It Takes Time To Build a Business

I don’t believe everybody is built to be an entrepreneur.

I think it’s a trait that you’re born with, or you can develop it, but I don’t know if it can be taught. I thank God every day that I was born with this thing. It’s like a tenacity or persistence to just GO. It’s kind of like that car when you put it in drive, it just goes without putting the gas on. That’s how I operate in life. It’s just a constant go, a constant push.

You can’t get even close to being successful in life without having that sort of mentality. If you’re wasting time partying and drinking and doing drugs and chasing women, all that stupid stuff, you’re not going to get to high levels of success.

You may be somewhat successful, but you’re not going to get to levels of success where you’re creating a legacy, not only for yourself but for your family.

I get excited when I see it in kids and young people. They have this tenacity to want to get up and go and get up early in the morning. They’re not hungover. They’re not wasting time. Building a legacy is not a five-year thing. I think it’s more of a ten, fifteen-year thing.

I love watching people’s success stories, and when you find out how long a person has been doing it, it can be jaw-dropping. For example, I was watching this interview last night about Drake. Drake became successful around 2014–2015, right? But, you know, he started in 2006! 2006. That’s ten years of grinding and commitment!

To compare, you get some people complaining like, “I’ve been grinding for twelve months,” you know? “I’ve been grinding for six months”, or “it’s been two years and I still don’t have what I want to have and blah, blah, blah.” I don’t see it that way. It takes commitment.

I think the only person that goes from zero to driving a Rolls Royce and owning a jet in one year is probably a Narco. It doesn’t work that way unless you’re running a Ponzi scheme, but building real businesses and real income takes a decade. It doesn’t have to be twenty years, but I would say it’s at least ten from the day that you start.

I remember this old guy one time told me, he says, “You know, when you start a business, you’ve got to get through the first thousand days.” That’s three years. That’s a pinnacle point.

So the first thousand days — you’ve got to get through that. And the percentage of companies that have lasted five years is like 5% or 10%, and it just gets smaller and smaller and smaller, right? As you continue to go, I think ten years down the road, I think the percentage of companies that are still in business is probably less than 3%.

So, longevity and being able to create the life that you want is the mindset you have to have, and it has to be a long marathon mindset.

You can’t think “I’m pissed because it’s been six months and I’m not making 200 grand a year.” It just doesn’t work that way.

You can study all the greats and you can see that it was compounded. It was doing the right actions over and over again. And the funny thing is, at some point, you’ll reach this kind of zone where you just inherently know the right things you should be doing, and the things you should not be doing.

Like, you know, going out to the club, drinking, wasting time, going to watch football when you know you should be doing something else. You will never see me at a club. You would never see me in a club.

If you see me at a club, it’s a double, it’s a doppelganger, it ain’t me. Why? Because there’s nothing going on for me over there. There’s nothing going on for me over there except bad stuff.

There may be a lot of guys that are successful and make money and they’re at the club making it rain and all that. But I don’t think any of those guys have private jets nor do they have hundreds of employees scattered throughout two countries.

You have got to pick your poison, and you have to pick your game, and you have to decide where you want to go and how you want to be and how you’re going to do it. And then, focus on that knowing it’s a long road. It’s not going to happen in a year.

If you’re looking to build a legacy business that will last for years and provide you with the life you want, be prepared for a long journey. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it in the end.