Don't take soldier advice from someone who hasn't been to war.

Don't take soldier advice from someone who hasn't been to war. 

Don't take entrepreneurial advice from anyone who hasn't grown a business to over 1M in revenue. 93% have not. 

7% surpass 1M 
1% surpass 10M 

If you're going to get solid advice, find one who's already been to where you're trying to go. 

Have you heard that cliche, birds of a feather flock together? It's true. 

If you're collaborating with the rookies, you'll get rookie advice. Mostly advice from wishful thinkers, who don't know what they don't know. 

The empathetic rookies tend to tell you what your itching ears want to hear. That's the problem.  

Don't be fooled by someone who was on the team, but not the founder. Big difference. Being a flight attendant on a flight doesn't give you the skills of a pilot. 

Why is this so important to your future success? 

Because every serial entrepreneur/investor already knows our original ideas are always flawed. We know the rules. We have to take them through a systematic process to make them viable.  

If we go-to-market with a flawed idea, we'll join the 90% of entrepreneurs who fail. 

Our ideas tend to be flawed when we haven't nailed the problem/solution with the right segment/channel. 

This is a discipline 93% get wrong, it's why they tend to fail. 

Just like you wouldn't take marriage advice from someone not happily married, don't take startup advice from the 93%. 

As they say in Texas, they're all hat — no cattle.  

-Gerald