Hey everyone! Welcome back to the fourth edition of Lessons Learned From Crushing It! (GaryVee's Newest Book). Today's topic is something that Gary talks a lot about in his books, podcasts and vlogs. The topic is intent - the reason behind why you do what you do. Gary says - and I completely agree with him on this - that intent is the core foundation of any entrepreneur's success.
Current Book & Quotes From: Crushing It! by Gary Vaynerchuk
Why Does Intent Matter?
Gary starts off the chapter (titled: "What (Still) Matters") by talking about entrepreneur's who succeed versus entrepreneur's who fail. He says:
"It's not hard to figure out why so many who attempt to [build a personal brand] fail. In general it's because they're putting their energies into the wrong things. They care, but not enough about what really matters. And what really matters is a pretty short list: intent, authenticity, passion, patience, speed, work, and attention."
Today though, we're going to home in on the intent part of this equation that he's laid out for us. Intent matters because it guides you in all your decisions and actions. Whether you admit that to yourself or not is completely up to you.
If you have bad intent or even misplaced intent, you will run into a lot of trouble in your business and in life. If your intent is only to make money, then your customers will know that you intend only to suck them dry of cash.
Not only will your customers know that your intention is only for the money, they'll also never recommend you to any of their friends. In order to create a really successful business (or personal brand), you need to have positive word of mouth. Having poor word of mouth will absolutely tear your business to shreds over a longer time horizon. By having bad intent, you're placing a clock on your business's success - that is, building a business on the foundation of deceit and a misaligned moral compass will only result in your business's destiny to fail at some point.
But what about businesses who have bad intent but still make loads of cash? Sure, I know of some businesses that operate like this and I'm sure you know some yourself. Gary addresses this point as well. The thing about businesses that are built on a poor foundation is that they will always crumble. It could be tomorrow, 6 months from now or even 10 years from now, but they will always crumble in the end.
Identify your intent and then build your business/personal brand with that intention and you will succeed in the end.
How to Identify Your Intent:
To identify your intent (a.k.a. your why) for being an entrepreneur, Gary begs the question:
"Why do you want to be an entrepreneur?"
- "To share your knowledge?
- To help people?
- To build something that leaves a legacy?
- To make a good income to give yourself and your family financial security and breathing room?
- To have fun with a creative outlet?
- To create community?"
So which is it for you? For me it's all of them: if you read my bio on Steem, you can actually find a lot of these elements within it and my bio hasn't changed much since I started posting. To save you a few clicks:
"Cultivating a community of curiosity and spreading educational awareness to all parts of the world. Education + knowledge = an abundant future" - (my bio)
So please, take this time right now to write down your intent for your business, personal brand, steemit account, etc... Don't skip over this and just write it off!!! This is really the essential foundation that you need to lay in your own mind. You may not realize it right now, but intent is what drives all of your decisions at both a subconscious and conscious level.
Here's the Question of The Day, don't forget to post your answers in the comments!
What is your intent? - Your driving force and reason behind why you do what you do.
Thanks for reading! Don't forget to leave your thoughts below and I look forward to seeing you in the comments!
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Hi @khaleelkazi, thanks for making me aware of this author. This area is very exciting for me as I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur of some sort from a young age. As for the motivations, I agree that all of the aspects that he lists are part of what drives me. The community aspect is particularly important in a modern world often devoid of human togetherness on that scale. As a young person that has often felt jaded with the emptiness of the physical world, the idea of building and leaving a legacy once I am gone from this world is very appealing as well. Though realistic, I still have an idealistic streak and would like to leave the world better than I found it! I'm glad I found your stuff through @steemfollower, 100% voted through there. Thanks for sharing the motivation and food for thought in the area of entrepreneurship!
Have a fantastic day,
@d-pend
P.S. I forgot to comment as well on intent, so incredibly vital! Huge things can be accomplished by focusing on clarifying one's true intention for life in general, and one's business endeavors in particular. It's something I feel is an everyday process.
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Hey @d-pend! Similar to you, I have lived nearly my entire life knowing that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. That's amazing that you also identify with all the aspects on that list! Those items really are the key to creating abundance in the world and abundance for yourself as well. Community is very important to me and I love that Steemit gives us an environment to grow communities at scale and leave our legacy on the world. By being a part of this amazing place, you have already made the world a better place through sharing your insightful thoughts! Keep at it, my friend!
You as well! I look forward to hearing more from you!
I also agree with you on the intent! It is absolutely something that must be worked on daily and consistently! Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts, I really appreciate you finding this blog and taking the time to share!
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Thanks for your insight and comment here @d-pend. @khaleelkazi's blog was the first place I felt part of a community in this blockchain. Soon after that I found your poems @d-pend. It was looking through the tag #poetry in Steemfollower a couple months ago and some poetry that blew me away. I couldn't believe it was written by a Steemian. Your poems are locked in the block chain so everyone for many generations to follow everyone from teenagers to college professors will be analyzing themselves metaphysically quoting d-pend. A time will come when teenagers will say to each other, "Yeah like life is an inverted waterfall dude. You know I think d-pend said something like that back in the second millennium." As far as intentions, I intend to stick with these two entrepreneurs for a long time.
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I love this @mineopoly 💯
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Well, very aptly said especially the part of leaving the world a better place. As I tried to ponder on these points, I easily gave up on choosing which one I look forward. It was a very hard choice and some of them were dependent upon each other. Hence, I thought better to prioritize them in the order most important to me. It came out to be a good clarity for my efforts.
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Thanks again for sharing from Gary. This is really what first got me interested in your blog from day 1.
Honestly I never thought of being an entrepreneur. Mostly I wanted to go unnoticed by the world but something happened after doing the same thing for 20 years. It's not that I am bored of teaching but that I am more than an ELS teacher. I am so happy to see @d-pend's comment on your post. Now that he is here this is a real community. Peace brother. His comment got me thinking about when I was young and what I really wanted then. I remember telling my teacher, "I want to be a paperback writer" mostly because I liked the Beatles song. But every time I picked up a kids book or a cartoon. I thought, "I could do this." I never thought about the pressure writers have doing the same work everyday on demand from a publisher with strong restraints on creativity.
The ironic thing is by default I am an entrepreneur in every blog I produce and in every comment I make I am extending a product of myself.
“A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.” Henry Ford
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Hey @mineopoly! I'm excited as well that @d-pend joined the conversation, his posts are really good and he does an amazing job here on Steemit! I love your responses to these 6 points, they are very insightful into who you are as a person and what your intent in life is, I'm grateful to be able to learn more about you and how you think!
I absolutely agree as well with your point about community. It's one of the most important things to me and I have also seen similar posts where teachers are leveraging Steemit to make an impact for their students and others are providing amazing resources for their local communities by also leveraging this amazing platform! I can't wait to see what the future holds for Steem as its impact continues to ripple out into the world!
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My intent is to help people come alive, help them find inner peace and from that find the ability to pursue their happiness. And when you were listing off those bullets I was thinking yup, yup, yup...
Hoping to build my personal brand here, I know I have a long ways to go but I'm having fun and learning a lot! I might have to pick up that book, but I just bought Ryan Holidays perennial bestseller that I need to get through. It's cool you're doing this, Gray V is the man and you can tell how much he cares.
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That's a really honorable goal! Haha, I love that, that's the exact feeling I had while I was reading it in the book!
Me as well, this is an amazing place to build brand and engage with other people who have similar interests and spread knowledge! I have to check out Ryan Holiday's new book, I haven't heard of it yet!
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That one is actually one of his older ones I picked up!
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I just bought the book, said screw it, there's too much to potentially gain not to spend 17$
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haha, it's a great investment, you won't be disappointed @jakeybrown!
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Well, I had to read it a couple of times and introspect myself about what should be my intent among all these six points. It was very hard for me to drop any of them when I compared them with what I do with my Travel Blog and Community Forums. Each and every point was applicable for my current efforts. So, I decided how about putting them in order of preference over each other.
So, in the end I could learn although in the intent of being successful entrepreneur all these points are applicable but it did help me prioritize them. Once again, thank you for sharing wonderful piece of learning to end my day.
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Hey @devilonwheels! Thanks for sharing your thoughts! These 6 points are guiding principles for me and I'm glad that you were able to prioritize them and get some more clarity about the direction you want to head towards. Thank you also for reading and supporting, I really appreciate it!
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For me it's normally about the people that are working with or for me. They are my motivation and sometimes comfort of why I'm doing what I'm doing.
As an entrepreneur I've wanted to give up so many times but whenever I think of them and the lives I'm supporting financially, it makes me go and wanna do better.
It's always about the people for me.
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That's incredible to hear @danielwong! I'm glad that you've found your intent and an honorable one at that! Thanks for sharing your experience and keep at it, you're doing an amazing job of helping those around you as well as inspiring others on Steemit!
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Thanks for the encouragement man.
Been helping some of those who work with me to get on Steemit. I guess being a boss I really want them to succeed and prosper as well. It’s more fun riding the rocket to the moon together. Haha
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Can a man arrives at his destination if he does not know where he intends to go or if where he thinks he should go isn't the destination he is suppose to. This is the problem with bad or misplaced intent on anything we embark on. Its our purpose of existence either as a person or a business. Am always grateful @khaleelkazi
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I 100% agree @lordjames! If you don't know which direction to point your sail, your ship will never arrive!
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My intent is consistently to make the people in my life happier, healthier and prosperous. It is that simple, but complicated under the surface!
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That’s a great comment and attitude!
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If intent drives us then we better ensure that it has positive energy behind it. We all get into business with the hope of making a profit. But we all have to understand that it is serve with compassion. Not to take advantage of but always first to serve. Thanks for this uplifting post.
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Your intent determin if your business will fail or succed.there is need to build strong and positive intent.
For me my intent is to make postive impact in what i do.
Thanks @khaleeljazi for the post.
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Very cool post lots of interesting info definitely interested in reading crushing it know thanks for that Upvoted and followed you - if you get the chance, check out my blog - I think you'll really enjoy it!
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Crushing it .i wish i ll read that book
@khaleelkazi
☺☺ ya sheikh
Great post by the way
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Thanks, I hope this encourages people to live with purpose rather than unconsciously plodding through day after day of life.
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Without the internet, well entrepreneurs won't go far in this modern world
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Wow! @khaleelkazi, thanks. Following you has been one of the best entrepreneurial decisions I have made.
I'm a fashion designer. Tho a new one (started a few months ago).
And ur blog post has really been of great help to me n my business.
My intent is
To live a comfortable life (be able to afford the basic necessities of life)
To climb the fashion niche (to be a great brand to be reckoned with)
To be a job provider, that is to assist in the labour market.
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in our village not many people have become entrepreneurs, but as long as there is our steemit that was once difficult now become happy. stemem is very helpful for the small community, I think steemit is a very biased business, this is all I can write in your comments more friends and the less I am referring to you, thank you
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wow good post keep it up...... thanks for shareing
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