Often times it is because they already know who their customers are.

Suppose you live in a town where is no pizza parlor. There is literally no place where you can get someone to make you a pizza and eat it there. Everyone you know complains about this and says they want pizza.

So you open a little place that sells pizza. Do you think it will be a success? Unless you are a terrible manager or your pizza is awful, or you priced yourself too high, you will likely draw plenty of people willing to buy your pizza. You are giving known customers what they want.

But suppose instead you look around and see there is no fancy French restaurant. You never bother to ask anyone whether they would like French cuisine because you are “passionate” about French cuisine, and you are terrific at making a brioche and a bouillabaisse. You are 100% determined and committed to this project, and you have your vision and your passion, and after all, that is all that is really needed to be a success, right?

So you go into debt a half million dollars, hire some people and open your restaurant, and you have no customers. And you have no idea why! The food is top notch, the ambiance is terrific, the reviews are ecstatic, but no customers.

It’s because you are not giving people what they want. You didn’t assess the market, or the competition. Yet most entrepreneurs go about it exactly this way — they decide to create some whiz bang technology that will wow you, or a super clever smart way to sell something better online or track your health, not once asking if anyone really needs the item or even wants it.

Whenever someone is developing an app, I ask them how they will make money from it. They usually say they will charge a download fee. So I ask them how many apps are out there. They almost always look at me dumbfounded. They have no idea. I say, hundreds of thousands? Perhaps a few million? Yeah, they respond.

Okay, out of the million apps that are out there, how many have they personally ever heard of? A few hundred at most? Yeah, they say. So you yourself, who is in this biz, have only heard of a tiny fraction of the apps that exist out there, right? Yeah. (They are starting to get my point).

Now, I ask, pull out your phone. How many apps have you personally downloaded? Generally the answer is around 20 to 30. Great! How many have your personally downloaded that you have paid any money for? Usually the answer between 1 and 3.

So: You are telling me that you yourself have only heard of a tiny fraction, which means you have actually looked into even fewer, only downloaded a hand full. And you basically haven’t downloaded any apps for a fee. But you are going to tell me that the whole world will be paying you for your app. (and no, if you have no users, you will get zero advertising).

Therefore, the notion of “build it and they will come,” or “it will sell itself,” or that anyone would want your product even for free isn’t a good strategy. Instead, find out what customers want and give it to them. It’s much easier.

Whenever we hear someone refer to themselves as a “serial entrepreneur” we raise an eyebrow.

Perhaps it’s just part of the idiosyncratic nature of the Bay Area, but when we hear “serial entrepreneur” we hear “someone that hasn’t yet hit his or her stride as an entrepreneur even after repeated attempts.”

Now clearly there are exceptions to this comment above; Elon Musk is the most obvious example. He’s successfully launched PayPal, SpaceX, Solar City and Telsa, each a so called unicorn (a startup that’s reached a billion + dollar valuation). But, he’s also probably a once-in-a-generation genius and entrepreneur.

Successful startup founders (be they serial or not), have what Doug Leone of Sequoia Capital calls “crystal clarity in his or her thinking.” You cannot fake this, but you know it when you see it. The best founders know exactly what they want to build, have a detailed sense of the competition and the target customer.

To Doug’s quote, I’d also add that they are “all-in” on the idea and are able to attract great talent to complement what he or she doesn’t have. Winning involves building a great team. Hard to do that if you can’t attract and retain talent.

The term “serial entrepreneur” gets thrown around a lot these days. Technically, I fit the bill. I successfully exited my first startup, Silvercar—and here I am, working on another startup.

But I refuse to call myself a serial entrepreneur.

Why? Because I never really planned on doing this. I didn’t leave college planning to found multiple startups. I majored in history. And “serial” implies a fairly dogged pursuit of the next big thing, founding companies and moving on.

That’s not how I work, and that’s not why I founded my second startup. In fact, I never even set out to work on a second startup, much less a first one. Most entrepreneurs feel very lucky to come up with that one successful idea. They feel even luckier if they get a second idea that works.

I got that second idea, but it wasn’t because I was constantly on the lookout for a new opportunity. I didn’t have VCs throwing millions at me to go do another startup after Silvercar. It was more organic.

So, as someone who’s worked on multiple startups, let me demystify this trending idea of the serial entrepreneur.

The Path To Number Two

After I exited Silvercar, I never thought I’d have another good idea.

But I had to find something to do. I did advisory freelance work for awhile, but I was always looking for businesses to acquire. Finally, I settled on a laundromat because I’d heard they had good cash flow. I was also a little curious about the industry because I didn’t notice any big brand names.

In the beginning, I had an inkling that there might be a potential opportunity there. The industry seemed to lack any new technology. But it really wasn’t on my mind at that point.

So, we ran the laundromat for a couple years. And during that time, I couldn’t find any non-coin technology that was even close to acceptable. There was nothing that people could use with their smartphones, nothing that made it a better experience for them. It was really just an empty industry when it came to new technology.

I never thought about it as a startup when I first bought the place. But the lack of technology I saw in the industry sparked an idea. I remember explaining my idea for the laundromat to someone and thinking, “Oh, crap. I’ve got another startup.”

I’m Not A Serial Entrepreneur

So, I’ve founded multiple startups, but it’s almost a little insulting when people ask me about being a serial entrepreneur. They automatically assume I’m gunning for an exit, and that’s simply not the case.

Sure, I have shareholders. If an exit proposition comes to me (which is rare), and they’ll deliver acceptable returns, I’ll show it to my shareholders. If that’s what they want to do, then I’ll do it.

But I don’t think about that every day.

Personally, the Silvercar journey was a big deal for me. I spent about eight years of my life working on it from start to finish. In the end, people asked me if I was sad to leave. I would say, “Not really. It’s been quite a while.”

I wasn’t leaving because I was jumping into something new. It was just time. My mentality isn’t, I’m building companies in order to exit them. I want to follow through and see the process out. I’m not looking for the fastest exit.

But I Understand The Draw Of “Serial”

I will say this: I’ve learned from my mistakes with the first startup. Now, I have a second shot at it.

I think a lot of people who’ve successfully exited a startup would do another one. And I think a lot of people who failed would probably do another one. But to actually find a second idea with the level of quality required to make it happen? That’s very difficult.

If you can find that idea, you have the opportunity to make it better this time around.

Anything you didn’t do well in your first startup, you have a chance to improve upon. Your ability to anticipate events is significantly higher the second time around, and you have more credibility in the eyes of investors. They know you’ve done this before.

And that’s when I wear the badge proudly. “Serial” tells investors that I understand the process. They can trust me with their money. Maybe I don’t know absolutely everything about the laundry industry, but I know how these things work. In that case, the term “serial” can come in handy. But it’s not a business philosophy I follow, and not one that most of the entrepreneurs I know would subscribe to either.

So, no, I don’t consider myself a serial entrepreneur—I just have a nose for opportunity.

Having some money in the bank does change things.

But for the better? That’s more mixed.

The first one (12.5 months after founding):

A $50m total exit the first time wasn’t enough to make anyone a billionaire, even coming after just 1 year and 1 round of funding.

But I made enough money selling my first start-up to (x) not work for “the man” again and (y) fund the prototype and pre-seed for the second. That saved some material dilution, and in the end, also got us probably a 20% higher valuation. More importantly, it gave us time. Time to figure out what to do the 2nd time. Time to make a few mistakes. Time to drop 1 project that didn’t work for another that did (Adobe Sign / EchoSign). Time to really work on it for a year before “go”.

And yet … and yet … because 2/3 of the co-founders had “small wins” under their belts, that led to tension. Tension I didn’t have the first time. Tension that we had to do better, and quickly, for it to be worth the time.

That tension led to one co-founder quitting, and another almost quitting. The tension of “oh yeah I did better before so this isn’t going well enough so I am wasting my time”.

That tension wasn’t healthy, and in end, while we did well in spite of it … we could have done so much better without. So much better. In the end, we sold just as it got good ($1m MRR/$12m ARR, 140% net revenue retention, 100%+ YoY growth, cash-flow positive).

I think without the first exit, I couldn’t have funded or done the second. And yet … if none of us had a win under our belts, I think maybe, we would have done better. There would have been more collectively, 110% commitment. No one would have walked out the door. No one would have threatened to fire anyone else. We would have just hunkered down, and turned 10 customers into 20, then 100, then 1,000. Just faster and with less drama.

I made enough money selling my second start-up to not have to worry for a long time in the third one about making any money from it. That is different. Is this better? Well, yes and no I think. The pro is it’s much easier to go long when you don’t have to worry about paying the mortgage. The con is perhaps, it can take some of the fire out of it. If you don’t quite hit the plan for this year — the world doesn’t end.

Everything I’ve done, in the end, I’ve had the fire. But the why was different.

• First start-up: To Do a Start-Up. Ourselves.
• Second start-up: To Do It Again, But Bigger.
• Third start-up (and fund): To Do Something That Matter, and Endures.

If you want to see my very favorite talk on doing it better, but also differently, the second time, check out my interview of Lew Cirne, CEO of New Relic:

It’s a giant cringe compilation. If you feel the need to call yourself a “serial entrepreneur” the chances are that first you probably aren’t one and second you are almost certainly a dick.

My experience has been that people who refer to themselves as “serial entrepreneurs” feel the need to prove something to others about how great they are. They say it with pride even though normally it means that they never devoted enough time to any particular venture to be successful at anything. It is a self-aggrandizing way to describe oneself and normally they say it smugly, kind of like when people tell you they work for Google.

As for what their lives are like, its kind of like attention deficit disorder transformed into a lifestyle. I think they are happy but most of them find success fleeting.

Entrepreneurs are just entrepreneurs whether they do it “serially” or not.

If you understand one fact, then you know the difference.

Basically no one succeed on first try.

A non-serial entrepreneur - wannapreneur, tinkerer, etc, want to and hope for success on one shop.

A serial entrepreneur is a real entrepreneur - business builder at heart. They fail many times and then succeed, and on to bigger success.

I think you mostly need to be extremely stubborn.

It helps a lot of you are also really smart or have financial means or good connections in business.

You need to believe in yourself and your concept even while no one else does. You need to be delusional until that delusion becomes real.

This is just about as much of an open-ended question as one can get, but let’s try to focus it down to a few points. First - advantages when you fail. Second - advantage (and some disadvantages when you succeed). Finally - I want to talk about your own personal path to success.

Advantages When You Fail

One of the most horrible things that can happen to an entrepreneur is failure. Trust me, “embracing” and “celebrating” failure is nothing but a sugar-coated fluff that has little place in reality. Sure, when you think about your failure in 5 years - you can celebrate it, but when it happens - it hurts.

Being a serial entrepreneur, and having that mind set is one of the ways how you can deal with failure. When you build your mind-set from the get-go that no matter what happens - you will start again and continue - you will deal with failure a lot better (it still will not be easy sailing as many would have you think).

Just please do not fall into the trap of wanting to “fail fast”. That’s another advice that is common in the startup world that will most likely lead you to bankruptcy and the only reason it exists is because it is good for VC’s - not for founders.

Advantages When You Succeed

Success is not always exactly what you envision. Most people I know, who have made millions, become depressed, suicidal, lose meaning and friends right after they become “successful”. Why? Mainly because you frankly do not know what to do next. Just look at the Minecraft founder’s tweets after he sold the company to get a sense for it. Some buy houses, others go to Spain and spend millions on boats, but inevitably they come back with an empty soul.

Being a serial entrepreneur helps to deal with this too, as you will then know what you will do next immediately after you have experienced success and you will be less likely to go through this cycle.

Serial Entrepreneurs Know What Their Life Goal Is

Which brings me to my final point. Most goals that people have in life are destructive. Anything that is measurable, attainable and quantifiable is usually a bad goal. For instance, say your goal is to make 10 000 000 dollars. What happens if you don’t reach it? Devastation and a very painful death. What happens if you do? You have no more goals, so you become empty and depressed.

On the other hand, if you are a serial entrepreneur, then you might, just might, have a real mission and path in your life.

For instance, mine is to “wake people up and promote unity through personal growth”. No matter how much money, or how little money I have - I can keep doing it. If my company fails, I can start another doing the same thing using different tools, if my company succeeds I can start other initiatives that help me achieve that goal. There is nothing that can stop me from contributing to that mission and I can never stop - no matter what happens.

1. Your achievements are regarded as more impressive because you're young; thus more incentive to try
2. Launching a business often requires you to forgo an income for the first few months/years, this is easier when younger, you could live at home with your parents for example
3. There is less to risk; you will likely not have a spouse and kids to feed; if you mess up, you're only affecting yourself, not having as large an impact on those around you.
4. Established entrepreneurs and others will often be more forgiving of your mistakes as they can relate to the learning curve; and will also be more inclined to help you. e.g. I have got a number of deals/people to help me out that I wouldn't have got if I were older
5. You have not lived a life being battered into believing that entrepreneurship is not a viable career path. If you're say 30-40 and you suggest that you want to quit your office job to be an entrepreneur, your peers will likely mock you.
6. You have grown up in the internet age, understand the market and have role models such as Mark Zuckerburg and a society in which entrepreneurship is starting to become more glamorised. i.e. the advent of shows like The Apprentice.

I can’t assign exact percentages to the various reasons for failure (or success) but I think I can produce the “big three”:

1. Many entrepreneurs are in “name only.” They don’t have the stomach for taking risks so they bail out. They never really were entrepreneurs in the first place.
2. Ever since the web became a very accessible venue for selling, many people have established some kind of presence on the web in the mistaken belief that mere presence would result in sales. Sorry, no. But the availability of an “easy” way to set up shop brought in a landslide of new business owners who simply disappeared in the crowd.
3. Clever promoters, including drop-shipping suppliers, held out a promise of easy money for little work; this attracted people who wanted easy money for little work. Their failure was inevitable.

Hope that helps.

First we need to define what is “to be successful” for you. Whatever is your beginning point which guided you to start a new entrepreneurship, you set up a goal that you will (very often) redefine and improve it.

Being successful in society used to be related to money, but for some of us, success is related to “Life Mission”. So if it’s your case, being an entrepreneur it will be your daily journey until the end of the days.

I always felt that the most interesting fact is that “serial entrepreneur” is redundant.

Entrepreneur was coined by Jean Baptiste Say, having read Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, and noting that while Smith explored all of the common business people (partners, merchants, proprietors, founders, owners, investors, etc.), he neglected that adventurous type of person who keeps putting themselves at risk, economically, to improve something.

The word entrepreneur stems from the French use of the word to also refer to Adventurer.

An adventurer is always an adventurer; they go on an adventures.

An entrepreneur is always an entrepreneur, they keep doing it.

It's a personality trait, not a job.

A business owner or founder is not necessarily entrepreneurial and an entrepreneur need not start a business. Those ideas have been conflated but do not mean the same thing.

Entrepreneurs often start something, perhaps more so than others, because that's a logical investment instead of taking the risks for others. But starting something isn't a requirement nor the defining characteristic.

People, anyone, who have a tendency to see things in the market that could be improved, who put themselves at risk to improve them, are called entrepreneurs.

They naturally and regularly do it.

Serial is a redundancy because entrepreneurs are distinct from business founders in that they do it, repeatedly and subconsciously.

I have failed 5 business (really small) before I get a small win and now getting a big break. I believe there is always chance of building something big but before I get to that point, I need lots of small wins to make it easy for me and my family to keep going. I think the whole experience to help me to be cool when things are not there yet, keep me going and using data to help me decide, always learning and reading, get my hands dirty before anyone else doing it. I am building a more exciting and market fit product for users and learn from my fail on scaling big before. Make sure I don’t run out of fund or spend 80% of my time to raise more money. I actually can earn more by doing less and spend my time with my son and help my wife out.

I tend to think it just happened, because I never had such a plan or vision.

But on reflection, perhaps I am just not able to see the factors that predisposed me for the career I am on. Perhaps to someone else it was or would have been obvious that Marten Mickos would become a serial entrepreneur.

When I was 24 years old and studying at Helsinki University of Technology (what is today called Aalto University), two close friends of mine invited me to start a company with them. I jumped on the opportunity.

That’s how I became a first-time entrepreneur. I took the opportunity because of those who asked me, and because it sounded so exciting. All three of us nurtured a dream to become successful in business. Starting a company seemed like the right thing to do for ambitious young people.

Several years later I moved on to a role as export manager in a state-owned corporation. The job was entrepreneurial. When after two years I left that role to join a startup, I’d say I was on a path to becoming a serial entrepreneur.

Let me here try to analyze how I ended up liking entrepreneurship so much that I always went back to startups even though other career paths were available:

• I am an optimist. I like to dream of fantastic future scenarios. I can get excited by the unknown that comes with a big promise.
• I am not a conformist. I enjoy thinking of how things could be different or entirely opposite. I don’t have any particular affinity to institutions or the establishment. I am ready to make choices that others are not making.
• I believe in myself. I did well in school and I learned early on to lead other people. I have learned to stand back up after a setback. I am comfortable with uncertainty.
• I like to build things - not physical things, but teams and models and movements.

For a long time, I just did what I wanted to do. It was years later that I started to realize I was and am a serial entrepreneur.

For others, the answer may be entirely different. Some become serial entrepreneurs by decision, others by necessity. Or they are entrepreneurs with just one company throughout their career. And they may have quite a different set of strengths and qualifications. There are probably as many entrepreneurial profiles as there are entrepreneurs. What entrepreneurs have in common is that they are all a little different.

No. Most billionaires are inheritors and if they are working they joined (one of) the family business(es). A small number of the children of billionaires become entrepreneurs, but they have more than a safety net and start with lots of contacts and money, and not much bad happens to them if they fail. Not sure if that makes them “entrepreneurs” or really just business-people who have assets to back them up and little downside on a personal basis. And if they fail they usually take a few years off (plenty of $$) or join the family business anyway.

Of course, there are some self-made billionaires, and some of those who “get there” via entrepreneurial business endeavors continue to innovate and start new businesses. But most continue to grow and operate their businesses or work their fortunes (vs. creating truly new ventures). So, the answer is some, but very few, and certainly not “most.” Branson, Musk, Parker, Page & Brin come to mind, though you may argue the Google guys are doing it all from Google and Branson all under the Virgin banner.

Every week we listen to pitches from start-up entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, presenting their ideas that they hope may lead to the “next big thing” in digital media. Some of the of the ideas will become viable businesses, but few will break out from the crowd to become truly disruptive, market changing, and experience hyper growth. So, how do we pick the potential nuggets and what separates the potential winners from the rest of the pack?
When we evaluate prospective investments we consider several criteria: size of the market opportunity, positioning of the business, depth of technology platform, strength of the supporting team, but above and beyond the other criteria, we look at the characteristics of the founder or founders. We ascribe to two evaluation components: Blink and the Three Ps.
Blink comes directly from Malcolm Gladwell’s bestselling book, where he highlights the idea of instant conclusions that we reach are very powerful and often very accurate. It is derived from a phrase in psychology called “the power of thin slicing” which says that human beings are capable of making sense of situations based on the thinnest slice of experience. A more clinical way of saying we have “one chance to make a first impression.” Since most of the pitch meetings are 30 minutes to an hour, the Blink evaluation sets a definitive tone.
The Three Ps are a much more extensive evaluation of the founders and their ability to physically and emotionally grow their business:
The first is Passion, a desire to succeed and a deep belief in the pursuit of their overall vision. New businesses have many challenges and obstacles and without tremendous passion, businesses can easily wither and die.
The second is Presence, a strong sense of confidence and the ability to attract people that believe in your vision and the potential business opportunity. Entrepreneurs with a strong presence are great candidates to become great leaders.
Finally, Perseverance, the unwavering commitment to execute on your vision and reach your goals. A person can have great Passion when ideas are fresh and there is the excitement of a new journey, but most businesses take many years to achieve a minimum level of success. Quick exits are rare; mostly it’s the story of the tortoise and the hare.
I recall a young entrepreneur that I met several years ago, fresh out of college and came to San Francisco for the first time looking to raise seed capital for his new business. I was asked by a mutual friend to have lunch with this young guy and I reluctantly accepted. I walked away from our lunch thoroughly impressed, not as much about his initial business idea, but how he was potentially a perfect example of mastering Blink and the Three Ps.
I invested in the company and helped him with his funding. He went back home and continued to build his business. He recruited an excellent team, built a strong technology platform, “pivoted” his business into a solid market position and methodically expanded his customer base. When the market dramatically declined several years after starting his business, he was very close to losing everything and recalled (paraphrased) “I’d curl up on the floor late at night, almost in tears, and my wife would come over and nudge me saying ‘you need to get up and figure it out’ ”. He did Persevere and several years later took the company public, and the company was eventually acquired for nearly $2 billion. He has not only become a great business leader, but a civic leader and philanthropist in his community. Many others have benefited from his success.
Without mastering Blink and the Three Ps he may never have reached his goals and become the leader that he is today. The next time you approach a new job, have an idea for a new business or if you just want to improve your daily lives, think about how you project yourself and your beliefs, and how you are ultimately perceived.

The most successful entrepreneurs are the ones who are committed to adding service and value to their customers.

What most people don’t realize is that you get paid for the value and service that you add. In other words, if you want to make more money, add more service and value.

The very best entrepreneurs do this on a large scale.

A quick example of how I am doing this is with my local lead generation business where I am sending leads to local business owners who want more customers. Best part is that because I am adding value to their businesses, they are happy to pay me for this.

I’m now pulling in around $50K a month, and I put it all down to the service and value that I am adding.

Here’s a breakdown of how I’m doing it to give you a better idea on the value I am adding.

I believe serial entrepreneur is a mindset - a commitment to build something that meets the entrepreneur's goals for each venture, and then move onto the next venture. With this frame, one can be a serial entrepreneur while still building his/her first company. And still, some don't realize they're a serial entrepreneur until they exit from their first venture, under whatever conditions, and commit to starting again. What's differentiating compared to the unmodified entrepreneur, is the commitment to build more than one venture serially, or as overlap, or in tandem. I liken it to the entertainment industry's production model, only instead of producing movies, or stage productions, the serial entrepreneur is producing companies. Knowing one's serial intentions at the onset of a new venture can beneficially drive exit and ultimately every step in between.

It demonstrates tenacity coupled with intellectual honesty. More importantly, the ability to recognize key failure points and make sanguine cost/benefit decisions in the context of those bottlenecks; managing mean-time to failure or "fail quickly."

The odds are stacked against an entrepreneur from the outset. 9/10 or 99/100 startups will fail for various reasons; too soon, wrong market, wrong product, wrong founders, wrong employees, faster/better competitors, etc... All startups are a product/market thesis. An entrepreneur must have the resolve to believe in a thesis when prevailing wisdom is against them. However, its equally if not more important that an entrepreneur maintains intellectual honesty in order to test their thesis and successfully recognize if/when their thesis requires refinement (pivoting) or is outright invalidated (failure.) Overly stubborn entrepreneurs cling to failed ideas due to ego or lack of intellectual honesty. Markets are swift and brutal, they will not wait long for you to see the light.

Like in poker, the best cards, the best players do not always win. The best entrepreneurs know when to fold them and try again.

I had the pleasure of working for one, Omar Hamoui, at AdMob. AdMob was Omar's 5th startup. You've never heard of the other 4. But Omar kept trying and won big on the final turn.

At some stage in life, you`ll seek to be successful at something or another and that’s why you’ll need a plan to maintain your journey throughout the struggles that you`ll encounter along the way.

“This time next year we’ll be millionaires!”

Was a famous line from one of my favorite TV shows when I was growing up.

It was a show all about two London brothers who were from the wrong side of town but bought and sold goods illegally to try to make themselves rich. And although for years they never seemed to get anywhere their adventures along the way were comical, to say the least.

That’s because true success at anything has to be earned and for most of the time, these two brothers didn’t do the right things to get there.

As there is no quick fix for success at any big thing you want. Sure some people get lucky along the way but in general, they won’t be able to back up their success with substance or sustainability. Because the past has a funny way of catching up with us and if you can’t make it in the first place how can you sustain it over the longer term?

Of course, it depends on what you’re trying to achieve.

If it’s going out and getting a job to remain employed over a longer period in life then I`m sure most people will be able to have the ability to do that. And as they need to pay their rent, feed, and clothe themselves once they`re not picky they`ll be able to maintain some form of income coming in.

But after a while, most people want a little bit more.

They want something to do in life that they are good at or at least have an interest in.

And even at that interest often wanes and after a few years, they hanker for a change.

So before that itch to change comes into their reckoning the reality is you’ll have to have a certain degree of success going on in your career to justify the benefit of building on your initial career choice in the first place.

And that’s where psychology plays a part.

Because your success at many things in life comes from sustaining your long-term motivation in committing to trying to improve at something.

Or in other words, to keep going and never give up!

So here are 4 ways you can motivate yourself to sustain your quest for success:

1. Make a routine and stick to it

Because most people don’t. Instead, they allow big things to get in the way. And to a certain degree, that’s normal. I mean we all get sidetracked now and then and that’s perfectly understandable especially if we have something that looks like a bigger and better opportunity being offered to us or coming on stream.

For example, when I committed to writing this article I opened my laptop and started typing my thoughts. But after a few minutes, I had to go to the toilet, and when I returned I spotted the time on the screen and then thought I needed to check my email for an important task that was scheduled for today.

But I didn’t.

Because I knew that if I did I`d begin to re-plan my time and start thinking about how I wanted to put all the things the email spoke about in place. And as much as I was eager to see my timetable for the next couple of hours unfold I knew that if I opened the email the contents of it would distract me from writing this piece instead.

So I’ll leave it unopened until I finish what I`m writing first.

Why?

Well, it’s not that I`ve promised this piece of writing to anyone but in finishing it I`m keeping to the recent routine that I`ve set myself. And once it’s complete then I can permit myself to move on to the next thing on the list.

2. Have something to look forward to daily

Because you’ll need this to keep your focus alive. That’s why although I know I have an important email to open and respond to, and the work at putting its contents into action before the day is out, once it’s done I`ll have to have something to do that will allow me to take my mind off of it while also continuing to work for my future goals.

Sure I could just take off work for the rest of the day as a treat for doing work that the email lists but that won’t align with my longer-term goals either.

So instead my plan will include me continuing to work from outside as I love to be surrounded by nature.

3. Have a reward at the end of the week

Because you can’t be a workaholic especially if you want to sustain long-term projects into the future.

That’s why I look forward to the downtime I have at the weekend and push things into that gap that concern my personal life and other hobbies. Yet during those two days I often end up doing some work and if I’m being honest it’s a time when I can often be more productive too.

But that’s because I love what I do and the curiosity I have to improve at it pushes me to do that bit more, even on weekends.

Yet much of that work is outside of my weekly schedule and what I like to refer to as bonus work on top of my given week!

Still, on weekends I do take time away from the tasks that aren’t my favorite on and that is something that proves to be my reward.

4. Name a date once a month where you go back over everything you’ve worked at

Because this will keep you on track and make sure that what you`re doing in your overall weekly timetable is determined by what needs to be done as opposed to what you see as an excuse to justify your working hours.

As too many people go through the motions in work and this all adds up to a less productive outcome at the end of a working month.

So by judging things by being quantifiable and being accountable to yourself at the end of each thirty-day period you`ll feel more rewarded and less stressed throughout your working year.

That’s when you can make sure everything is working towards your bigger goal.

Yet, if things aren’t giving you a proper return on investment with your time and effort then you can dump it from your routine as you may as well be sitting back and watching a good TV show.

And there you may find those two London brothers in the show entitled ‘Only Fools and Horses’ where eventually they did end up as millionaires!

Depends upon their previous track record of successes and the types of organizations they forged.

There are serial “self proclaimed entrepreneurs” who are simply good con artists, burning through other people’s money. Mostly none of which actually ever run a long term company.

We see this in the tech start up game, often.

the “IPO hit and split” is one scenario. A vision, product or service needing only to be good enough for the initial investment and original IPO pay out to be realized. - leaving investors and employees holding the bag.

At that point it’s less about entrepreneurship and more about pulling off a confidence con in the funding game.

Often legally - some invested have $ signs clouding their judgment - either just from greed or naïveté or, literally, they can afford to burn money.

When you got something, it's awesome.

When you don't, you're losing your mind trying to figure out what's next.

Knowing yourself is incredibly important here. I can visualize a concept all the way to launch, even seeing its value along the way. Then 4–5 days later it can go up in thin air and be of no interest to me.

This high degree of creativity does result in a lot of actual projects, most go uncompleted but a few get through and become great revenue streams. Another downside, is completely ignoring already existing projects/businesses to focus on the new shiny object that has to be completely broken down in my mind before I can discard it. I can waste a lot of time but I still find it fulfilling.

I have often wondered this myself. In 4 months, it is with great pride that I celebrate my company’s 10-year anniversary.

During the first year of an any business on average 80% fail in the first year! Of the 20% that make it past the first year a further 80% fail in their second year!

Meaning only 4% make it to year three! I was acutely aware of this and remember clearly thinking, imagine where I will be if I make it to 10 years!

I also wondered why some of my friends from school had not achieved what I had, some were smarter, had more qualifications and most in truth were better students than I.

The path I choose if you break down each individual process or task is not impossible and almost anyone could of taken the path and done what I did. There were very low barriers to entry so why was everyone not doing what I was doing?

In short, I was very resilient. I refused to fail.

I had moved to the middle east straight after university on my own. At breaking point early on in my career what kept me going was the refusal to go home with my tail between my legs and tell my mates that I had failed. I could of made any number of excuses as to why it did not work out, yet deep down in my heart I would know the truth and probably so would my friends.

Most probably my greatest talent is when the going gets tough I get tougher. I was very stubborn and put my head down and grafted. I did not play the office politics which hindered me in hindsight. Yet my stubborn refusal to kiss ass or tread the party line gave me even more stubborn desire to succeed.

Paul Scholes the great Manchester United midfielder once said “don’t tell me I’m great tell me I can’t do it and I will prove you wrong.” This resonated with me, yet in hindsight I should of just kissed ass and had a slightly easier ride. Yet we are who we are, play to your strengths.

Obviously there are countless other factors as to why Home has succeeded as it has. I am good at certain things but not others. Any business needs all bases covered to succeed. I started by doing everything myself. I would be out during the day conducting my meetings, upon returning home I would go straight to the computer and finish the admin. It felt good to do, knowing everything was running as efficiently as possible. Yet it was quite a burden and not my true character.

Now I have an admin manager called Mara Demagillo. She is an angel and covers all the admin. I now refer to her as the fountain of knowledge in regards to admin questions. She is much more studious than I am. I had to really concentrate to do the admin correctly, if I was not interested mistakes could creep in. In short I had to have my own company to be able to do admin work. The paperwork was that important and crucial to success I was forced to apply myself to that task. Yet naturally this is not my main skill. I am more sales focused, I can deal with chaos but need support around me to pick up the pieces.

You can’t do it all alone with just hard work or resilience, there is not enough hours in the day to complete every task. Keep the goal in mind and aggressively attack it. People will help you if you ask for it.

Never Never Never give up as Winston Churchill famously quoted.

If you fail, start again. Most millionaires fail the first time.

I’m on the edge of being a serial entrepreneur since the 2nd business is mostly about investing. So take the answer for what it’s worth.

The way I see life is to build one lego brick onto the next one in order to get to your empire.

So the story goes that I’ve run a software company for around 15 years and with hundreds of customers and zero VC capital. Over the years it’s turned into a decent cashflow and a great business.

In 2014 my girlfriend (now wife) said we needed to do something with the capital gained instead of letting it stay on a 1% savings account.

So eventually she found a commercial real-estate property and suggested we go ahead and buy it. Me not knowing better said that it was a waste of cash because the rental income was almost nothing compared to our regular software revenues. It would simply be a waste of time to spend time on because the management time would be large compared to the results.

After a few hard fights she got her way and I said “Fine… do whatever you want! Just don’t waste my time on it”. So we ended up purchasing it and soon after another one.

What I didn’t realize at the time was that a single property doesn’t make sense but if you have multiple then the time required to manage them doesn’t grow linear. For each additional property the time required only grows a tiny bit compared to the value it offers as an investment.

Eventually we’re closer to 10 properties now and it’s probably the best decision I was forced into doing. The compounding is amazing and purchasing next properties just goes quicker and quicker.

My wife keeps laughing at me as I didn’t see the meaning of it back then.

The interesting part is that while I still enjoy running a software company it’s not the only source of revenue anymore and if anything bad happens there is always a plan B.

Truth be told is that with more wisdom and experience more doors keeps opening. We keep playing with the idea of flipping houses (after moderate renovations) and who knows if it won’t open new doors in the future.

While I know that many serial entrepreneurs start over with completely different businesses I like the idea of doing things with connected. My wife and I have our knowledge areas and by sticking to them we don’t end up doing stupid mistakes.

1. Identify a real problem that won't let you sleep until you solve it.
2. Find out if it is really a problem for other people, too.
3. Review existing solutions on the market.
4. Think of a way how to solve the problem well / better.

5. Run steps 2.-4. at least 10 times more.
6. Ask 10 knowledgeable people why it would not work.
7. Ask 50 people how they IN THE PAST dealt with your problem to find out if they really wanted to spend their resources on your problem.

8a. If you are still convinced - start thinking about execution.
8b. Otherwise wake up from a dream and move to another dozen of fresh ideas.

9. Read 3 best selling books about start ups. And tons of articles / quora posts.
10. At this stage you already know... Good luck.

Because that is the way humans learn anything complicated.

We all fall down many times before we can walk and later run.

We all make many spelling, grammar and pronunciations mistakes before we master a language.

We fall when we learn to ski or snowboard, wobble and topple off bicycles, skateboards and surfboards when we first try them, and swing and miss at the first time a pitch is thrown at us in Baseball.

We take years to learn to distinguish who to trust and who to trust, how to win friends and influence people, who to love and who not to, what is safe and what is dangerous.

Many of us will never learn to play a Beethoven Violin concerto, how to make a soufflé, how to dance the tango, how to vanish a card through sleight of hand, or how to determine the volume inside a human heart. Some people will master each of these skills, but none without lengthy practice filled with errors, while many others find achieving these goals not worth expending the time and effort to master such skills.

The art of starting a new business and directing it to the point where it reliably generates a profit may require mastering many intellectual, social, and behavioral Skills. So early failures should not surprise us. It would rather be shocking if Entreprenuering were the one new complex pursuit where learning by first failing in initial attempts was not the common experience.

A serial Entrepreneur is an Entrepreneur who starts business after business, or multiple businesses at once. Typically it’s an automatic title given to an Entrepreneur who does one of those two things.

For myself, I have 12 successful companies I own solely as majority share, and each day they all grow, and over 40 businesses I co-own with other partners. This doesn’t include any of the failure ones, and there’s a few there too.

I am not involved in all of them anymore, but my staff and teams are. I am more involved in the start-up process and once it becomes stable I delegate and train my team to completely take over. I check back on all projects I work on at business meetings and board meetings to ensure everything is meeting my deadlines and requirements and is running smoothly.

In 2018, my team and I have plans for 2 more businesses and 1 charity. By definition I would be a serial Entrepreneur.

If you have a great team, all businesses can get the focus they need and you can go deeply into each one. But you need a great team. If you are a solo Entrepreneur without a team/support behind you, doing more than 1 business at a time is near impossible as you can’t split time efficiently.

You need to be putting in 70–80 hours a week into each business to make it a success. But by having a great team, you can ensure you’ve got team members in place for each business to ensure they’ll have the best chance at success.

For a person with no resources for a team - you are correct that a Entrepreneur should focus on one thing, and go deep into it. Or else it would most likely fail.