In a Nutshell: Silicon Valley unicorns make the billion-dollar headlines, but the true measure of an entrepreneur's success is how you align your business with your goals, your lifestyle, your values, and the impact you make in people's lives.
Guest: Author, journalist, and speaker David Sax. His new book, The Soul of an Entrepreneur: Work and Life Beyond the Startup Myth, approaches entrepreneurship from a broader, more personal, and more realistic perspective.
My Key Takeaway: To define success for yourself as an entrepreneur:
Accept that your business isn't Amazon or Facebook. You don't have to become a billionaire to be successful. Be yourself. The misfit eccentric who dropped out of high school and skateboards to the boardroom in a hoodie is the exception. Successful bakeries, salons, restaurants, and, yes, financial advisory firms are run by hardworking people like you who have a dream and put a plan in place to achieve it. Set purposeful but personal business targets. Don't try to grow like everyone else is. Build the business that you want to run.Also Learn:
How to "get over the hump" of not seeing yourself as a real entrepreneur. Why taking on loans or third-party investments to accelerate your growth might hurt your business more than it helps. What seeing Heidi Klum on the cover of Maxim taught David about the unrealistic expectations our country sets for entrepreneurs. The process David uses to write his books.