Starting a Business? Don't make the same mistakes I did!

by Nathan Reis

If you have ever thought about starting a business, suck it up, swallow your pride, and learn from me! While starting my latest company Pardigm Direct, I have made more mistakes before the age of 30 than most people do in a business lifetime. Entrepreneurs like me call these things mistakes, others tend to call it wisdom.

You will hear me use the title "Entrepreneur" many times throughout my blog, becasue I fear very few people actually know what that term really means. I promise you it doesn't mean business owner, boss, or CEO. It means, "What in the hell was I thinking putting myself through all of this"... I am a serial entrepreneur, addicted to the excitement of just seeing if I can do it.

I learned early on that I have a very high curiosity and more importantly a risk tolerance for the unknown. I started my career at the age of 22 with a reckless renegade approach and it paid off. I could go out and sell, do, and say, whatever I wanted and I seemed to be invincible. I was in sales. This attitude took me straight to the top of the sales rankings and there was no looking back. I didn't make a lot of friends, but I sure made a lot of money. I made my first $1MM in 1 year by the time I was 25 years old and I just kept thinking, "Man, I don't know what the fuss is... This makin' money thing is easy."

Then the day came when I said to myself, "If I'm making $1MM a year, they (the company) must be making $5MM a year." This is the day I started learning again. The day the company wasn't there to feed to my strengths and build around my weaknesses. This was beginning of a series of mistakes that now make me infinitely wiser than when I was 25 and has formed me into a great entrepreneur. I promise, this education cost me far more than tuition did at the University of Wisconsin.

There are 4 major lessons I learned in "Entrepreneur School". Each of these topics will have an entire blog dedicated to them, but the here are topics I hope you can soak up before diving in the deep end. 1. I'm no longer a sales guy. 2. Plan to lose and act bankrupt. 3. Slow down. 4. Technology is better than people.

Oh yeah, and there should be a rule that everyone who has ever had a job, thought about starting a company, or even ever had a dream, should be required to read and re-read the E-Myth Revisited. For all of you who have heard about that book before and not read it, the "E" doesn't stand for ecommerce, it represents the entrepreneur. It is a fantastic insight about what it really takes to be a successful entrepreneur. If truly digested, after this read, you may look at your boss in a little diffrent light. In fact I'd be surprised if you didn't form a little admiration for that guy you hate so bad!