Build an Empire.
My five-step plan to dominate an industry, do something good for the world and be insanely successful.
What will you gain from this article? You will be provided with an insight into how I plan to build an empire through innovation, disruption and revolution of an industry. The value I intend to provide is to give you the opportunity to consider how you will build your own empire, should that be your wish, through complete transparency and honesty about my plan for life. I spent a fair amount of time editing the article to make sure that it wasn’t needlessly long and that every sentence is packed with value. Interested? Read on.
At the moment I am a nobody. Like many others, I am an aspiring entrepreneur. So why should you listen to me? Well, really, you shouldn’t. You should only listen to yourself once you have synthesised my thoughts and ideas. I’m just wanting to document my journey so in 30 years time when someone asks me how I did what I did — I can point back to articles like this.
As an aspiring entrepreneur, I’m a little different, I don’t believe in multiple streams of income, build-to-sell, side hustles, passive income, trading, property investment or any other quick wins you hear everyone else shouting about. No, I simply want to concentrate my forces, go all in, and build an empire. Do you think Sam Walton built Walmart passively? Get serious about life. This is a difficult and long journey. The payoff? Infinite.
1 — Establish your ethos.
I encourage you to think about your ethos. If you, your philosophies and ambitions were reduced to a sentence… What would that sentence be? Once you learn your sentence, you begin to have a lot more clarity in life about who you are, where you are going and what you should be doing.
Sadly, many of us go through life asleep at the wheel
I feel that my sentence will be the same as many others, I’m just lucky enough that I found mine: ‘Build a future to look forward to’. Now take a moment to think about that, let it set in. To elaborate, if you were to spend the next 30 years doing what you’ve done today, would you be somewhere good? Are you excited about your future? Are you still working that dead-end job you said you were going to quit last year?
Think about something bigger than yourself
Now your sentence isn’t just for you, it’s for the world as well. I’m not suggesting that only you should look forward to your future, I’m stating that you should be doing something that makes the future of the world something to look forward to. Equally, I want to encourage others to build their own future to look forward to — to act on their potential, but first (much like an adult with an oxygen mask in a plane crash) I need to focus on myself first.
What really matters the most to you?
I believe knowing your sentence is step one — it makes life much clearer, you can easily navigate problems and hurdles because you can see the end goal despite how far away you might be. Spend some time, figure out what is really important to you, find the core of that belief. That is your sentence.
2 — How do you get your ethos to become a reality?
I believe the problem many of us face is that we struggle to synthesise the macro goals into the micro goals. Which is understandable, the task of distilling a 50-year target into daily tasks is difficult. Who knows what they should be doing on a day-to-day basis to achieve greatness in 50 years time? The way we combat this is by using something I refer to as a ‘thesis’…
Here’s my thesis
The idea of the thesis is my plan to follow my ethos. My thesis is to educate, plan and execute. Thus, I plan to educate myself on my chosen industry — become an expert. I will plan what impact I will have within the industry and how this will come about. I then must translate this into execution.
Your ethos and thesis could be anything in the world!
For example, your ethos may be to make people happier… Your thesis, being the thing that attempts to get your ethos to manifest, could be to smile, be nice to others and promote healthy activities.
Sometimes small deviation from your plan is necessary — so long as it is calculated!
I don’t believe my aspiring path to greatness will come about through backup plans, side hustles or build-to-sell companies. An empire is not built passively. However, in order to increase my likelihood of success when executing within a given industry, I need to develop my business acumen. So, I plan to build a few businesses from ideas I already have that I feel would do well in a build to sell design. This intention is twofold; to develop my business capability and (hopefully) to have some form of financial success to allow more leverage in execution within the industry I plan to dominate.
3 — What’s your problem?
By ‘problem’ I mean what issue in the world do you want to contribute to? I won’t spend too long on this as I imagine for most people their problem is revealed by their ethos, their mission in life. Your ethos tends to expose the exact thing you care most about, thus giving you your ‘problem’ and purpose.
What’s my problem?
My problem is that I don’t have one yet! As my ethos is to better the future in some way the world really is my oyster so I am spending time deciding which problem to undertake. I am still working on this, as I want to pick something meaningful but equally I need to have a real passion for it — my journey will be difficult and so I need to love what I do to spend 30 to 50 years at it.
Do not rush
I understand the temptation to rush these steps and get moving on the ladder but I strongly advise against it. You’ve got time to think, really. Don’t get complacent, but equally don’t rush. This article provides an outline, a structure for your entire life — that’s not something to take lightly. Spend some time and make sure you are happy and excited for your upcoming future.
How I’m conducting my research
I spent a few nights on Google; searching for social and global problems that plague the world. Coupled with future predictions regarding emerging markets — as monetisation is something that I need to consider. At the end of the day, I am an aspiring entrepreneur, I plan to better the world and make money doing it. However, your primary objective must always be the solution to the problem — creating a better world. I currently have a large list of problems I’m working through, deciding what to dedicate my life to.
4 — Find the solution.
Once you have your problem you need to begin finding a solution — by following your thesis. My solution will come about through education, planning and execution. Through education I plan to become an expert in the industry; I will read everything there is to read on the subject, I will write journalism for the topic, I will attend trade shows, I will be fanatically fixated on the issue more than anyone else. I will commit myself to become an expert.
But where does being an expert get you?
I believe the target audience for this article is also aspiring entrepreneurs. When I think of the word entrepreneur, I instantly think ‘innovation’. My mind intrinsically links those words together. So here’s my question… are you an entrepreneur? Whenever you’ve learnt something or worked somewhere, have you quickly found a way to make it better? Do you constantly seek and find innovation in your life? You may well just be an entrepreneur. This is where being an expert gets you. It creates a position for you to be able to innovate. If you are an entrepreneur at heart, you will look for ways to innovate, disrupt and revolutionise as you educate yourself.
Your time commitment
Once you’ve picked your problem you must commit to it, 30 to 50 years at least. You need to get comfortable with this fact — the road to major success, empire-building success, is a long haul. This is why you need to spend time preparing your plan, you’ve got time but it’s going to take time too. When building something great, something bigger than yourself you need to understand that it’s going to seem hopeless for at least 20 years and that real success won’t come to fruition until at least 30 years. I’m somewhat pulling out numbers but I hope you understand my point. The larger the commitment, the larger the payoff — both for the world and yourself. Give your life — life will return it and then some.
5 — Enjoy the accolades
To monopolise on your innovation you need to start a company and become a market leader tackling your problem. This outline for life has drawn inspiration from many sources but primarily Elon Musk — this is a very similar path to the one he took and he has tackled a multitude of problems. After success in your field, you have the ability to stretch yourself further, pick up other problems and get a real taste for life.
6 — A Final Word.
I hope you got some form of value from this article. I hope I inspired at least one person to pick themselves up and make something of their life. It is a wish of mine that more people aspire for greatness, not just weekend Forex trading. Do something great. Be someone great. Built something great.
The punchline
In summary, you need to establish your ethos, your mission in life. Then you can develop your thesis, how you plan to bring your ethos to life. Next, you need to find your problem, something that the solution would benefit the world in some fashion. Then dedicate yourself to the solution of that problem. Finally, enjoy the success that brings you. A simple, straightforward and incredibly difficult approach to life. It’s the one I’m taking, and it’s the one I’ll point back to in 30 years from now stating ‘This is how I did it’. Thank you.
Updated edit – the ‘problem’ I’ve selected is renewable energy with a specific focus on solar power.
There’s still a lot of innovation needed – the technology needs to be cheaper, more efficient and energy storage need to be improved.
It’s an industry that I believe will soon be blowing up – I want to be a part of it. If I can find a new to make solar panels more efficient and cheaper I will provide extreme value to the solution of the world’s energy problem. I will enjoy the success from doing so.
