 Hey, welcome back to the channel. So we live in a time where entrepreneurship and starting an online business is glorified. It's seen as this sexy new thing and everyone is just showing you the money, the cars, the lifestyle, the laptop lifestyle, the designer wear, and all the flashy things that come along with entrepreneurship. But no one really talks about the truths about being an online entrepreneur, about starting an online business and some of the more difficult parts of being an entrepreneur. So I'm all about keeping it real with you on this channel. I want to share five truths about being an online entrepreneur and starting an online business. And these are five truths. If I were to go back to 2015 and talk to my younger self and really smack some sense into myself and share the reality of being an online entrepreneur, these are the five truths or five things that I would tell my younger self. And as you're going through these five truths, if anything hits home or really resonates with you, make sure you hit the like button and subscribe if you're not already. And yeah, let's jump into it right now. So truth number one about being an online entrepreneur and starting an online business is don't expect to make bank right away. It's actually gonna take a lot longer than you think. So for every overnight success story that you see of people riding around in Lamborghinis and throwing around money is hours and hours and months and years even of failed businesses and struggles and doubting themselves. And it takes a lot longer to start making real consistent money with an online business. But even if you do hit it off right away, like my first real business success was in 2016 when I had an e-commerce store that allowed me to quit my job, a lot of that money, even if you're making a lot of money on your first business, maybe you strike gold with one of your first businesses, you should be taking a lot of that and reinvesting it into your education, your skills, improving your skill set and growing your business. A mistake that a lot of people make is they take that money and they put it into the flashy stuff, right? Designer wear, going out to these really expensive and fancy dinners and buying cars and buying houses and buying things that they really can't afford when really you should be taking that and using that to grow your business and your skills even more, reinvesting back into yourself and back into your business. So that's truth number one. Don't expect to make bank right away. It's actually gonna take you a lot longer than you think. Truth number two is you should start in online business while you're still employed. Now the reason you do that is it's a lot less risky and if you try to start an online business when you don't have any money coming in, it is extremely difficult, extremely stressful. You're gonna try to pinch pennies on everything. If you're running let's say a service-based business where you're working with clients, clients are gonna, they're not gonna wanna work with you because they can tell that you're desperate and you're needy. So I would never recommend anyone to just quit their job, cold turkey and go into an online business before they're even making money. So I actually started my business, my first one was an e-commerce business, the one that really took off while I was still working in my nine to five. I started multiple different side hustles while I was still working in a nine to five and I didn't quit that nine to five. I was a project manager at a tech company. I didn't quit that job until my businesses were making six X the profits of my annual salary. So I stayed at my job probably a lot longer than I could have. I could have quit sooner than that but I waited until I was making a lot more in my business to actually quit and that gave me the peace of mind of having a paycheck coming in every month and being able to fund my business and my side hustles until I was making more than enough money for me to quit. So that is truth number two, you should start an online business while you are still working or still employed because that's gonna help you to actually grow your online business. Truth number three is you will fail and you will fail a lot and get used to this, right? Making mistakes, failing, this is actually how you grow. I've had so many different failed businesses and things that I've tried in the last five years and it's really all part of the learning process. So I've had two failed courses that I spent like nine months working on. I had a failed MMA media site, mixed martial arts, it was called Scrap City and I spent thousands and thousands of dollars on that hiring writers and paying for ads and trying to get that up and going. I had three failed e-commerce stores with more than 20 failed products and thousands of dollars spent on Facebook ads and I had a failed Neutropic Supplement business that I sunk more than six figures of my own money into and it completely flopped. So you're gonna fail a lot. It takes a while to find something that actually works. Don't get discouraged. The people that win are the people that keep trying. I know it sounds cliche, but the people that keep trying keep trying different things and learning from their mistakes, learning from their failures and using that to do better the next time, the next time, the next business. So keep at it. It takes a lot of time to find something that works. Truth number four is you need, you need to need to need surround yourself with supportive people. Now I'm lucky all of my family, my friends, my online network of people and connections are all very supportive. I don't have a single person I can think of in my network that is toxic or that brings me down or rags on me or hates in any way. So if you have those people in your life that are toxic, that are insulting you and teasing you on starting an online business and going out and doing your own thing, get rid of those people. I'm sure you've heard the same before, but you're the average of the five people that you spend the most amount of time with and it's true. If you spend your time with losers and you spend your time with people who are always ragging on you and bringing you down, what do you think that's gonna do for your mentality, your mindset and for your online business? It's not gonna be good, I can tell you that. So surround yourself with good people in all areas of your life, right? Your friends, your family, your connections online, if you're making friends on social media, make sure all the people that you're spending your time and energy with are only bringing you up, they're supportive, they're not anyone that's bringing you down and ragging on you and hating on you. So audit anyone that you spend your time with, anyone that you have relationships with, if there's anyone that sticks out in your mind as bad energy or toxic, you slowly walk away, get rid of those people, take them out of your life. Now truth number five is you are gonna take a lot longer than you think to hit your goals. So this is something that I still struggle with today and it's something that I really struggled with when I first quit my job in 2016. You set all these big lofty goals for yourself, right? I'm gonna make 100K a month, 200K a month, 300K a month, whatever your goals are and when you don't hit that, you get really down in the dumps, you're really hard in yourself and it actually puts you into a slump sometimes. So I was in a slump after my failed supplement business, I thought that was gonna take off to 100, 200K per month right off the bat. It didn't, I actually lost six figures and I was in a huge slump after that for about seven, eight months where I was just really not performing at my best. I was depressed, I was down on myself and imagine going from on a high, you are making so much more than your day job, you quit your job and starting a new business and going straight down, losing six figures and it's really tough. So it takes a lot longer than you think for you to hit your goals and get where you wanna go. It's totally part of the learning process, you're gonna be making mistakes, you're gonna be failing a lot and you're gonna be taking those failures and those mistakes and using it for your next business and the next venture that you go on. Now I will say that one thing that I do to shortcut my learning curve and shortcut my way to hitting my goals is working with mentors and I'm not saying this just because I have my own online education products, it's because I spend and invest $40,000 to $50,000 every year in hiring mentors and coaches and people who have been where I want to go. And I have one main rule when I'm hiring these people, right? I never take advice or opinions from people who don't have something that I want. So whether it's in like fitness or health or making money or a business or a lifestyle, I'm not gonna take advice from someone who doesn't have what I want, right? I'm not gonna take fitness advice from someone who's 300 pounds, I'm not gonna take money advice from someone who's broke, I'm always looking for people who have been where I want to go and if I wanna shortcut my learning curve and shortcut my way to getting what I want, I will go out and hire people. I'm usually spending anywhere from $40,000 to $50,000 every year on courses, coaching, masterminds and different information and educational products to help me hit my goals in all areas of my life, right? Health, wealth, relationships. So that is truth number five is it's gonna take you a lot longer to hit your goals but stay with it, stay consistent and use all these setbacks and these failures and these mistakes as learnings for your next venture and for the next step. So these are the five truths about starting an online business and at least in my opinion, if I were to go back in 2015, when I was first getting started, these are the five truths or realities I would tell myself so that I really could see what it's like to be an online entrepreneur and not just see like the cars and the money and the mansions and the laptop lifestyle that people are after, the sexy parts of online business, right? So hopefully this helps you see what it's actually like. So if you enjoyed this, give it a like and comment below, which one of these hit home for you or what other questions do you have about entrepreneurship? I'd love to hear from you and I'd be happy to answer any questions you have. So that's it for this video. I will see you next week. Take it easy.