If you are popular, always in the crowd, used to things working out, or getting paid by the hour, fuck you this post isn’t for your bitch ass. Entrepreneur is a term often used to describe someone that has ideas; people use the term too much.

Let me tell you what a real entrepreneur is, because the feelings are all too familiar for those of us who have “made it” and forged our own path in life.  I am going to begin with my story and how I came to be where I am today…and I am sure I will look back at this post years or even months from now and tell myself, “you didn’t know shit you little bitch.”

Where My Journey Started As An “Entrepreneur”

February 9th of 2013 to November 4th of 2016 I was employed at Jack Carroll’s Skagit Hyundai. I came out of high school, tried to get my footing into something and after a few months I went in to sales at this dealership. I spent 3 years and 9 months learning how to be an extremely efficient sales professional. They started me on the floor; the kind of sales where you walk out onto the lot and say, “hello, how can I help you?” only to be told, “fuck you, we are just looking.” Here’s some foreshadowing; if you get mad when someone tells you to fuck off you won’t make it as an “entrepreneur.” Well, after 19 months of that I was promoted into the internet department where my skills in email marketing, phone sales, and setting appointments were crafted. By this time I was the top sales guy at the dealership. 50 sales consultants during my career there would come through but I was always at the top of the board.  I proceeded into the finance department and was now doing internet sales and finance….then it started to get harder.

Hang with me because I am going somewhere with this. By fall of 2015 I had decided it was time to start formulating a plan to start my own business. On November 7th, 2015 I started Vulcan Customs. Since I was figuring things out, it took a couple months before I actually started making money with that. Still as thirsty as ever to keep growing, I continued to attempt climbing the ladder in the car business. By this time I was getting a significant amount of shit from some of the higher-ups at the store. “You have outside interests, why would we promote you?” The fuck does that mean; everyone has outside interests. “I am your best guy, I am your top producer, first here, last to leave day in and day out. Why me you ask? Why the fuck not me? So long story short, I quit. Between the rejection and the daily motivational speeches of Les Brown’s on YouTube I decided enough was enough.

Forging The Path

So I left that place and started Millionaire Mafia on November 4th of 2016. It was a blessing; it set the stage for many of the valuable skills necessary to get me to where I am today. What got me out was the pure depression of going to work everyday doing something that I don’t love, knowing that I can do better for myself.

“You have to put yourself in the position where you have to win. It’s do or die, sink or swim”

-Les Brown

So I chose to put myself in the position to win. $5K per month in bills, nothing coming in, nothing in the bank. It was just me, the wall behind me, and whatever skills I had developed to that point. I had found the trailhead, now the path had to be forged. And this, is where the journey as an entrepreneur begins for everyone. It begins when you decide, “I have to do this for myself. It’s my time to be selfish. It’s time for me to do what I want to do and I’m gonna fucking do it.”

Besides the 105 hour work weeks that it took to get me to this point the future would be full of hurdles, speed bumps, storms, mountains, cliffs, and every obstacle one could imagine (or couldn’t imagine). I started making money and Paypal decided to cut me off; they kept my money for 180 days, $50,000 specifically. My mortgage payment bounced during Christmas of 2016 because I didn’t have a way to pay myself. I battled 17 different merchant accounts until one started working for me. I lost friends over the simple fact that I couldn’t spend as much time with them; I had to build my empire, I had to build my business, always looking to get to the next goal and cross it off, then on to the next one after that. Only 2% of the population possesses the characteristic of urgency; you must develop a sense of urgency. Your dreams can’t wait, your business can’t wait, putting off for tomorrow what you can do today is a very costly decision to make.

Sacrifice As An Entrepreneur

I lost my girlfriend of 3 years due to my journey as an entrepreneur, due to my addiction, to my thirst for success. She always made sure I had warm food when I came home from work. All she wanted was to spend time with me and feel loved. Yeah I felt really bad about that, looking back I felt bad for putting her through that…but I couldn’t help it. I was addicted to this journey. “When are you going to come to bed?” she would say. “I just need to finish this,” I would say. “I just need to finish this,” was always the answer.

People said, “you’ve changed Ben, you’re not the same person anymore”…Yeah, yeah I have changed, I am going down the exact path that I want to be on. I don’t need you to believe in me, I don’t need your support, I don’t need your permission, you don’t need to understand. I believe in myself, I believe in what I am doing, and that is all that matters.

I didn’t have anyone’s support, I didn’t have anyone standing behind me saying “good job Ben, keep it up.” I didn’t have anyone teaching me. I was the only light on in the neighborhood at 3 am every night.

Even now as I am writing this, it’s a lonely path. I am sitting in a coffee shop, the same one I come to several times per week. No one knows me in here, no one knows who I am or what I do. I don’t have millions of friends, or even a dozen, or even five. Most days are spent in silence, working on the next step, the next goal, the next business venture.

You have to be okay with this; you have to be okay with rejection, with repeated failures, you have to have the strength of character to get back up and say, “here I go again.” You have to be willing to sacrifice anything for the sake of your dream. You have to be okay with missing the parties, hanging out on Friday nights, or not spending money on useless shit. You must be wise with your time; constantly asking yourself, “what is the most valuable use of my time?”

You have to be resilient, you have to have the mentality of a Marine; always faithful, okay with risks, never giving up, fighting until you win.

An entrepreneur is not somebody with ideas, an entrepreneur is a God Damn warrior. Everything in the world is the result of an entrepreneur.

Next time you call yourself a #bossbitch or an entrepreneur, just ask yourself, “am I a corner stone or just another brick in the wall?