In truth, small business failure rates are greatly exaggerated. And of those that do fail, much of what caused them to fail could have been avoided. The hard cold reality is, not everyone is cut out to be a business owner.

While I don’t agree with everything Gary Vaynerchuk teaches, especially the workaholism ethos, I love the fact he’s a no BS, look, it takes hard work, kinda a guy. I’m the exact same way with my clients.


When I have taught, especially to large crowds, I invariably get asked what makes for a great entrepreneur. And, sadly, many of my peers are absolutely convinced they have the answer! They don’t. I don’t. And here is why.

They are as many types of entrepreneurs as there are brands of craft beer. And what totally works for one person and their brand/business, would prove to be a disaster for someone else. It’s NOT about templates and everyone else’s approach, it’s about you, that person staring back at you in the mirror.

1. Have you found a business or enterprise of some type that you are willing to go all-in on? As in, you are SO PASSIONATE about the thing, whatever the thing might be, that you will do whatever it takes to make it succeed?

2. Do you have people in your life that will hold you accountable to rising above your crap, your baggage? You got baggage, I do, we all do, and that is what will crash your business more than any other factor.

A commonly stated fact is that businesses are far more likely to go under rapid expansion than not. What you don’t hear in that statement are the massive egos that typically drive such poorly thought outgrowth. So many business failures result, directly or directly, from the person in the mirror and their baggage.

3. if you ever see a soldier, cop, or fire person get interviewed for being a hero, almost always their response will be, “I was just doing my job”. Meaning, when all hell was breaking loose, their training, their state of mind was such that they stayed calm, and they did what they had to do.
And so it is with savvy business owners. The buck stops with you. There will be tough decisions to make. Will you calmly make them? When all hell breaks loose, because it will, over and over again, will demonstrate the kind of calm, focused leadership that your business needs?


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