I spent 3 hours interviewing a billionaire.

What surprised me is before he got rich, he had the SAME problem as everyone else:

Fear of leaving your job to work for yourself.

Here're 10 tips he gave me to become your own boss:

Leverage:

You can get large loans to give you years of runway.

But you have to create a solid business plan:

•Research
•Outline goals
•Perform analysis
•Know your clients
•Outline sales plan
•Make projections
•Describe your products

Fallback:

Fallback Plan:

You have to spend 5-10 years developing skills you can fall back on

Like Naval says:

It will take 10 years to create your empire

My guest had engineering experience he could fall back on if he failed

Develop valuable skills, and combine them with these:

Combine your skills with great writing, speaking, and reading

It's one thing to know your subject; it's another to be able to sell it

The benefits of sales techniques:

•Promotes word-of-mouth
•Separates you from competition
•Communication skills related to your customer

Big Picture:

The money isn't in creating technologies.

The money is in selling the technologies.

My guest made his money by knowing his customer & introducing tech, which would make their business more effective.

Don't sell something that your customer doesn't need.

Advance:

As you advance, opportunities compound

Throughout your journey, you collect nuggets of opportunity.

The nuggets:

•Mentors
•A network
•Life lessons
•Investing opportunities

The nuggets pile up, and your pockets become full.

Build when your pockets are filled then:

Combine every idea with a business plan

It's one thing to create an idea.

It's another to see if it will work.

My guest would create business plans for every idea.

This became a habit, & he developed a 6th sense for knowing if an idea will fail or not.

Get the reps in &:

Hire people whose strengths complement your weaknesses

Develop self-awareness

Identify your strengths and weaknesses.

Hire a team that has diversified skills, and the rest will follow

You cannot build an empire on your own, create a foundation with strong people.

Read this:

My guest read one book before taking the leap:

"Crossing the Chasm" - Geoffrey Moore

This book creates a gameplan for marketing in high-tech industries

It shows you how to sell cutting-edge products to progressively larger markets.

One more thing:

Asking yourself these questions will change everything:

•What's your story & mission?
•What does your budget look like?
•Do you have the resources you need?
•If this were easy, what would it look like?
•Why can't I complete my 10-year goal in 6 months?

For more:

I talk about storytelling, business, & mindset

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