Don’t Say You Are An Entrepreneur,

I stopped sleeping for fifteen years the first day I left my full-time job to go to my own business, which had been operating already for 18 months.

I worked all day at my full-time job and then all night at company, along with my dozen or so employees.

I stopped having friends for at least eight years. I lost two houses and a marriage while an entrepreneur.

I started scratching my back. I couldn’t help myself. One girl who saw me said, “you know, that makes you look ugly.”

My back looks like it’s been whipped. My children used to be revolted when I gave them piggyback rides in the ocean.

Running a business is stressful, agonizing, and often leads to thoughts of suicide.

 A) 85 percent of entrepreneurs fail.

The 15 percent who succeed are close to random.

 B) An app is not a business, it’s a function.

A business has customers, revenues, and helps people solve problems.

 C) Entrepreneurship is craft.

Create something so amazing both you and your customers view it as art created by the finest craftsman. The iPod was a modern sculpture.

Make something you and the customers love equally. Love is entrepreneurship– a leap into the the starry unknown with the hope that the world will be a better place.

 D) Real entrepreneurship is not risky.

Try not to spend a dime before you have a customer. If this seems impossible, think about it more.

 E) It’s about craft and not you.

If you are a coach teaching people how to be a coach then the business is too much about you.

If you can remove yourself from the business and people still understand what it is, then it’s a business. Then it’s about the craft.

 F) But… you are everything.

I visited a friend of mine a few weeks ago at her company. It was Friday night at 8pm. The place was empty but she was there waiting for parts. Nobody else would wait with her.

I asked her, maybe you should hire someone to be CEO and you become “Founder.” She said, not possible.

You are sales. You are design. You are customer service. You write the marketing. All in service of fine craft for a customer.

This is how you become a master at what you do.

 G) People will hate you.

Don’t care. People will give you bad advice. Don’t listen. People will try to scam you every day. Don’t fall for it. People will invite you to bs events. Don’t go.

Insanity is trying to please the wrong people. Sanity is trying to please yourself.

 H) Things will go wrong every day.

Don’t panic. Expect it. Roll with it. Solve it.

 I) Don’t say, I’m an entrepreneur.

Say, I make “x”. Look at the people you make happier.

Someone is annoyed. You are the person who solves annoyances.

People are betrayed. You are the person who corrects betrayals.

 J) Don’t listen to me.

You’re an entrepreneur. Do whatever you want.

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James Altucher

Editor at The Altucher Repo