The Successful Entrepreneur Formula

All right, so the last time I did a formula in a video, I got the math wrong. I divided by luck when I should have multiplied by luck or even used luck to the exponent or to the power of. This was so unfortunate because I talked about the success formula in a video called how young YouTube millionaires are lying to you. This ended up being our second most popular video of all time. It had like a million views, and so the formula was wrong and a lot of people wanted, like they pointed it out, rightfully so. This is generally why I don’t do math in public. However, I’m going to break my rule today and I’m going to share with you the successful entrepreneur formula. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, then this is the formula that you need to optimize for.

So let’s dive in and I’m going to read out the formula. Then we’ll go through each variable of this formula. The successful entrepreneur formula is you need to be smart enough to see the opportunity, plus dumb enough to get started despite the odds, plus dumb enough to keep going when things get hard, all to the power of willingness to look stupid in public. So let’s unpack this. You need to be smart enough to see the opportunity, dumb enough to get started despite the fact that you’re probably going to fail.

You need to be dumb enough to.

Keep going even when things get hard and all of that is added together, and then to the power of your willingness to look stupid. So the more willing you are to look stupid in public, the more likely this whole thing is going to work out for you. So the first part of this is that you need to be smart enough to see the opportunity. And that is not such an obvious thing because the truth is, opportunity only ever looks like opportunity in the rear view mirror. And by then, it’s already behind you. When it’s in front of you through the windshield. It just looks like risk. It just looks risky.

So you need to be smart enough to look at that risk, to assess it and then make a judgment and be correct. That’s very, very difficult. That’s the first part of the equation. You gotta be smart enough to see the opportunity, but then you need to be dumb enough to get started despite the odds. Because it’s one thing to look through the windshield to see the risk and say there’s an opportunity there. It’s another thing entirely to say, you know what? I should go after that. Because even if it is the right opportunity, even if you have all the right skills in the world, your probability of finding success in entrepreneurship is still very low. Right.

Majority of businesses fail. It’s a very hard, competitive world out there. I think it’s the best world. But let’s not sugarcoat it like your likelihood of failing is higher than your likelihood of success. So you need to be smart enough to recognize that it’s an opportunity, but dumb enough to go after that opportunity, despite the fact that you will probably fail. On top of that, you need to be not only dumb enough to get started, you need to be dumb enough to keep going when things get really hard. And the truth is, when things go get really hard, they get hard because you don’t know that what you’re doing is ultimately going to work out. It’s one thing to do hard things like going to the gym and lifting really heavy weights, when you know the downstream effect of that is that you’re tearing up your muscles.

They’re going to rebuild, they’re going to get stronger. You know, that’s what’s going to happen. It’s entirely possible within the world of business and entrepreneurship to work really hard, to do everything right and still lose. There is no guarantee that it’s going to work out. So you need to be smart enough to recognize the opportunity.

You need to be dumb enough to.

Go after that opportunity.

You need to be dumb enough to.

Stick with that opportunity even when things are getting really hard and it looks like you should give up. When I’ve met, I’ve met hundreds of really successful entrepreneurs at this point. And one of the recurring traits that I’ve seen with them is that they were just too stupid to quit. That’s largely the reason most people end up succeeding in this world, is they’re just too stupid to quit. Right? So those are the first three components, or first three variables of this success formula. Smart enough to see the opportunity, dumb enough to get started, dumb enough to stick with it when things get hard. And all of this is then magnified by the exponent of your willingness to look stupid in public. Because the truth is, when you go and you leave your cushy job and the thing that you got your education in your friends or family, everybody’s gonna say that you are a fool.

They’re going to say you’re an idiot, and it’s going to look like you’re a fool and an idiot, because they can see how hard it is from the outside. They’ve looked at the opportunity, they’ve judged the risk correctly. They were smart enough not to go after it. They were smart enough to not even try, right? And so they look at you and they’re like, what an idiot. And they’re right. They’re right right up until the moment they’re wrong. And so your willingness to fail, to look like an idiot, to keep falling on your face over and over and over and yet still get up, still go after it, continue working hard without the guarantee that it’s all going to work out. If you can do that and you’re willing to do that for the next 1015 years, you cannot lose.

I promise you, you cannot lose. And yet most people won’t do that because the success entrepreneur, the successful entrepreneur formula is actually quite difficult. It’s quite difficult to recognize opportunity, quite difficult to get out of your own way to pursue that opportunity. It’s very difficult to stick with the opportunity when all the evidence points to the fact that you are an idiot and you’re going down the wrong path. It’s very, very hard. But that is what hard feels like. That’s why most people won’t do it, and that’s why there is an opportunity there for you to exploit, for you to go after this thing. And I truly hope you do.

I truly hope you do. Because I think if you can master this formula and you can become comfortable with the idea of failing in public and don’t really care, and if you’re comfortable with falling on your face and you’re committed to trying over and over and over until you find the solution, I believe this is the best field for you in the world. And if it’s not, then don’t do this. It’s the worst field in the world for you. Get out of here. Go away. Go get a w two job. That’s okay.

You gotta know about, you gotta know yourself, right? It’s all about the self awareness. The successful entrepreneur, if I was to add one thing, has to have a healthy amount of self awareness to recognize when they’re being smart and when they’re being stupid. So hope this brings you guys a little bit of value. As always, thanks for being here. We’ll catch you in the next episode. But until then, stay happy, folks. My friends.