Begin with the End in Mind: Navigating the Road to Internet Business Success

What is your ultimate goal in building an internet business?

  • Do you want to earn $1,000,000 per year and work 50 hours per week.
  • Do you want to earn $250,000 per year and work 5 hours per week.
  • Do you want to hire 100 employees and become the next “dot com” name?
  • Do you want to remain a solo entrepreneur and outsource it all?

These are some of the top questions I ask myself these days as I continue to build my own internet business.

I owe much of my current thinking to Tim Ferriss’ widely influential book The Four Hour Work Week. Since encountering Ferriss’ ideas and beginning to model my own success after him, I have begun to see that book as a manifesto for my own “Begin with the End in Mind” vision.

Still, one major problem I have had with applying and enacting The Four Hour Work Week system is balance. While Ferriss speaks a lot about the importance of outsourcing work, applying the 80/20 rule, and prioritizing lifestyle, he doesn’t speak much to the initial path towards success.

It may be feasible to take an already thriving company and transform it into a muse that requires little attention and generates loads of passive income, but what about building the muse in the first place?

Again, that pesky word keeps coming back: BALANCE.

The primary point I want to convey in this article is that your priority as an entrepreneur should be to begin with the end in mind in such a way that all of your work today contributes to the ultimate destination or objective you want to achieve tomorrow.

In my case, I am still climbing the ladder of internet business success. I have several projects underway, each with excellent long-term potential. Sure, I’m not earning anywhere close to my desired income level but I can see the end along the horizon.

After reading Ferriss’ book I took a lot of time out from my business and started asking fundamental questions about my life and where I am headed – including those questions above.

Immediately, I knew some of my projects had to go if I hoped to arrive at my desired destination. The changes that resulted were more of a precision reconfiguration than a total business overhaul. It was something like planning a trip abroad. Suddenly, instead of deciding to hop on a plane and land anywhere in Europe, I began to see my destination with greater precision. Instead of “I want to get to Europe,” the goal became “I want to get to the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, France on June 20, 2010.” Precision is the key.

The remarkable thing about beginning with the end in mind is when I actually do arrive, I’ll really know I’m there. I know this sounds obvious but it’s really quite significant.

First, there’s a specific deadline. Trust me, I’ll know whether I’m in Paris on June 20, 2010 or not.

Second, there’s a specific destination. Again, Paris is not Amsterdam or Berlin, so there should be no confusion about where I actually arrive.

And, perhaps most importantly, there’s a clear vision. Think about it: If I say I want to go to Europe, you get this rather vague picture in your mind about what “Europe” is and why I’m there.

But if I say “I want to go to Paris,” the vision is clear. I can picture that and bring it to life in my mind. The more I think about that vision, the more I’ll understand my goal in the first place.

I’m sure you’ve had enough of this travel analogy, but I really think this is an effective way of thinking about internet business goals because of the emphasis on geography, terrain, and navigation.

When you’re traveling, you’re really trying to get some place. You want to transform your reality from where you are to where you want to be. It’s pretty easy to do that in travel since everything around you literally changes once you make it happen.

Of course, “traveling success” and “business success” have one very important difference. Traveling goals require only a temporary effort of change, while entrepreneurship goals require a much more lasting form of change on the internal and external planes.

All comparisons have their limitations, but I think this metaphor of navigation can be very effective in helping you transform your business vision to begin with the end in mind today.

Where do you want to go?

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