Dear College-Nicholas,
One of the coolest things about being an entrepreneur today is that you can create assets from thin air. Historically, businesses have always done something similar, that’s how businesses work; they produce something of greater value than the resources that went into it. Basically all of economic growth ever has resulted from this simple formula. You will realize this in 2 years. It will change your life.
Today, the up-front costs relative to the value of what you can create are astonishingly low. It costs next to nothing to create a presence online. Even world-changing software can be produced for next to nothing. Massive businesses will be created whose assets consist of little more than a few MacBooks, and some code. And distribution of anything you create is essentially free. No more hauling your goods to market in a mule-drawn cart, or diesel-burning semi-truck. Learn to effectively use Facebook, WordPress, Pinterest, Etsy, or any number of other media platforms, and all you need to do is hit upload. You will regret not starting right now. If you ever run into high-school Nicholas, pass this message on, “your biochemistry degree won’t be worth much, at least not in any field you actually want to work in. Learn to code.”
Similarly, content can be produced very cheaply; just write an article, crank out some podcasts, film 8-second Vines, produce a youtube video, I don’t care. If it educates or entertains, it’s valuable, and it represents you. Although it takes skill to produce good content, this skill can be acquired for nothing more than the time you invest in it. No textbooks, no tuition, nothing. And then you too can be creating assets.
The beauty of this is that you can produce as much or as little as you want. The price of admission is next to free, so any value you get from it puts you solidly in the black. The assets you create don’t have to be the core of your business, either. You can use them to supplement existing enterprises and solicit more customers. Many intelligent people are using such assets both to bring in more business, and to boost their standing within their industry. In doing so, they position themselves as experts who deserve higher traffic, and can charge a higher rate for higher quality skills. Research Meb Faber and Patrick O’Shaughnessy. See how they are constantly sharing the knowledge they produce. On the surface, they are giving away a lot for free. But in actuality, only they command the full value of the knowledge they share with the rest of us and their research serves as effective content marketing. It’s entertaining to use their knowledge here and there, but when you have a big, high-value project you need done right, you think first of the people generating the information you consume.
It’s not just online stuff that can be classified as assets. And the things you make are versatile. They can be sold or licensed just like traditional, “hard” assets (indeed, many freelance writers and other creatives make a living in exactly this way), or they can be retained and used to strengthen the influence of your personal brand while growing your audience. This audience is an asset in itself.
This idea gets crazier the deeper you get into it. In creating these assets, you’re building skills that will let you produce even better assets down the road. You are an appreciating stock, and those assets you spin off are dividends. The value of each dividend payment will increase with your skills. Early on, it could be argued, you will be best served by working with/for other people, because the value of these initial dividends will be very low, and you get to keep the knowledge you gain. In making career decisions, weigh whether you will learn faster, more practical knowledge on your own, or under someone else’s wing.
Make no mistake, producing good assets and commercializing them is not easy. But then, business has never been easy for those starting out. It has always taken years of learning, preparation, product development, and growth to become an overnight success. That’s the nature of exponential growth. Just be sure that you stay focused, and devote most of this growth to a razor thin field where you can grow most quickly (which is something I know you think chafes the very essence of your being, College-Nicholas. You’ll thank me though). You want a razor thin field where you can be the sole master. Carve out your narrow niche, and defend it like a bobcat backed into a thin sliver of a cave. Let nothing pry you out of that rock.
However hard that opportunity is to seize and keep, it remains fairly unprecedented in the history of the world. Consider the wealth of knowledge available through listening to podcasts, to say nothing of the knowledge you gain from producing them. Nothing is outside of your ability to learn and master it. It is a mistake not to incorporate these resources in your career and your life.
Thanks and go drink some beer,
2017 Nicholas