Two skills that virtually guarantee success
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Before we jump in: I know you heard from me yesterday on this, but honestly it's too good not to mention again. The email service provider (ESP) you're reading this on - Kit - is currently running their BIGGEST sale of the year. Through Dec. 3rd only, you can get their Creator Plan for 30% off! It's the same one I, and thousands of other successful online entrepreneurs like James Clear, Nicolas Cole and Dickie Bush use to communicate with our audiences. Stop building your business on rented land! Alright, onto today's Saturday business strategy... ~ The two skills: PATIENCE and DELAYED GRATIFICATION. The richest people I know all worked hard on something boring for 5+ years. Sometimes even 10 or 20 years. They understood it's impossible to get everything right now. They were willing to do the work today, in exchange for rewards 4 weeks, 4 months, even 4 years later. They understood to achieve true financial freedom and success it takes sacrifice, boring work, and making good decisions compounded over a long time. Heck, if it were easy, everyone would be running 6 and 7-figure companies and living the dream. I get some version of this question all the time: Charlie, I really want to start a business and become an entrepreneur. I want to be successful and replace my 9-5 salary in year 1, but I really value my family time and have kids. I'm also a little league coach, and my job allows me to take two weeks vacation every year, and I'd like to maintain that from the start. What should I do? These people have gotten the totally wrong idea about what it means to be an early-stage entrepreneur. They truly believe that in less than a year, they can launch a lifestyle business, replace their salary, and have the perfect work-life balance just 6-12 months in. Let me tell you right now that is total bullshit. If you want the perfect work-life balance, be home by dinner every night and not have to give up your weekend Netflix binge sessions, you're dreaming. Starting a business is really hard, and you shouldn't give up your main source of income until you have a proven model that can feed your family and keep a roof over your head. You will have to make sacrifices. You will have to miss some dinners. You will have to tell your coworkers you didn't see the latest episode of Alone. To me, it all comes down to patience and delayed gratification. Five years in, you can absolutely be making 3X your old salary, have a team of people under you, and work less than you used to at your old job. That said, it all TAKES TIME. Unlike the 'internet sensations' you see plastered all over your X and YouTube feeds, it doesn't happen overnight. If you listen to nothing else I have to say, listen to this: Please do NOT quit your day job before you are earning enough money from your side hustle to cover your daily living expenses. Period. Even though it's not Endgame, at the beginning you will trade your time for money. That's just the reality of it. You have to go out there and get paid $50-100/hour to do work for customers. When you have 20 hours/week of that work, and you're making $5-10K/month (or whatever number it takes to cover your daily living expenses and taxes), then and only then can you quit your job. The good news/bad news? At the start, those hours will come from your evenings, weekends, mornings, and vacation days. If you aren't willing to do this, you should forget about entrepreneurship and just keep waking up, going to work for someone else, coming home, and using your free time to do whatever you want. Otherwise, if you're willing to do the boring things over and over again, even when it feels like no one is listening, and the sacrificing hurts, you'll make it. Time has a way of amplifying good decisions and good businesses. Do something well for 10 years and it's hard not to be successful. Things get easier with experience, resources and time under your belt. Your leverage gets more powerful. Your opportunities get better. Your decision making skills improve. Stop thinking about entrepreneurship as a shortcut to wealth. Patience and persistence are the key. Build momentum. Delay gratification. Profit later. I promise it'll be worth it. Was this helpful? Hit reply and let me know - I read and reply to every email. You can also check out my free Zero-t0-Launch: The Ultimate Personal Newsletter Blueprint, where I go through as much of my process as possible, so you can do this yourself. Follow your joy, -Charlie P.S. If you want me to ghostwrite your personal newsletter for you, reply back with a 👻 emoji. Find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, |