Part II is intended to provide a glimpse of what your life could look like if you pursue your natural entrepreneurial abilities and gifts. Once you know what’s possible, you can better choose where and how far you want to go.
I want to point out first that there are many more entrepreneurial options than just the Silicon Valley, billion-dollar tech companies that get most of the press. You have hundreds of industries to choose from when taking the entrepreneurial leap, as well as thousands of products and services you can create or improve, along with choices of how big a business you really want to build.
The billion-dollar tech companies are the one-in-a-million stories, and besides, they aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. In most cases, they aren’t for you. You might be much happier with a closet-renovating business generating $4 million in revenue and $1 million in profit—a company that’s the best in your industry, where your employees are happy, and you and they are making lots of money.
Jim Collins, the business author of Good to Great, says, “The greatest company in America we’ll never know, because it’s some $10 million company in middle America that doesn’t want to be known.” This quote motivated me, as I wanted to build that exact company, and I feel we did. As we built EOS Worldwide, we had no desire to be on any “fastest-growing” or “best places to work” lists. Although we would have ranked very high on them if we’d pursued the claim, it just wasn’t important to us. We were more focused on being a great company that was the best for our clients. When we decided to sell, we had over fifty interested buyers.
I point this out to show you that entrepreneurs flourish on all sorts of levels. By the end of part II, you’ll be able to decide what’s most important to you. To be the biggest, the best, the most recognized, or the most charitable; a million-dollar company, $10 million company, $100 million company, or a billion-dollar company. There’s no right or wrong answer, only the answer that’s best for you. True entrepreneurs don’t follow the herd or care about what everyone else thinks.
In part II, you’ll also get a good glimpse of what your day-to-day life can look like, both the bright and dark sides of the entrepreneur’s life, along with real-life stories of entrepreneurs and their journeys with different types of industries, businesses, and business sizes, to help you discover which appeal most to you. These real-life examples can also help you start clarifying your own vision.
You’ll see both the dream scenario—the freedom and creativity that are possible—and the nightmare scenario—the setbacks, struggles, and mistakes. My hope is that reading about the potential nightmares will help you avoid many of them.
The goal is to give you a glimpse of your future as an entrepreneur and motivate you to get going. At the end of each chapter, while your thoughts are fresh in your mind, a worksheet has been provided to capture your insights, ideas, and decisions.
Here’s your Glimpse.