Obsidian Launch | The Best Business Tip I Can Give

The Best Business Tip I Can Give

Many college entrepreneurs have asked me the question, “What is the best business tip you can give to a new entrepreneur?” My response, time and time again is that you must go with your gut. Your gut is a culmination of all your experience, your genetics and maybe even divine intervention. I would trust that type of input over my brain any day. My experience supports this. When I try to apply contrary “intelligence” to my gut’s directions it is inevitably wrong.

So what is your gut? It is your inner thoughts. It’s your emotion. Better put, it is the thought behind the thought. Your gut is the persistent little voice that makes you feel emotional pain when you do something inconsistent with your values, and makes you smile when you stay true to your values. When your head is saying something is too risky to try, but your gut is telling you that it is your calling, you need to obey your gut.

Your gut never goes away. I am not talking about being a fat-ass here… I am still talking about that inner emotion we call the gut. Every time you deny your gut to follow the logic of your head, your gut will come back to remind you that you are ignoring it. Sometimes it comes back in uneasy feelings, other times in regrets, but no matter what, it is always an emotion.

Your gut is extremely simple. It generally has two directions, go toward or run away. It is simple to understand. Perhaps too simple, which is why we often squash and ignore it. Our head on the other hand is very complex and offers a million reasons why we should or shouldn’t do something. The complexity often leads to confusion, and results in inaction. Again, trust your gut and go for it.

There is no denying that your gut will occasionally lead you down the wrong path. In fact, to check out a great counter point to this article, see the one posted by the Harvard Business School, http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5465.html. According to their studies, the odds are working against you and you should not trust your gut. But even the fine folks at Harvard couldn’t trust their own studies, so they posted another article about trusting your gut, at http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/hbr/articles/article.jsp?articleID=R0102C&ml_action=get-article&print=true.

By the way, if your gut doesn’t agree with this article, then this is garbage and you should throw it out. But if it resonates with your gut, then go with it. And if your gut is telling you to launch your first company, stop listening to your head and take action NOW to start your business.

Posted by Mike Michalowicz of Obsidian Launch

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