Game Changer: 5 Pieces of Entrepreneurial Advice I Would Give to My Younger Self
I would have saved myself a lot of pain if I knew what I knew now.
Every entrepreneur wishes they could go back and tell their younger self advice that would have changed everything.
Aside from the obvious advice like, “Buy Bitcoin and Tesla stock in 2011”, there is more practical advice that would have helped prevent a lot of stress and pain.
The bright side is that we can share the knowledge we have now with others.
That’s what this blog post is.
I consider it my responsibility to share with you what I wish I had known when I first started my entrepreneurial journey 10 years ago.
So, let’s dive in!
1. Stop trying to learn everything
One mistake I made was trying to learn every area of each business.
While this paid off on occasion, I would have been better off hiring the right people and focusing on mastering the areas I enjoyed.
It can be difficult for an entrepreneur to control everything. It’s their business and they want it to go well and often it feels like everyone else might do it wrong.
Letting go of control is a skill on its own.
That’s why you need to learn to delegate the work you don’t enjoy and master the work you do.
Stop trying to be the person who does everything.
2. Be careful of who you work with
When you are growing a business, you need to start hiring staff. But, problems arise when you hire the wrong people.
Your business is your home. It is how you feed your family, it is where you spend the majority of your time and it is what you (should) love.
That means that hiring staff is like bringing someone new into your home.
You need to trust your hire to have your best interest at heart, and you need to trust they will do a good job.
Adding a business partner is even more intimate.
It is like adding someone to your family. You have to pick carefully and diligently.
Bringing in the wrong business partner or hiring the wrong staff is like allowing mould to grow in your home.
It’s going to cause damage and be hard to get rid of, and even after you get rid of it, the repairs will cost you.
3. Take good care of yourself
If you are passionate about your business and want it to succeed, you will end up working far more hours than the majority of people you know.
I’ve had weeks where I worked over 100 hours. Several times. And on average for years I worked over 60 hours a week.
That’s just how things work sometimes.
Naval Ravikant describes it as hunting like a lion.
You put all your energy into going hunting (building your business), and then once you catch your food, you feast and then can be lazy until the next hunt.
The problem is that when we entrepreneurs are hunting for our feast, we often forget to take care of ourselves.
We start to eat less or even worse, eat fast food. We end up sleeping less, skipping the gym and ignoring our loved ones.
Building a business is great, but when it starts to come at the expense of your health, friends and family - you need to rebalance.
4. Spend more time with other entrepreneurs
The best thing I did when I started on my entrepreneurial journey was to go out and meet all the top people in my industry.
I reached out to them and told them I admired what they’ve done and would love to get their advice on how to move forward.
It was great, every single one said yes to meeting up and gave me advice.
However, once I started working more deeply on my business, I stopped meeting new entrepreneurs and spent less time with the ones I knew.
Having a network of entrepreneurs with whom you can share the issues you are facing and who you can talk to when you’re struggling is incredibly valuable.
Even if they can not directly help you, simply knowing that other entrepreneurs are also struggling is a subtle reminder that you’re not alone.
Knowing you are not alone on this journey will help you endure the hard times. Because, if someone else has struggled and made it through, so can you.
So, go out there and build a network of entrepreneurs who you can spend time with regularly.
5. It’s going to get rough, hold on
Your friendly neighbourhood business influencer will glorify entrepreneurship because they have seen success from it (or want to lie about it to find success). However, they often forget to let their followers know about all of the hardship that is up ahead.
Entrepreneurship is brutal. It will push you down, kick you while you’re down and do everything it can to prevent you from getting up.
The journey is rough and it is a rollercoaster of ups and downs.
Most days you will either be feeling like you are the top dog or questioning what in the hell you were thinking when you started this journey.
You need discipline, courage, determination, a high pain tolerance, patience and be extremely resourceful.
This is going to get rough, so hold on and keep pushing forward.
Closing remarks
As an entrepreneur, you should be seeking to not only learn from your experiences but also to learn from others.
Every entrepreneurial journey is different so not all advice will resonate with you.
But, remember the advice you receive because as you continue forward, there will be times when that advice will start to make sense.
If I had known these 5 pieces of advice 10 years ago, I would have saved myself from a lot of pain and multiple failures.
Thanks for reading