How Starting A One-Person Business *Almost* Ruined My Life (This Is A Warning).

When you start a business, be prepared to lose friends.

Starting a one-person business almost destroyed my life.

I was forced to grow in ways I never expected. It exposed my mindset when things got tough. It revealed to me who my true friends are. And taught me timeless lessons and skills I can use forever.

Let me explain.

Starting a business is the highest form of psychological mastery.

Forget doing an MBA.

Nothing can prepare you for the psychological toll of running a business.

• Cash flow issues.

• Products not selling.

• People leaving bad reviews.

To master business, you have to master yourself.

Starting and growing a business sounds sexy, but feels horrible. Every day is a grind. I feel like I’m starting new every day. Like building castles on sand.

If you aren’t ready for constant challenges, you aren’t ready for business.

If you want to find out who your friends are, start a business.

I expect to pay full price or more when I buy from a friend’s business.

I’ll never understand people who ask for discounts (or worse, ask for a freebie) from a friend’s business.

They would never ask a massive retail chain for a discount, but they expect one from a small business owned by a friend trying to support themselves and their family.

There are also MANY ways to support someone’s business that are free.

• Like and share their content on social media.

• Comment and tag people in their content.

• Refer people you know to them.

• Give them feedback.

All these actions cost nothing.

I distanced myself from a group of old friends because they showed me who they were. I’ve started several businesses and none of them ever supported what I did. Some even put me down for trying.

I won’t lie, it sucks.

It’s a sobering feeling knowing that some people will either want you to fail or are jealous of the success you’re having. You are living a dream that they are too scared to take for themselves.

When you start a business, be prepared to lose friends.

Working a traditional 9–5 job becomes harder.

Especially after you’ve had the taste of freedom and autonomy.

I’m in a 9–5 job again. But I have a large portion of equity in the business. I also have a lot of autonomy and freedom over my time as an Executive Director. It helps that I enjoy the work, team, and clients.

I also have my own one-person business on the side.

I can’t work a 9–5 job where I don’t own some equity or upside for the long term. I would rather take less salary with an equity deal if I believed in the business model and mission.

You can’t get rich renting out your time.

So you want to move as quickly as possible from renting to owning.

Growth becomes an addiction.

I grow so much in 30 days that every month feels like a hard reset.

Let alone how much I grow every quarter. There is no better feeling in the world than making progress. If you’re on a good trajectory, all you need is time.

While people spend on materialism, I spend on my self-development:

• I read a book a week or more.

• I invest in coaching and a paid community.

• I buy online courses and implement them straight away.

I find it hard to waste time-consuming content that doesn’t teach me something valuable.

• I don’t watch any sort of reality TV.

• I barely watch Netflix.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, but I don’t get any joy out of these low-level activities. When you start a one-person business you grow an intolerance for stagnation.

You’ll realize that if you aren’t moving forward in business, you’re moving backward. There is no such thing as standing still.

Downside: This can make you hard to be around.

Starting a one-person business is the best decision I’ve ever made.

F*ck doing an MBA.

Just start an online one-person business. It’s cheaper. You’ll learn more and you can start making money immediately. Nothing matters more in business than paying customers.

Your one-person business will destroy the person you were.

And that’s a good thing.

Old parts of you have to die for new parts of you to live.

---

👉 I’ve previously sold a one-person business and I’m in the process of scaling another one to $20k per month. If you want my one-person business growth system, I’ve created a FREE email course for you to get started.