As most of you know I've recently sold my company. This has been a goal of mine for over 2 years.
First I want to thank all the STM'ers who helped me get there from Mr Green and team, to publishers who signed up in those early days.
Next I want to talk about some entrepreneurial lessons I discovered along the way.
1. Stop thinking like a wage slave. Like most people I thought about income as a per unit basis, that unit usually being time. As an entrepreneur you have to take risks with time and money that may not yield anything right away. For example when I released mobile training guides, I was told I should charge for it, but I knew eventually it would pay for itself by establishing me as a mobile thought leader.
2. Treat money as a resource. As you grow your business, in theory, you will "make" more money, but that is not the way to think about it. Think of money as a tool that helps you make even more money. Lower your standard of living and use the profits to hire people, build technology, or improve infrastructure. I did this by moving to FL where cost of living is low and spending all my early profits on our tracking technology.
3. People are your greatest asset We've all read 4 hour workweek, but I think Tim Ferris got it wrong. Outsourcing is not all it is cracked up to be. Of course you can find great people, but the time difference and language issues can be a real problem. By surrounding myself with talented people I got to a point where I can literally take off a week with minimal internet connection, and know that my team can handle any issues that might arise... can your outsourced team do that?
4. Know your purpose I'm not talking about short term goals like make X per year, or quit my job. Really look at yourself and ask what is the most important thing for me, money, fame, freedom etc. Money can contribute to your purpose, but understanding why you're doing something will make all other pieces fall into place. My original goal was to be a 25 year old millionnaire, I failed. After much self reflection I realized that was a false goal, my real goal all along was freedom, which I did achieve. By 25 I was a full time affiliate making a very comfortable income living in San Francisco working maybe 20 hours a week. This time around I set a simple purpose: to grow and sell my first company by 30, this allowed me to focus on the real task at hand and avoid distractions "shiny objects" that could have made me money in the short run, but wouldn't help me achieve my purpose. Ask yourself what you really want and make sure to align your business to it.
For those of you who are stuck in a rut, we've all been there. Sometimes it helps talking to others, but often its an internal battle. By realizing some of the points I outlined above you may achieve a moment of clarity required to snap you out of it.
congrats dude.... stoked for ya... and whats coming next...
great post.... made me re-think about a few things... namely finding/keeping A level players to build the biz faster.
Great post.
To elaborate on 4 hour work week; just because i loathe most of that book. You have to work extremely hard yourself first, then you can start expanding/outsourcing. The whole outsource and make millions is pretty BS except for a select few who have already put in the many years of work themselves first. Kind of relates to the main post.
Congrats! And thank you for the wise words.
Fantastic post!
Congratulations on selling your company and hitting your goal.
I texted you congrats but didn't really want to elaborate or call you since I figured you were busy swimming in a pool of gold and Fabergé eggs. I remember the early days when you came to me with your mobile training guide. It's awesome seeing the beginnings of Mobaff grow to what it has become today.
Congrats again man.
Great advice, and congrats buddy.
I remember the talk you gave in Melbourne lol using p202 with JumpTap codes for mobile tracking, damn you've made some leaps and bounds since then bro, sick post and thanks for everything over the years!
Wise words! If you don't mind me asking, what are your next goals now that you've sold your company? Congratulations on the sale and on achieving your goal!
Thanks for the congratulations fellas, it is definitely humbling to remember being in Australia plotting my move into mobile.
Right now I'm dedicated to MediaWhiz and Matomy who's goals are aligned with mine. The goal is to bring more advertisers to mobile performance to create more offers for affiliates to run. On the affiliate side to build out tracking/affiliate network to make publishing easier and faster than ever before.