“Here's the number I used to win the lottery“ –Entrepreneurs giving advice
This is stupid.<p>Any of us who have had at least two “successful” businesses will tell you that this quote is ridiculous.<p>What’s your ideal of being successful? If it’s exiting at a billion, then sorry. But you can use a lot of this entrepreneur advice to find some level of success.<p>The problem is that non-entrepreneur or first timers always try to skip the small stuff.<p>1. have a good team and hire right. you need just three roles: sales, operation and product.<p>2. TAM is real and will determine the size you can grow your business.<p>3. focus on sales first literally. as a founder you should do your own selling. take care of your customers!!!<p>4. don’t be a crook<p>5. manage your money right; be cheap.<p>6. grow where you’re planted. dig deep in areas you know or that your personal networks know.<p>7. be lucky - this is about timing and also putting yourself in a place to have information first or at least know the value of certain information first.<p>8. know you’re going to get it wrong sometime and fail; when that happens take a small break and then spin up another<p>I’ve bootstrapped two companies to success in my eyes which has changed me and my families life.<p>The first was in the 2000s out of college (~$500k annual) it eventually petered out then in the 2010s (~$5m annual). Now I’m going to do another and I hope to create a $5-10m company all off the advice of other entrepreneurs.<p>I’ve also failed miserably and had 5-7 business go under or never even really get off the ground.