This post is inspired by emails I get on a daily basis, where people ask me about finding their personal skills and building a profitable business with them. Instead of answering this question in private emails, I want to give the answer in all detail for all of you.
Building businesses on the side requires dedication, passion and confidence in your personal skills. The restart isn’t easy nor fast, but it’s worth the journey if you’re implementing your personal skills and passions.
I do believe that we all have personal skills that allow us to build profitable businesses. Jobs are no longer a must-have in our society, technology has changed this situation.
You can reach millions of people online, hundreds of thousands who are interested in your personal skills. It’s the pure mass of people that makes it possible for everyone to start a profitable online business on the side.
You cannot be anything you want to be - but you can be a lot more of who you already are. - Tom Rath
The time has come to focus on the personal skills each of us has. In the past society told us to work on our „weaknesses“ instead of growing our personal skills. We’re good enough with who we are - and we become a lot more by using the personal skills we already have.
If you’re not satisfied with your current situation you’re no different than me a few months ago. I’ve gotten an integrated degree in Business Informatics and started working for a salary that was only 60% of the average in Germany.
The three years while studying I worked my ass off to get a good degree, which (I thought) would ensure a high payment. In the end I had a degree of 1.9, but my employer just didn’t value that work I put in all the years before.
That was the most frustrating experience in my entire life and the beginning of my personal restart. I knew that I could use my personal skills to earn money on my own, so I started a business on the side.
Running that business for almost two years and being self employed now, I know how to use my personal skills to maximize profitability and efficiency in everyday business.
I changed the poor lifestyle of being employed for freedom of self employment.
Using my personal skills to build the business to that level where it could replace my paycheck wasn’t easy, but it was way worth it!
Let me explain, why you must use your personal skills to break out of any unsatisfying situation.
Being in a job most likely won’t allow you to pursue your passions everyday. Instead of using your personal skills you’re just doing what your supervisor tells you to do.
You dread going to work and feel unsatisfied at least 40 hours a week. That’s a tremendous amount of time, considering that we only live once.
But there’s a possibility to restart. To use your personal skills and to feel energized all day.
Building a business on the side that’s based on your personal skills won’t ever feel like working for you. When you’re engaging in the topic you’re passionate about, why would it compare to the job frustrating you? You’d engage in that topic anyway, so why not use it to earn money and to quit your job?
I believe we all can use our personal skills to do work we can’t not do.
Did you ever wake up excited to work? Did you ever deny going to sleep because you wanted to get a certain task done? This is exactly what using your personal skills and passions feels like.
When you do what you love to do, you won’t need any vacations. Why would you want to escape from a lifestyle you love?
Even better, using your personal skills gives you competitive advantages to others who lack that skill set. Working evenly hard as others will lead to better results. Your personal skills let you complete your tasks more efficiently and more powerful than others.
And by following your passions you won’t have to deal with things you don’t like all the time. It’s normal not to be good at anything, so why even bother about it?
Being self-employed and building a business on the side allows you to grow your personal skills even more instead of focusing on your „weaknesses“.
Though finding your personal skills isn’t as easy as it sounds. While some might exactly know what they’re good at and how they can add value to the world, most of us struggle with this question.
I had a hard time myself with defining my personal skills. I read a ton of self development books, followed countless blogs and experimented with various business models for two years.
It took me quite a lot time to recognize, that I’m best at helping others to grow a business on the side. Blogging and coaching has shown that I’m good at uncovering the personal skills of others - and that’s what I’m doing right now.
Working in a job blurs our natural talents. Instead of implementing them everyday, we’re following task lists that don’t focus on our passions and skills. So we slowly loose track of our natural talents.
Let me ask you one question: when was the last time your supervisor took note of your personal skills and gave you tasks that matched your skills exactly?
To find out what you’re truly good at, you can follow various exercises and principles.
It was questions like the following that helped me to define my personal skills and natural talents:
What comes easy to you that others are struggling with?
This question brings it to the point.
To build a profitable business you need to solve people’s problems. That’s the secret sauce behind all successful businesses.
Since I’m reaching only a very small amount of people compared to big players in Internet business, I cannot imagine how many people are stuck in a job because they don’t know there personal skills.
So by the end of February 2014 I’ll launch a membership program called The Self Empowerment Course for those of you who:
Over the time of February I’ll publish more details about this course and I’ll get you involved in the creation process too. If you want to get more exclusive information and the latest updates, make sure to sign up for my mailing list and become one of my premium supporters!
This post honestly means the world to me, because I tried to tackle one of the most common obstacles that hold people back to live their life to the fullest. Please share it with one of your friend if you found this post valuable!
Jan
