The job of an entrepreneur is to look for unsolved problems in the world and find a way to solve them. You will pay people to solve a problem you could not solve, wouldn't you? To make more money, you will need to add value by solving more and bigger problems for more people.
One of the key is to leverage on other people's money, resources, skills, time, database etc, etc. The problem is that most people want to leverage on others but do not want others to leverage on them. Personally, I would always put on the table what I can contribute first before asking the other party to show me what they can contribute.
As an employee, you are most likely selling your time and let's face it, you only have 24 hours a day. How much time can you sell. As an entrepreneur, I network and look for teams to work with. I don't mind making a lot less than my partners if they are putting in more time. To me, it is better to make 1% from 100 people's effort than to make 100% from my own effort.
Next is to set up a system for the business where it continues to do the same thing and make the same amount of money. Of course if you want to increase the revenue and profit, you will need to innovate all the time. One of the keys is to be patient and build it over time. If you can solve a problem once, you can do it again and again. The good thing is that you can solve it faster the next time. If it takes you 5 years to make your first million, the next million will be faster and easier. The key here is don't give up. However, you must not do the same thing that is not working over and over again. It is insanity to be doing the same thing and expecting a different result.
Next week, we talk about finding a mentor.
