You Can Profit From Something You Suck At
June 26, 2008
If you’ve gone through all your hobbies and interests and you still can’t come up with a business idea – maybe it’s time to look at the things you suck at.
Now, notice I’m saying the things you suck at – not the things you hate. Or maybe things that you don’t necessarily suck at – you just haven’t got really good at them yet.
My first website (in the nineties) was a travel site. I would like to say that the site came about because of my amazing passion and knowledge on all things travel. But that would be a huge lie. The truth was, I was hopeless at planning travel. Whenever I decided to go somewhere, it was completely random. And I never did any research at all.
As you can imagine, I picked some really bad areas to vacation. And the final straw was Crete. As usual, I picked a hotel at random from the brochure. And just before we boarded the plane, I noticed a book about the island, so I decided to buy it for something to read.
So, I’m on the plane, flicking through the book and I find a section on the area of Crete we’ll be staying in. And I’m reading through the description, hoping to find at least one positive thing about the part of Crete we’re staying in. But its all bad – the biggest dump on the island – a place to avoid at all costs.
The travel guide turned out to be accurate. But we made the best of it, as you do in this sort of situation. But that was when the penny finally dropped for me. The truth was, I always picked the least desirable places to travel to because I made more effort deciding what to make for dinner on an evening than I put into researching where we were going to go.
And when I started doing a fair bit of research, not only did we end up visiting nicer places, but I also discovered that I enjoyed research and planning. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I decided to build my own niche travel website and start my first small business.
It could happen to you too. Are there areas of your life that you do badly in? Could they be improved upon, if you increased your knowledge a little? You never know, you may enjoy doing it so much that it helps you come up with a great business idea.
Comments
22 Responses to “You Can Profit From Something You Suck At”
Got something to say?
Cath Recommends
Change Your Life
Make Money
Talk To Me
Successful And Outstanding Blogger
Good point, Cath. After all, we all sucked at everything at one time. But there’s a point when a baby needs to say “I suck at walking, but I think I’ll enjoy it if I can improve, so maybe I should just work on it and see what happens.”
Hunter Nuttall’s last blog post..Free Ebook: Memoirs Of A Gaijin
Cath, I agree. Julie Morgenstern–the organization diva–admits that she was extremely disorganized. That is, until she had a baby and realized that if she didn’t get her act together that baby would never leave the house.
Marelisa’s last blog post..Creating Your Dream Life: Your Thinking Style
Exactly Hunter – If we didn’t try things we were no good at we wouldn’t try anything.
Marelisa – that is a really interesting example. When we learn to do something which helps us so much, it really does make us want to pass the info onto others.
Cath Lawson’s last blog post..You Can Profit From Something You Suck At
That was FUNNY. Thanks.
It never occurred to me – interesting idea. I think it makes a lot of sense, as long as the initial investment in the business is small – otherwise it could be too risky.
Vered’s last blog post..Are Bloggers Allowed To Have A Life?
I love this post!!
You make a great point. And I also see it is so beneficial to share FAILURE stories, not just success stories. Who wouldn’t love this little sharing how you started this travel site.
Now I’ve got to think. What do I suck at? Do I have additional business opportunities?
Akemi – Yes to Me’s last blog post..Law Of Attraction, Million Dollar Check, And Business Growth
Hi Catherine,
Like you, I love to research on the computer. Combining your researching skills with your love of travel, created the perfect business for you.
With our business (in construction) and the flailing housing market, we have learned to diversify and add small extra services that we sucked at in the beginning, but after doing them a few times, we’re getting better. Luckily for those first customers, they got a price break as they were our “test cases”. It ends up being a win-win. The customer saves money, and we get practice.
Your post is a great reminder to think outside the box, although as you reminded us in your earlier post, “there is no box“.
Barbara Swafford’s last blog post..Bloggers Flunk The Reading Assignments
Hi Vered – good point re keeping the investment small. I spent very little on it.
Hi Akemi – thanks. It really is worth experimenting with and you could come up with something truly amazing.
Hi Barbara – that is great – and giving those test customers a price break is an excellent idea.
Well, this was an intriguing title, and it really piqued my interest. You make a good point about how we look at things – something we’re bad at can really be a positive if we look at it in a different light. I’ll be thinking much about this as I think about the directions I want my life to go in.
Lance’s last blog post..Personal Achievement vs. Team Achievement
You see a lot of people in personal finance who made bad decisions and are coming back and trying to learn/recover from them. Makes for an inspirational story.
Heck, I wouldn’t have started Mrs. Micah if I hadn’t married a guy with loads of student loans. I didn’t have any debt myself and writing about money would have felt less useful…though I probably could have still used the investment advice.
In the original “FIRM” exercise (VHS) tapes, they had an instructional part at the end that said, “Any exercise you can do well the first time won’t provide the results you’re seeking.”
I’ve always assumed the same thing applied to business… and life as well. Anything worth doing probably can’t be done well the first time. If you love it enough to “try try again” even though you suck at it, then it’s probably worth doing!
Kathy’s last blog post..Blogs?Credibility?Trust
[...] problem can be your own. Cath Lawson just wrote a great post about this. Maybe I can add yet another line of service – there must be plenty of things I suck [...]
Hi Cath – I suck at a lot of things, so now, thanks to your post, I am aiming to get RICH!
Enjoy your weekend.
MH
mark @ mytropicalescape’s last blog post..Don’t Let Anybody Tell You That You Can’t
Hi Lance – Thanks – I hope it helps you find the direction you need to take.
Hi Mrs M – It is great that even student loans can lead to something positive. And you’re doing a great job in sharing your knowledge and experiences.
Hi Kathy – what a great example. Those exercise dvd’s are impossible to do well the first couple of times but if you keep trying you can achieve massive results.
Hi Mark – Good for you – but I hope you realise that living on a tropical island and being rich will turn half the blogosphere green.
Yes you can profit from things you suck at. However why bother? What’s the point of putting yourself through that struggle? If I suck at something it’s generally because by strengths don’t fit well in that area. So I’m already starting at a disadvantage to those who have a stronger position.
I can consider endorsing this idea if I suck at something and I enjoy actually doing it. That’s a whole other story. If I enjoy it I’ll want to improve my performance. But if I suck at it and I don’t enjoy it – well hell, that sounds more like a job than an idea for a profitable business.
Tom Volkar / Delightful Work’s last blog post..Cash in on the Hidden Gold Beneath Your Fears
Hi Tom – If you read past the first couple of lines – I’m not encouraging people to do things they actually suck at. It’s more a case of attempting to learn things you haven’t mastered yet. That isn’t a bad place to start for those who can’t come up with a viable business idea from their existing interests.
I can’t see many people thinking of starting a business out of something they don’t enjoy.
Cath Lawson’s last blog post..You Can Profit From Something You Suck At
Cath I did indeed read your entire post and I just read it again. I still would not recommend this avenue to finding a business idea because it seems so much like the long way around. I guess I just prefer a more direct route to business building and learning lessens.
Given your example – you didn’t intend to hit on your idea by trying something you suck at; you stumbled on it right?
Now finding and idea by mistake is something I can endorse.
Tom Volkar / Delightful Work’s last blog post..Cash in on the Hidden Gold Beneath Your Fears
Hi Tom – What I mean is trying something you haven’t done before. I tried something which I didn’t think I would have a lot of interest in because I could see the benefits of doing so.
Unfortunately – nowadays, many people have few interests aside from electronic gadgets and tv and it would definitely be beneficial for many of them to go beyond their immediate interests to come up with a business idea.
Cath Lawson’s last blog post..You Can Profit From Something You Suck At
Cath now I understand you better. Yes trying things we have never done before can lead to excellent realizations because of the change in perspective. Thanks for the explanation.
Tom Volkar / Delightful Work’s last blog post..Career Wisdom for New College Graduates
Hi Tom – sorry. It’s me with my misleading titles again. I can’t help it – I keep trying to choose something more clickable, as opposed to what actually makes sense.
Cath don’t sweat it. I understand that’s a difficult balance to hit.
Tom Volkar / Deightful Work’s last blog post..Career Wisdom for New College Graduates
Tell me about it Tom. Titles that the search engines like differ to the ones the social networks like and they’re completely different to the ones the subscribers will click on. And the most clicked titles often don’t paint a clear picture of what’s actually in the post.
[...] A Super Affiliate Make Money Online & Screw The Middleman You Can Profit From Something You Suck At 6 Ways To Make More Money In Less [...]