My Impressions: Barefoot Executive

I wanted a lighter read than all the Options Trading stuff.  This was a light read.  

In the book, she focused on 3 common mistakes for entrepreneurs:  

1. Chasing someone else’s dreams

2. Chasing too many rabbits

3. Chasing dollars

The Barefoot Executive: The Ultimate Guide for Being Your Own Boss and Achieving Financial Freedom

I guess the most important here is the first one: Chasing someone else’s dreams. Usually, this statement is understood as if you’re not in business for yourself, then you are achieving what the boss tells you.  You are achieving his/her dreams instead of yours.  This is also what I thought about the statement for years.

Here, Carrie adds a slight twist into the statement.  Instead of “taking orders,” she says don’t follow the same path as others because you’re jealous/envious or whatever.  For example, a lot of people are creating apps on the phone and making a killing.  You may go into business to create an app and sell it to the world.  You are not “working for someone else.”  But the problem with this thing is, maybe you have no experience at all in making apps.  Instead of leveraging your current strengths, you are stepping into a domain which you need to go through 100% learning curves in multiple areas.  

And truthfully, that does sound kind of ridiculous right?  You think you are going to do something better with 0 experience when everybody in the game already has been doing it longer than you?  Not impossible, definitely.  But…  Why not leverage your current strengths and double down what you’re already good at?  

And here are a few inspiring quotes in the book:

A lot of you are too busy being busy.  The difference between business and busyness is the “I” and the “y” (why).

Done trumps perfection, every time.

People will spend more money to solve their problem and to fix pain than they will for prevention, pleasure, or privilege.  E.g. selling weight loss will always outsell wellness.  (The opposite is also true, if you can bring yourself to pay/prevent ahead of time, you will save tons down the line)