Stick to What you know?

Hi Guys,

I have recently been reading thought some of the great information that i have found in "Trump The Way to the Top: The Best Business Advice i Ever Received" the particular peice i have found of interest so far is on Page 69 by Jerry Couvaras, Ceo of Atlanta Bread Company.

Basically what he is saying si "Stick to what you know" one example being "If you are a Plumber, become a better plumber".

I would like to hear other peoples opinions on this as i am quite interested in what other think about the general concept of "sticking to what you know". Also i am wondering if any other think that there should be a point that you actually decide not to stick to what you know and find something else to become an expert (or close to) in. And if so what stage, eg. when you have lost everything, or do you just go from this point and start again in the same industry?

Anyway i am very interested to see what other think about this topic.

[f3adventure]

Really. Any person (almost) can learn anything. Do what you want and like and just move forward, never stop, never give up, always press on.

[Babs0275]

I think a better way to put that is to 'know what you do'. In other words, become an expert in whatever you plan on doing. As machine said, the average person can learn anything; just learn to do it better than anyone else and you'll be successful.

I think this is a true rule to follow. I know quite a few people whom are complete idiots in many simple aspects of life but this has served them well because the energy they would have spent on extra curricular things they instead focused on their business and are very sucessful.

Focus, niche, drill down, specialise, expert, monopoly, unique, these are all related terms that lead to a sucessful business.

[Miguelax]

I think the "stick to what you know" advise applies to starting a business. I think I would have a hard time starting a business doing Nuclear energy consulting - since I don't know anything about it.

Rather than the stick phrase - I would "stick" with the phrase - do what you love. I really want to love what I do - and not just do it for the paycheck.

[BilingualJapan]

at first I was going to say it depends on a persons goals.

Donald Trump for instance only wants money.

however, if a person only wants money, they can be very succesfull most likely by sticking to what they know. Know bicycles? create the worlds largest chain of bicycle shops if your goal is money.

Love riding bikes? create one bike shop if your goal is to do what you love. I'm thinking if you love bikes then you must know something about them.


whichever goal it is, as mentioned, become an expert in your field.

I've found the same advice in many books on becoming a writer. 'Write what you know' The advice has never meant not to write only what you know, but rather in order for your writing to be good you need to know something about the subject. So you either need to know the subject or be willing to learn it before your writing will be believable.

I think the same advice applies to business. You can run any business you want, but you need to know something about that business if you want to be successful.

I have no plumbing skills myself, but there's nothing stopping me from becoming a plumber or running a plumbing business. Before I'd have a chance to be successful though I'd have to go out and learn a lot about plumbing.

[f3adventure]

With regard to writing, you cannot just launch into writing a book without having done loads of research on a topic (except novels).

The 7 things of writing are Research, Research, Research, do your writing, Edit, Edit, Edit.

In small business just drive at something you know thoroughly really hard. Launching into a small business or any business without knowing at least some of the elements of the business is risking failure.

A lot of small business is your personality. Technical and business knowledge are required of course, but your personality will impact on a business.

[OldJack]

to an extent I would agree with "Stick with what you know"

But more importantly, I think you need to stick with what you are passionate about. If you are doing a business, you will be spending 12 - 16 hours a day, and if you dont do something you are passionate about, it wont go very far

i think that sounds right. altho i ended up in a business i had to learn from scratch...but it fit me..since im naturally curious and love a lot of good stuff around me and am speedy enough to deal with auctions...
..i think better advice is to stick to what you are good at....in other words if you are messy, creative, and all over the place in interests and love to generalize and work on hunches and take risks then dont pick some field where you will be locked into something that would drive you crazy. like meticulous but boring things, or brain surgery, working in a cubicle when you really want to be out there interacting with other stuff...
if you are great at math and have to have everything perfect all the time and like to work alone dont go into art or trying to sell to homeowners...
can you tell one of those is me and one is my partner and dh....

[philsmears]

I think I have to agree to both "stick to what you know" and "do what you love to do".
I have tried to find a niche which I knew nothing about and was not really interested in and of course I failed miserably since I was not willing to do all the things I had to do to make the business successful.
If I learned only one thing by this then it is that I have to at least like what I am doing to be willing to spend all that time on it that is needed to make it a successful business.