Its’ been about 1 year of full onslaught selling. A lot has happened. If you’ve followed the journey, you’ll understand that it’s been easily 16-18 hour days. There is no such thing as the 4 hour work week. I loved the book, but its not the reality of the true lean startup. This is a long grind. It’s a 16-18 hour day is awesome. I don’t see this as work. I find building businesses fun, equivalent to playing competitive soccer. Some days you lose soccer games. But the victories are awesome. If you’ve ever scored a soccer goal, you know the adrenaline rush that comes with it. A fast, riveting increase burst of energy, warm pricks of sunshine on your face, and a release of dopamine in the brain.

Entrepreneurship is just the same. I find that it’s not the amount of money that your pulling in per day, or per month, but actually the decisions you make in your business, is what creates that same adrenaline rush that you get in soccer. It’s when, after months of hard work, the decision to launch a certain product, or execute a strategy in the way, goes very well. The result is yes, money. But the result of money, is actually not the adrenaline rush. I also find that creating sequential ideas, strategies, that line up and are successful, create a promise of this is how the future could look like, and how life could be different. That too produces an adrenaline rush.

Now I say this because, I find it critical that we all get adrenaline rushes in our businesses. It’s what creates the passion and fuel for us to continue to do what we do every single day.

I recently heard that being an entrepreneur isn’t the fast way to get rich. The entrepreneur said if you wanted to get rich, you chose a very specific job such as a lawyer, or a doctor and it was a guaranteed way to get rich. He was right. The key difference I see is, if you use the right strategies and techniques, with the addition of beliefs and execution, you can be wealthy.

This leads to the second pointer. With increased wealth, the decisions that we make become way different, more clearer, and better. I say this because 5 years ago, I had at most $1000-2000 to my name any given month. I was a struggling entrepreneur. I had a small software business that yes paid the bills, but no wasn’t a winner. Because I had only $1000-2000 to my name, my decisions were all different. I was doing all the tasks to the business. From coding, to designing, to deployment, marketing, content creation, SEO, the list goes on.

More importantly, I noticed my actions were different. I knew I needed more cash flow, and I was desperate. I literally played scratch offs, in order to hopefully win a mini jackpot. On a side-note, the odds are more in your favor when you choose a higher dollar scratch off, like a $20 scratch off versus a $1 scratch off. Your odds favor 1:3 chance of winning versus 1:5. I obviously went the $20 route. But you see, the lesson here is, I know that the odds are still against me in a scratch off. If I had $10,000 to my name, I wouldn’t do a scratch off, EVER. I statistically know, I will lose more money in the long run.

As my software business slowly grew, I noticed I had no interest in scratch offs. I had more money to spend on them, but I was no longer desperate. This major difference, caused different views on how cash flow and wealth, affect my financial decisions, and I bet it affects yours as well.

Now, in respect to Private Label, Amazon and business building I see the same thing playing out. My cash flow fluctuates greatly. But no longer am I desperate. With better times, becomes better ideas, executions, the freedom to launch and take risk.

Last year I begun the journey with 1 SKU going into fourth quarter. This year I’ve expanded the arsenal to 17 SKU’s including variations.

Initially, it took me 6 months to get a product to launch.