The DreamHow I Learned the Risks and Rewards of Entrepreneurship and Made Millions

By

Gurbaksh Chahal

1. Always surround yourself with people who want you to succeed. That seems simple on the surface, but when you get out there, in the real world, you will discover that most people are rooting for you to fail. Stay away from them.

2. Never give up

3. “Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs; therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity, and undue depression in adversity.”

4. “By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you’ll be happy. If you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.”

5. I told myself that I would give myself five years to make my dreams come true and that everything I did from that day forth would be a step in that direction, even if that step seemed a little oblique.

6. I was polite, professional, and confident, and that certainly helped.

7. I needed to impress people. Perception was key. Once again, perception is reality. That’s not a kid on the other end of the line. It’s a guy who delivers on his promises.

8. The right people and the right leadership, and as long as it is committed to being better than all the other players.

9. Performance, delivery, professionalism—and that’s what got me noticed. My attitude was simple: I knew I could do it, and I knew I could do it better, but I also knew that I wasn’t going to be the best coming out of the gate. I would begin by catching up with the other guys, the guys who got there first, and then I’d leave them in the dust. And that’s what I did: I over executed the competition.

10. Don’t expect anyone to help you.”

11. You’re not always going to know exactly what you’re doing, but if you try sometimes, and do the legwork, you might get what you need.

12. Never lose sight of the competition.

13. If you genuinely want something, don’t wait for it—teach yourself to be impatient.

14. Stereotypes make people comfortable.

15. Never put yourself in a position of vulnerability.

16. I also learned that damage control can happen only once you’ve got the situation in hand.

17. That experience taught me three valuable lessons. The first was to expect the unexpected. Life is full of surprises, not all of them pleasant, so it’s wise to be prepared. Think about your choices, about the people you’re dealing with, and about the consequences of even the smallest decisions.

18. The second lesson was equally valuable: Own your mistakes. I’d been in business with a rogue who almost destroyed me, but I’d made the decision to work with him, so the mistake was mine. Click Agents was my company. I was responsible for it. When I was scrambling to control the damage, I never once suggested I was blameless. I took responsibility for the mistake, and it worked.

19. And the final lesson is the one I just mentioned: Be frugal, but don’t be cheap. Some corners aren’t meant to be cut, especially when it comes to hiring the right personnel.

20. The lesson here is simple. Be generous; it works.

21. Whenever I walked into the office, I would think, Here I am, where I belong. I loved work. I loved success. I would reach my desk, take a seat, and it was almost like a hit of adrenaline. How do I make today an even better day than yesterday? I would ask myself. What do I have to do to leave the competition in the dust?

22. The experience taught me another lesson: Don’t tell people what they ask you, tell them what they need to hear to fall in love with you.

23. What really matters is execution. Don’t think about the millions you’re going to make; think instead about creating a company that will be worth millions.

24. Don’t chase the money. Chase substance. If you have substance, the money will follow.

25. Learn to deal with jealousy. As you make your way up the ladder, people are going to wonder Why him? Why not me? Don’t sweat it. And of course there’s a flip side to the lesson: Don’t be jealous. Jealousy is one of the most useless emotions on the planet.

26. The experience taught me another lesson: Pick your battles. I learned something else, too. We live in the most litigious society on the planet, so I have three little words of advice: Watch your back.

27. Forget noble motivations. Pursue your own interests and focus on making yourself happy.

28. Another lesson learned: People want what they can’t have.

Lessons:

1. Listen to your heart. We tend to do well at things we love, so find something you love—or learn to love what you’re doing.

2. Forget noble motivations. Success comes from wanting to win, so you’ve got to want it bad—you really need that killer instinct. At the end of the day, no matter what they say, it’s not about how you play the game, but about winning. As American football coach Vince Lombardi reportedly said, “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.”

3. Adjust your attitude. Without the right attitude, you’ll never succeed. You have to believe in yourself, often to the point of madness, because until you prove yourself the only people who believe in you are your mom and dad (if you’re lucky). If you have any doubts, get out now.

4. Figure out what you’re good at. Very few of us are gifted, so we need to work with the gifts we have. If you’re five-foot-two and you love basketball, let me be the first to tell you: It’s probably not going to happen. (But don’t let me stop you.)

5. Trust your gut. We are complicated creatures. That inexplicable feeling you get sometimes—well, it tends to be right a lot more often than it is wrong. Try not to overanalyze it. Some mysterious Inner You is trying to help by pointing you in the right direction.

6. Do your homework. Before you start anything, make sure you know exactly what you’re getting into. Ignorance is dangerous. What you don’t know can and will hurt you.

7. Be frugal. The only person you need to impress is yourself, and you’ll be impressed by success, not by a sleek office with Giorgio Armani couches. It boils down to need versus luxury, and a fancy office isn’t going to improve your performance.

8. When it comes to staffing your company, however, don’t be frugal. Find the right people for the right jobs, and pay them what they’re worth. We all love and need rock stars.

9. Hire the smartest people you can find. Smart people make beautiful music together. Lots of smart people, working in unison, can have the force and power of a Beethoven symphony.

10. Don’t expect perfection from yourself or others, but never stop striving for it, and try to inspire others to strive for it too.

11. Learn to listen. Everyone has an opinion, and everyone is entitled to an opinion, and even wrong-headed opinions can open your eyes to things you might otherwise have missed. So listen, even to the people you disagree with—and maybe to them more

than the others. Then process what you’ve heard and have the courage of your convictions.

12. Own your mistakes. At the end of the day, every decision you make, even if it was inspired by misguided advice, is your decision. Nobody wins when you start looking for someone to blame. Let it go. Keep moving. Forward movement is everything.

13. Never compromise your morality. We all need to live by a moral code.

14. Never lose sight of the competition. While you’re playing, someone else is working and catching up, so learn to play with one eye on the competition. You’re not going to be on top forever.

15. Watch your back. Somebody should make a T-shirt that says: “For every back, there is a knife.”

16. Don’t procrastinate. Procrastination is just another word for wanting to fail. If you’re not hungry enough, if you’re too lazy to move forward, you’re never going to get anywhere.

17. Don’t do anything by half-measures. Remember: Mediocrity is for losers.

18. And speaking of which, take the advice of that late great comedian, Jimmy Durante: “Be nice to people on the way up because you will probably meet them on the way down.”

19. Always negotiate from a position of strength. If you need something from the other guy, you’ve already lost. People want what they can’t have. Become the thing people want.

20. Expect the unexpected. If you’re ready for anything, you’ll still be unpleasantly surprised—but at least you’ll get through it.

21. Remember: Perception is reality. What they see is more important than what is, so show them what they want to see and tell them what they want to hear. (Read that sentence again. It’s really quite simple, and it makes perfect sense.)

22. Don’t get emotional. Logic and emotions don’t mix.

23. Be fearless. The road to success is paved with failures. If you’re afraid to fail, you’ll never succeed.

24. Pick your battles. The fighting never really ends. Don’t let the meaningless skirmishes sap your strength; you’re in this to win the war.

25. Grow a thick skin—a very thick skin. People will question your ability to succeed, and the loudest among them might make you doubt your own talents, so you’ll need a thick skin to drown out the noise. The silence will help you focus on your objective, and you will prevail.

26. Take chances. Without risk, there is no reward. But make sure it’s intelligent risk. Only a fool bets against Tiger Woods (until it’s time to bet against Tiger Woods).

27. When you commit, you really have to commit. Become unstoppable. And don’t quit. As Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu put it, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

28. Success is really about making it happen. It’s about finding that one thing you love above all others and then figuring out how to do it better than anyone else.

29. You will have bad days. There will be setbacks. You will have more than your fair share of failures. But at the end of the day, you pick yourself up and keep going. That’s the Big Secret of Life.