In my career, I started four companies.
One of those four companies failed.
That one failure very nearly destroyed my marriage and my family life.
Here are some of the most important lessons I learned from failing.
Pick your partners very carefully
Success is much easier when you have great partners.
Failure is inevitable when you have bad partners.
In any new venture pick partners who know what they are doing, have little baggage, have a positive mental outlook, are success-minded, and have a hard work ethic.
Pick partners who have been there and done that – never go into any new venture unless your partners have real-world experience in that industry.
Success requires risk and sacrifice
You cannot succeed without taking risks and making sacrifices.
The sacrifices you will have to make are many.
The most significant will be time away from family.
Trust your gut
By gut, I mean your subconscious mind.
Your subconscious mind picks up things that are otherwise invisible to you.
Always listen to that voice in your head.
It is your gut telling you what to do or what not to do.
That voice becomes loudest when your emotions are at their greatest.
Success takes far longer than you expect
Success takes a long time.
Far longer than you expect.
See Rule of Three below.
The pursuit of success is very stressful
Things will go wrong.
When they do, they create enormous stress.
That stress affects you, your loved ones, and your business partners.
Fund your business with your own money
When you are the source of your working capital, you are in control.
When you depend on others for your working capital, they are in control.
You will have to do what they tell you to do.
You are their slave.
Assumptions have no value
Assumptions can cause you to look at things through rose-coloured lenses.
Most assumptions in a business plan are wrong.
Always Pilot Test every assumption before you accept it as fact.
The pursuit of success is exhilarating
There will be ups and downs along your path toward success.
More downs than ups.
But the ups make it all worthwhile.
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Success requires good luck
In the pursuit of success, unexpected things happen.
Sometimes they are good and sometimes they are bad.
To some extent, success and failure are outside your control.
Luck plays a critical role in success.
Failure is humbling — it will drag you to your knees
Failure is an emotional experience.
It can take the financial legs out from underneath you and your family.
It will destroy your confidence and it can also destroy your life if you are weak.
Success requires that you overcome adversity
Obstacles, pitfalls, wrong assumptions, mistakes, and the unexpected can stop you in your tracks.
Sometimes you can overcome those hurdles and sometimes you cannot.
Those who succeed are able to overcome adversity.
Those who fail are not.
Be in control of your business
Control means owning more than 50% of your business.
Those who have ownership control of your business, control their business, their future, and their life.
Pilot every new idea
Test new concepts first before diving full-time into any venture.
Dive full-time only when the business model has been proven to work.
Have fallback savings
In every start-up, things will go wrong.
Make sure you have set aside funds to help you and your family recover from failure.
If you don’t, you risk destroying your marriage and family life.
Understand the rule of three
It takes three times as long as you think, costs three times as much as you expected and revenue and profits will be one-third as much as your most conservative projection.
Business plans are bullshit
Business plans are not worth the paper they have written on.
Never go into any venture solely on the basis of a business plan.
See #13 above.
Have a powerfully strong marriage
If you have a weak marriage it, along with your start-up, will fail.
Go lean
Don’t hire anyone.
Use subcontractors.
Only hire employees when you are succeeding and the business model has been proven to work.
Work out of a shack, basement, or garage until the business model is proven to work.
Keep in constant contact with your network
Pursuing success demands a great deal of your time.
It’s easy to lose contact with your friends and former colleagues.
Don’t ignore your existing relationships.
You will be calling upon them to help you find a job if the start-up fails.
My mission, my purpose in life, is to be of service to others, and in doing so, to add value to the lives of others.
I hope this article helps you avoid making the mistakes that nearly ruined my life.
