A barrier to entry is how difficult it is to execute something.
Creating a fast food chain has a high barrier to entry.
Selling clothes online has a low barrier to entry.
Neither is better or worse, one is just easier to do than the other. That means that if you do something with a low barrier of entry, you’re more likely to have a lot of competition and chances are the endeavour won’t have much value in the market place.
Things that are rare are valuable.
Things that are rare are also harder to do or obtain.
As we get thicker in the weeds on our endeavour, we can take comfort in the fact that the barrier to entry gets higher with every difficult, confusing and potentially painful step forward. All this is also predicated on the fact that you are working intelligently and not slogging unnecessarily on a job you aren’t equiped to do.
Here are some signs the barrier to entry is high for your endeavour:
-Results come only from consistent, compounded action
-Your unique perspective is required
-Your unique cross over of skills is required
-It gets confusing often
-It’s unclear what to do next
There will be more, but that’s a good start to reframe the difficulty.
When it gets hard, it means you’re out at sea searching for gold. It’s also very unlikely anyone else came as far as you did and made as many distinctions as you have.
When it gets difficult, know that victory is near.
