The Importance of Watching from the Sidelines: 5 Key Points
Note- This is a new writer on the eCommerce Momentum team who is looking to get back into the seller world. We will have an introduction post soon but Danai plans on documenting his path and process. Stephen
by Danai Samuriwo
This week is surreal. I decided to relieve the experience as novice seller looking and learning to get in the game. Talking about games, the sideline can feel a lot like Double Dutch. The exciting false start occurring just outside the rope. It is a real investment I could lose after all.
Once I got into selling the dance continued. I really felt silly for having hesitated for so long instead of simply jumping in. As learning journey progressed, I continued solving issues through long sessions of research for on the web. I found myself wishing I had an experienced, hand-holding type for guidance. What were months of research could have been a 2-minute solution! The upside, hard those lessons stuck!
I am glad I stayed on the sideline for a bit longer. The Experience, history, fun, disappointments, and regrets here are the valuable. I never would have picked up the lessons without the learning curve. Amongst these lessons are the following I would like to share:
- Quality vs. Quantity
There are a lot of groups! It can be overwhelming I jumped into bad ones amongst the good ones. While paid groups a highly promoted the quality was not great. Asking members of those groups would will allow you to discern the value of each group before investing.
- Mentors
Building relationships takes time. But, it is wise to invest that time Being an eager beaver I took to anyone who pledged who pledged a second of interest. In hindsight, your mentors are the busy as well. Importantly, it turned out mentorship is earned. If you display sincerity, and an eagerness to give, others value your sincerity as well.
- Financial Pressure
In short you save your investment.
The fortunate few start this journey because it is fun! Majority of us are facing real life situations. If lost the little investment we have can be the point of no return. Being on the sidelines, starting slow can minimize those loses and elongate one’s career. Every day one learns is a day they take one step away from a mess in this minefield.
- Alliances
While this is a journey that must driven by enduring passions, taking time helped me understand which colleagues I need could take the walk with. Successful people tend to align myself with sincere people. Again, this is a journey and sincere people have the best advice.
- Studious
This can easily be confused with experience. Rather, it is the willingness to learn.
While being studious can be a challenge if we are not engaged in what we do, being studious in the job we like turned out to be necessary. One can only learn so much in a single day. The more learning I accumulated on the sidelines, the more prepared I was to for most challenges I was to face.
What I might have missed out on out of hesitation or ignorance, I made up on with knowledge of the game I was about to play in. The relationships I built teachers, the lessons I learnt made my first step under, and the or over that Double Dutch rope, that much more successful.
