If I see one more Facebook Ad telling me how to make $30,000 in 30 days, I’m going to fucking explode.  The ‘entrepreneurs’ peddling these kinds of ads need to be high-fived, with a chair in the face.

If you think that you could actually start a business and make that much money, that quickly, with their ‘Simple 7-Step Plan’, well you best get on your unicorn and get to their virtual office before nightfall to give them your life savings (and be sure to swing them a cheeky $10,000 on the way).

Honestly, the sheer existence of these types of ads of is an insult anyone that actually runs a legitimate business. The people that have put in the blood, sweat, and tears into actually creating something real.

Now don’t get me wrong, I sell business courses and I’ve had six-figure sales days, and they were damn good days. But you wouldn’t catch me dead promoting these as an overnight success.  Why?  Because it took me eight years of damn hard work to get my business to where it is today. To put me in a position to actually be able to make that kind of money – to have the products, the systems, the tech, the community, and the mother-fucking drive actually be able to make that happen.

It’s time someone dropped some truth bombs on what running your own gig looks like.

#1. You will hustle your face off

I actually mean that. Your skin will physically break down as a result of the lethal combination of no sleep, high stress, and the very real possibility that your hopes and dreams will fall flat in the gutter.  While we’re on the subject, your hair may fallout from time to time, you’re likely to pick up several random skin conditions that your doctor can’t even diagnose (stress-related let me save you the fee), and your ass will spread from sitting in front of your computer day in and day out.

#2. You will miss some of life’s most important events

Your cousin’s wedding, your best friend’s 30th’s, and too many engagement parties, lunches, and dinners to count. Your friends will get pissed (whatever they don’t get it anyway), your family will think you’re dead, and your partner will occasionally comment that you’re not the person they fell in love with.  From time to time all these things will actually be true, get used to it.

#3. You will question the very purpose of your existence

Because that’s what lack of sleep does to you. Throw in a few mediocre launches, lack of social media traction, a few nasty clients, and you’ve hit the jackpot for an existential crisis. Problem is that these are supposed to hit you at age 40, you’re currently 28.

#4. There is no such thing as an ‘overnight success’

I’ve been lucky enough to be privy to the backend of a whole lotta businesses, and I can promise you that there’s no such thing as an overnight success.  Even those 20 something year old prodigies that looked like they’ve popped up overnight have been hard at the hustle for years – maybe just not in the hours of 9 to 5.

#5. You’ve got to be damn good at what you do

Like better than you even think. There is a truck load of competition out there, so you’ve got to be shit hot to get cut through.  Hone your craft every single day. Eat it, breathe it, sleep it. This is what it takes. Period.

#6. You’ll be broke, most of the time

True story. My bank account has come dangerously close to zero more often than I’d like to recall, but you know what – that’s the way us entrepreneurs roll.  We play all out, all of the time.  Money is designed to come and go, and in this game it has a tendency to go before it comes.  Say goodbye to exxy dinners out with friends, and say hello to long stints of pumpkin soup and peanut butter on toast.

#7. Self development is non-negotiable

Because every doubt that you ever had about yourself, and every insecurity will rear it’s head at some point in your business journey.  Whether it’s disguised as charging what you’re worth, standing up to a bully client, or listening to your intuition when all the other signs say to go the other way – you’ll be faced with them all.  It’s uncomfortable. It’s messy.  And to punch through to the next level there simply ‘aint any hiding from doing the personal work to punch through to the other side.

BUT, on the on the flipside….

> You’ll find a strength of character that you never knew you had. Because that’s what it takes, and you’ve got it.

> You’ll make new friends that understand you on a much deeper level. Because they’re entrepreneurs too, and all trenches look the same at 3am.

> You wouldn’t have any other way. You and me, we’re same. We know we get just one shot at this life, and were playing all out. It’s all or nothing, and we’re not stopping with anything left in the tank. We’re here for a purpose, and that purpose is now.

So to the true business owners out there, I salute you. You my friend are a special breed of human, respect. And if you see another one of those stupid ads, chuckle smugly to yourself, you know what it takes and it’s more than a ‘Simple 7-Step Plan’.