Myat Nyein - How to start your own business

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Preparing to start work

Before you decide to embark on the exciting journey of becoming your own entrepreneur, I suggest you take a moment to examine yourself. See if there are any mental obstacles blocking your path. These obstacles can prevent you from succeeding in your endeavors. Identify them now. Then take immediate action to eradicate them.

What is holding you back?

There must be a reason why you're procrastinating. Otherwise, you wouldn't have read that far into the book.

I failed to identify my psychological barriers in time. As a result, I had to give up my first successful business. My case can be summed up as a midlife crisis. Most of us experience these kinds of crises in our forties. Some experience them earlier. Others experience them when we are approaching sixty and are about to retire. In my case, the crisis struck like a bolt of lightning at the age of fifty.

I am the founder of a very successful advertising agency. I am the president, managing director, and majority shareholder of the agency. (Lightning struck twice.) Our agency's stock is valuable. It's solid. It's safe. The only way to ruin the business is to kill the president of the agency, or his wife.

But I lost the business. It wasn't my personal shares in the business that I lost. It was the whole business that I had conceived, that I had worked so many hours a day to build up, that I had been offered a huge profit to buy two or three months before my final act. I can't even imagine to this day why I turned down the offer. It was because it would have sold my entire company to a large company for just one pound sterling. I was relieved to have such a large company to take over. It was a relief to me because the £100,000 overdraft was settled. And it was a big argument. Or so I thought at the time.

Why did I lose my business?

I asked myself the above question every day for years. I never got the real answer. Because I was looking for the answer in the wrong places. I blamed the argument. (Not true. I like to argue.) I blamed the bank overdraft. (Not true, the business is strong. I can pay back the overdraft.)

I blamed the key management. (Not true, they all worked for the benefit of the company.)

I blamed domestic problems. (Not true. My late wife was stronger than I was, even when she was no longer alive.) I blamed old John Barleycone. (Not true. Counseling was not the main reason.)

Where did it go wrong?

That day, as I walked through the rain in great distress, the truth came to me softly. The answer I found was the key to the peace of mind I was searching for. In fact, I had given away everything I owned.

I was fifty years old. I had a successful business. I had a lot of money. I had a small house. I had three cars to boast about. I gave it all away. In short, I lost my self-confidence and ran away. Why?

# It's clear. I don't deserve success.

Not only did I lose my own business, my career and my personal wealth, I was also investigated by the Inland Revenue for seven years. I don't want anyone to go through what I went through. (The Inland Revenue's efforts were so detailed and thorough. In the end, they refunded me over £14,000.)

Learning to build success

When are you ready to build success? It's easy. Once you've identified the reason that's holding you back, you're ready. If you're only twenty years old when you discover that reason, you're good to go. But for many people, it takes a lot longer to discover and accept that truth.

So what is holding you back? Now is the time to identify the obstacle, analyze the situation, and get your life moving again.

What's bothering you might be one of three common phrases these days: Being cut back, being retired, or being an outcast.

Are you feeling down because you're unemployed? Are you tired of hearing people say you're not getting any older? Is everyone telling you you're too young? Or are you stuck in a job that's not making any progress?

Overcoming psychological barriers

Let's examine each of the psychological barriers that can impact your situation.

Are you feeling down because you were among those who were laid off?

Being among the downtrodden is hard to bear. Right? Yesterday you were just like me in the crowd. Today you are wandering around alone, not knowing what to do or what to do. Your employer may have given you a small allowance. But it is rare to give a generous allowance. Even that small allowance has disappeared without even being kept warm in your hand due to unavoidable circumstances. To repay debts, to pay for things you have bought.....

Yes, you've lost your job.

So what will you do?

Wouldn't it be nice to go out and plan something for your future instead of sitting at home and feeling frustrated? After all, you have something to do.

Is it too early to retire?

If you don't plan your retirement years in a systematic way, you'll be in for a rough patch. Some people retire too early. They have a lot of money in their hands. But you're left feeling overwhelmed and helpless.

Even if you are in good health and strong, you still need an outlet for your energy. And what better outlet than one that is of a business nature?

If you are in a situation where you don't need profits, you can donate those profits to worthy causes. Keep it up.

Are you feeling depressed because you're constantly being rejected?

I've been in that situation many times. After losing my own business, I opened a marketing consulting business out of my home office for a few years. It was a success. But then the recession hit. In October 1990, the effects of the recession hit me too.