There’s a generally accepting sentiment that if you are an entrepreneur, you are “anti-fragile”.
And in one sense, you actually are.
Take, for example, if you say something mean to the wrong person at work, or make a deliciously sexist joke in front of a perpetually-offended female colleague.
Do those things at the wrong time, wrong place, and you’re out the door of your job, out of medical insurance, and you’ve got an asterisk on your resume that an HR witch won’t hesitate to spread around like the plague if given the opportunity (though technically, laws are supposed to protect you against that, but good luck getting that enforced.).
So in that sense, yes, you are far better off being an entrepreneur, because nobody can take your livelihood away for saying something mean.
Granted, if you run something like a pizza shop or a bar, a bad review spreads like wildfire, too…
That’s just one way to illustrate that “entrepreneur” does not equal “invincible”.
(Which is what people would like you to think).
Take, for example, what’s happened to me this year, that’s been outside of my control:
* On the verge of signing a deal with the Big Baller Brand (i.e. the Ball Brothers, one who is in the NBA and the other is destined to be there soon), the guy we were working with gets caught embezzling millions of dollars.
Obviously, outside of my control.
* Fughbook has banned numerous ad accounts right when I was starting to see some really good daily profits.
Obviously, outside of my control.
* Chase held up my wire transfers for weeks on end, which almost resulted in me losing out on purchasing real estate here in Ukraine, or, in a best case scenario, paying a premium because the exchange rate dropped
Obviously, outside of my control.
* Google making numerous algorithm changes that have tanked some of my websites, costing me up to 80-90% of my income in some areas. Yes, you can adjust and adapt to these, and I have, but it’s still a lot of lost time and effort having to rebuild
Obviously, outside of my control.
Point is this:
While I’m all for accepting responsibility on these things, there really are things you cannot control.
* Could I have done anything differently with the Baller Brand? Probably not.
* Could I have done anything different with Facebook? I could have run better ads, but they also have approved some and then banned them later.
* Could I have done anything different with Chase? No.
* Could I have done anything different with Google? Yes, I could have stayed on top of things more and been more up to date with what was going on.
Despite the fact that I could have improved in some areas, a lot of it still would have happened, no matter what kind of preventative medicine I applied to it.
Make sense?
So yes, I’d tell you that being an entrepreneur is great…
But it also comes with some serious lows that make it feel like the whole world is against you.
Again, I say:
“Entrepreneur” does not equal “invincible”.
Really, the point of all this is to simply show that being “anti-fragile” is actually a myth if you dig a bit deeper. There are always going to be a lot of outside factors that you simply can’t control. What I can control, is getting more people onto me email list, writing you guys some excellent emails on a daily basis, and putting out offers that you get value from.
You can’t control what the supercomputers at Google and Facebook do, and you also can only do so much to influence how other people act.
You can’t control what archaic banking policies and systems there are, but you can counter it a bit by having stashes in multiple places, and always being prepared for the worst.
Really, the lesson in this email is to control what you can, and to hell with what you can’t.
And, more:
This doesn’t just apply to business either.
You can’t control how a girl feels about you, for example, but you can control what kind of shape you’re in, what kind of bankroll you have, and how much confidence you have in yourself.
Make sense?
Good.
So, let the little things go, and take control of what you can, just…don’t think that a lot of things can’t be taken away in the snap of a finger, or a click of a keyboard.
Now, if you are looking to build yourself into the best man you can, I’d highly recommend you join up to “Actually Abroad”, a community full of men trying to get abroad, date better women (that’s in your control), and build businesses that are ideally made of kryptonite.
Here’s the link:
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