take another conversation I recently had with some friends. My friend, Rex (not his real name) was an entrepreneur, and had taken his business to 7 countries. 

James, another friend, had just come back from a year abroad picking strawberries as part of a Working Holiday Visa in New Zealand and was looking for a job. We were shooting ideas, when Rex suggested that a pet business would be great. The market in Singapore was getting pet-friendly, and many didn’t seem to be adequately served.

Rex recommended,

Start it!

But we talked and talked, and nothing came out of it. I couldn’t believe it. 

This was a pure, gem of an advice, from a serial entrepreneur, and all Rex did was to sleep on it?!

I’ve seen this many times, and often wonder what’s the difference between people who decide to do their own thing, and those who simply accept their lot (but complain a lot).

I think the biggest catalyst, is pain.

Over the years speaking to entrepreneurs or people who venture off the beaten path, I’ve come to see that they’ve had enough of the pain they are experiencing, and decide to just find their own solution.

So the question today isn’t how to make more pain, but how to do more with pain.

1 talk

There is pain, and there’s generative pain.

1 tip

Many often don’t do much with it because it’s easier to just knuckle down, and do what everyone else is doing. For example, a job you hate.

Why do some people keep feeling pained by the job they are checking into everyday, hating the work, but never changing? Because at some point, people get used to the difficulties at work, and tell themselves,

every job will have its difficulties.

There is no perfect job.

And then they do nothing about it.

Whenever I look back at the catalyst to starting a business from scratch, it was May 2022, when I was complaining to a senior social worker about why it seemed like no one wanted to hire me. As I griped more, she suddenly said,

actually John, it doesn’t look like you want a job.

It finally clicked. She finally gave me the awareness to recognise that for all the complaints I was having, I just didn’t want a job. She moved my resistance to awareness. Yes, I didn’t think a job was the best way to use the skills I had.

From moaning about the pain, the pain suddenly had an outlet - creating a business.

Today, if you’re stuck about something, and you find yourself constantly unhappy, complaining, maybe the first question to actually ask is,

do you want what causes the pain?

The job you hate might give you a certain lifestyle, like the ability to travel, or take care of your family.

And if those intangible things that serve others, like your family, are important to you, then maybe it’s accepting that the pain will still be there, and to learn to live with it.

John

Live Young, Live Well - Work Your Love