10 years ago if you wanted to launch a business or even to test an idea you had to rent an office, furnish and create the IT infrastructure for it, spend a lot of dough as startup costs, and all that jazz.

Now you can create a funnel, put a team in a coworking space, plug the laptops in space’s IT infrastructure and bang, you can start something. The power of the internet has caused the transaction costs to become smaller and smaller, as time goes by. So, in theory, it is easier than ever to start a project but most of the beginner entrepreneurs are lured in the idea to raise funds and make money and are not focused on creating real, lasting value. And here is their biggest seatback.

What’s the biggest mistake that entrepreneurs are making? Many companies are just using the internet and technology to slash costs and they do everything possible to outsource as much possible. They focus on cutting the costs instead of using the internet and the tech facilities at hand today to actually create much better products. And this trend is helped by the gooroos promoting via books, courses, webinars, and seminars the mindset that you can just use the internet, don’t work at all, or maybe just a little bit, outsource everything and lay low on a sunny beach. The whole value building idea is somehow out of the equation. And this is wrong and it is bad both for the business, the customers and all other stakeholders.

When I think about building lasting value (with both the good and the bad associated :)) I think  Google. They changed the way we search online, use email, documents and the list goes on. Of course, there are privacy issues, of course, they make money but they are changing things for the better. Think about Apple and how they changed the way we use the phone and listen to music. Think Facebook about how they changed the way we interact online. Or think WordPress or Medium. None of these companies took the easy route of building something just for the sake of money without transforming the world. And we, as entrepreneurs need to learn the ropes and change the world while building tremendous value. I sell a lot of products and services online through my expert business and also as part of  the other projects I am involved with and the customers always seem to expect to get 10X value in exchange for their money. It is like a mantra these days.

Of course, when selling a course, for example, to sell more it helps if we tell customers that it will be easy to reach the goal promised by the course. In reality, it is hard most of the times but if we tell people that it is hard fewer will buy. But, of course, the ones who will buy will be mostly from what we call ideal customers. I decided a long time ago to attract more of the ideal clients telling the truth than selling more to not so ideal clients by hyping the promises. This is how I do things and don’t plan to change this anytime soon. By proceeding like this I was able to succeed when others failed by taking the short route.

So the conclusion is that the quick shortcut to being wealthy is to offer immense value. We are wired as humans to search for the shortcuts so to lose weight in 7 days instead of working out for 3 months and I can write a ton of such examples. But, at the end of the day, success is not an accident and “work” has real meaning when it is focused on building meaningful value. Think about building and selling stuff which adds to the life of the people using the stuff. It is just that simple. And use the internet and the technology to build the best versions of the products, services and user experiences. Just find a way to serve the world, humanity and you will be paid at the levels you can’t even imagine right now. The way to get Lambos and mansions is not to seek them out. It is to serve the people and the world and both the Lambos and the mansions will come.