Page 10 - The 7 Day Startup: You Don’t Learn Until You Launch - PDFDrive.com

You Don’t Learn Until
You Launch

“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important
to heed the lessons of failure.” Bill Gates

In 2007, I was one year into my first business. Flying back from my honeymoon,
I finished the book Think and Grow Rich. It advised thinking of a financial goal
for the next 12 months, and saying it every day. I thought of $100k as an annual
wage, to pay myself from my business profits. The maximum I could draw at the
time was $40k, which was about half of what I was earning at my previous job a
year earlier.

I said it to myself every day throughout 2007.

But I didn’t hit the goal. I didn’t even hit half of the goal. Not in 2007, or 2008,
or 2009, or 2010, or 2011. In 2012, my wage dropped so far it fell below zero.

In June 2013, I had nothing left and was two weeks away from giving up on
entrepreneurship for good and getting a job.

Flicking through the limited opportunities in my area, I considered moving my
family back to the city. I’d thought of myself as an entrepreneur for the last
fourteen years, and I’d ridden the roller coaster of business ownership for the last
seven.

What the hell was the point?