Advice from a 9-figure entrepreneur

I started my first business in 2010, and have gone from having about a thousand bucks in my bank account to a paper net worth in the low nine figures (though this will come down to high eight figures after taxes). Here's my advice FWIW: **1. Learn technical skills.** Unless you're an artist or a restauranteur or something like that, odds are that the majority of your work is going to be done on a computer. As such, you should master keyboard shortcuts, use multiple monitors, set up your workspace in an efficient way, learn basic coding skills (Javascript, HTML, and SQL are all you really need), know how to model things out in spreadsheets, etc. These skills have been instrumental to me in everything I've done as an entrepreneur, and without them there is absolutely no way I would have succeeded. One of my earliest memories of my first business was a friend asking me how I was making money (he was trying something similar and failing); I could see that a lot of the reason he was failing is that he couldn't handle any of the technical aspects of what he was doing himself (eg building a website), and so was paying for someone else do do a third-rate job of it. I said "learn how to code" and he responded with "but that's too hard." Yes, learning new things is hard, and he also should have learned how to code. Which brings me to... **2. Suck it up and do the hard things.** The vast majority of people give up when they hit their first wall. Another huge chunk drop off after the second, third, or fourth. The people who succeed are the ones who suck it up and power through the shitty parts of entrepreneurship (and it's mostly shitty at the start). I learned this during the first year of my third business, and I'm learning it again now as I'm trying to get my philanthropic efforts off the ground: there is just so much stuff when you're starting out that's a pain in the ass, and there's no one to do it but you. If you can muster the mental fortitude to just make yourself do those things, you will separate yourself from 99% of the competition and massively increase your odds of success. As just one example: can you even *imagine* how difficult it must have been to sell books on the internet in 1993? Jeff Bezos must have literally run into thousands of pain-in-the-ass things, any one of which would have deterred a normal person, but he kept at it and now he's Jeff Bezos. **3. That which gets measured gets improved.** I have kept a side scrolling daily spreadsheet of my company's P&L every single day going back to 2010. If I determine that something is critical to my company's success, I carefully measure it over time, and take note of any initiative that moves the numbers in a positive or negative direction. Even if you're just starting out and there's not much to measure, measure it. Make it a habit. While it's possible to drown yourself in data overload, I think it's much more common for people to be deficient in their data gathering and analysis than to take it too far. **4. Practice good manners.** It's crazy to have to write this one out, but I can't tell you how many people I come across that don't do this. If someone emails you, respond quickly. If they help you, say thank you (in fact, I recommend signing off on all your emails with "Thanks, \[First Name\]"). If they ask for a favor that's easy for you to deliver, do the favor. Follow up with people after a good conversation. Remember to always speak to what the *other person* wants, not just what you want. (That's another head-scratcher: the number of people who will say "Hey Chris, it would really help me if you do X and Y" without even considering what I want or whether it's in my interest to do what they're asking.) **5. Be obsessed with your business.** I recently stepped away from my company and handed the reins over to the management team. One of the major differences I've noticed in how they do things vs how I did things is that I was *obsessed* with the business, and they're not (somewhat understandably, obviously, as they don't have my equity stake in it). When you're obsessed with your business, things don't catch you by surprise because you were already worried about them way before they happened. When you're obsessed with your business, you always have a dozen ideas ready to go whenever resources free up. When you're obsessed with your business, you become the ultimate expert at the company across a variety of topics, and can be an invaluable resource to employees / teammates. Get obsessed.