Fundamentally, people can be divided into two groups. In the first group, some people are interested in novelty. They’re the ones who want to figure stuff out and always do something new. They’re what I call project managers.
The second group consists of people who are interested in security. They’re the ones who just want to know what they’re supposed to do, and they want to do it to the best of their ability. They don’t thrive by figuring things out. They get baffled if they need to think about something or try to develop an idea. They’re what I call process managers.
Entrepreneurs usually fall into the first group. They’re idea people. I know I’m like that. And I’m sure you’re one of them, too. Now, the challenge for idea people is that we think that everybody’s like us. We can’t imagine anyone would be happy to do the same thing repeatedly. Or enjoy the security and predictability of it. Because for us, this kind of sameness is energy draining.
But here’s the thing.
You can only grow to the next level as an entrepreneur when you realize there are process managers out there, and you learn to delegate stuff you don’t enjoy doing to them. Because if you continue to do new things, jumping from project to project, you’re limiting yourself by your capacity. And you’re never going to be able to grow a self-sustainable business.
But here’s the good news.
When you use your drive for novelty to figure out how to solve the problems for a single target market, you figure out how to find more people in that target market who need and want your help. Once you do all that, you’ve got something that a process manager could take over. They could now become the driver and charge that particular vertical. Their whole thing would be finding more customers and growing it to an entire community using your systems.
All the while, you’re working on your new exciting idea ;)