You’re all insane!

Not really, I just wanted a snappy title. My post from yesterday has generated quite a firestorm of controversy. Not really, but hey, I can dream. Anyway, in my dream, I’m responding to my critics:

I’m not calling you lazy. I’m saying that you’re hung up on one aspect of starting a business (start-up money) and you’re neglecting the important parts–namely, that you don’t have a plan.

To the person who told me that I should take my own advise and start that bowling alley that I mentioned 5 years ago (see this), I say this:

It’s ok to forget about things you used to be obsessed with and even to drop them like hot potatos. If you keep hanging on to old stuff, you’ll be afraid to have new thoughts. I don’t care that I thought it might be a good idea to start a bowling alley once (and even did some research). Today, I know that running a bowling alley is something I don’t want to do and I’m ok with the fact that I probably never will. I’m also ok with getting interested in it again if I want to.

I used to do Kung Fu, take pictures, make movies, and lots of other stuff…but I don’t do those things now and I don’t consider myself to be someone who does those things anymore. To call myself a photographer or filmmaker or Martial Artist when I haven’t done any of those things seriously in years would just make me stressed out.

It’s the same with business ideas. If you get some new information that makes owning a record store/book store/cafe seem like a childish and dumb idea, just forget about it…even if all your friends think it would be really cool.