One of our greatest fears is financial insecurity. The fear of losing your home, not being able to pay school fees. Eating dog food. Very few people can achieve financial security in a corporate job. Not because they can’t earn enough, but because they don’t learn skills that are useful outside of corporate. If your…

Sometimes it will feel like the choices before you are binary. Quit your job to start a business, or stay employed in corporate. Sell your shares, or stay fully invested. Accelerate growth, or consolidate. No middle ground. Don’t be fooled. You can start a side business, whilst keeping your day-job. You can sell some of…

There will be many surprises, many embarrassments. Many setbacks, many walk-backs. In every situation you will be confronted with the choice of whether to laugh or cry. Be cheerful or be angry. The choice is easy, but most people make the wrong choice. In the end your story can be told as a comedy. If…

Being an entrepreneur is much easier when you have a partner. Someone who complements you, someone who’s good at the stuff you’re not good at. Someone who shares your passion and vision. Best of all is a partner that is your friend. Someone you look forward to seeing, both at work and after-work. Someone who…

Once you’ve been an entrepreneur long enough, you start getting superstitious. And you start realising that, to a large extent, the future is out of your hands. All you can do is follow the path. What is the path? It’s hard to describe other than to say it’s the road to success. How do you…

In business, there is competition. It can get heated, it can get personal. You will be tempted to hate. Don’t do it. Hate is a negative emotion that makes you look bad, and holds you back. If you can’t bring yourself to at least respect your adversary, just ignore her. Hate gets you nowhere.

Most people’s natural tendency is to try anticipate ten steps ahead. In entrepreneur life, this achieves nothing except stress you out. Business is not like chess. Chess has a finite number of outcomes. Every step can be calculated and predicted. Business has an infinite number of outcomes. You cannot be sure what the future holds…

When someone refuses to give you a straight answer, it’s for one of three reasons: Incompetence – he’s pretending to know the answer when he in fact doesn’t. Sales – he’s trying to sell you something you don’t need. Lies – he’s lying to you. It’s that simple. When you can’t get a straight answer,…

The journey of an entrepreneur is a rollercoaster. One day on a high in an awesome partnership, the next day your biggest client terminates your contract. Then you smash a problem, and your best employee resigns. Then you get some international traction, and COVID19 stops you in your tracks. You must de-sensitise yourself to the…

Sometimes life can be tough. You’re losing customers, fighting to keep the lights on, battling with partners. It can make you depressed. That’s when it’s useful to look around and see what’s happening around the world. 100 year old companies like Hertz filing for bankruptcy. Record unemployment in the USA. Families starving in townships. People…

Looking around the world, there are lot’s of reasons to be upset. Racism in the USA. Injustice in Myanmar. Protests in Hong Kong. War in Syria. If you pay attention to this stuff you’ll get upset. Getting upset will only distract you from your business. It achieves nothing. All these problems are other people’s problems….

They look similar, but they’re not the same thing. Just because something is very difficult, doesn’t make it impossible. Even if you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. Even if there’s no logical way forward. Don’t give up. You might get lucky. You’ll never know unless you try. It may be…