Laying it all on the line is not the way to go

11 Oct Laying it all on the line is not the way to go

I will never recommend that you drop everything and risk your life savings to start a business. Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and well-known entrepreneur, said:

In business, to be a success, you only have to be right once. One single solitary time, and you are set for life. That’s the beauty of the business world.

Many financial advice books would agree with Mark and would recommend you put all you have on the line and swing for the fences in the hopes of making it big. And while I, too, agree that this is a way to go, the reality that I have observed is that too many people spend their entire lives waiting for that “one win,” only to lose it all and—in the process—sacrifice so much of what’s important to them, like family and friends. I have friends who are on their tenth start-up company, waiting to “strike it rich,” who have spent the last twenty years chasing that “one” big success. Often, they have even started their own start-up company just to see it end in nothing soon after (taking with it their life savings).

That is not my style, and it’s not how I made my money. And I don’t think it is the right path for most of the people reading this blog. It is my experience that, just like I had no clue how to start my own business (and I had a business degree), most people don’t have the know-how on how to start and run a successful business right now. So, while in this book I will show you a path to you quitting your job in possibly as little as one to three years from now, I will show you a path that does not necessarily include (unless you want it to) leaving everything behind to work for a start-up with minimal chances of success.