Before we dive in, I have big news.
My company Bolt Storage is now offering property management services.
If you own a portfolio of self storage and want us to manage it, reply to this email with a few details about your properties and I'll make an introduction to my team.
Why wantrepreneurs struggle:
Business is a wonderful thing because there are no rules.
It's fluid and anything goes.
The problem with that is the decisions can get overwhelming quickly. Analysis paralysis cripples entrepreneurs.
The game plan of so many folks who call themselves “entrepreneurs” is to:
- Read books about business
- Listen to entrepreneurial podcast interviews
- Dream about business for years and years
They all talk a big game and put up a fancy public facade.
They use long words and sound very smart. They have a ton of new ideas. They know business history very well and talk often about other entrepreneurs in other famous companies.
But they never have the courage to do anything.
They love huge ideas. World changing ideas. They idolize Elon Musk and Steve Jobs. They study them and recite their words as if they were gospel.
They’re passionate about something and that something is what they plan to turn into a business some day.
They love sexy, high growth, scalable companies. They’re into AI now but they were into Web3 just two years ago and next year it’ll be whatever the next new thing is.
They’re easily distracted and love learning. They don’t actually like doing any real work.
They’d rather iterate and build prototypes over and over again before getting a single customer. They’ll build "in stealth" for 18 months without asking somebody to pay them for anything.
They only want to try new and innovative concepts and they want to have a blue ocean with no competition. Yet they have no capital and no network and no skills and no distribution.
They haven't done the uncomfortable work to build any of the skills or collect any of the resources that are necessary to truly grow a business.
They love the idea of being a founder but they don’t have any experience managing and leading other people.
They plan to build such a great product that it sells itself. But they’re afraid to pick up the phone and make a sales call. They don't know any investors. They don't have anyone in their network they know to be good operators they could hire.
They have big hairy audacious goals. They never achieve them but it's okay because they were huge and the odds were bad anyway!
They get a lot of security and feel very productive when they learn about things. If it comes time to do something hard like sell a customer or make a hire they turn on another podcast or read another blog article to "learn". They get a false sense of productivity from learning and it makes them feel good.
They find 100 reasons NOT to chase every opportunity. They over-analyze everything.
They move from exciting thing to exciting thing but give up as soon as it’s time to commit or spend real money.
They are generally pessimistic. They are data driven and need a complete picture before making a decision. They hate uncertainty.
They move very slowly. They do not have a sense of urgency. Low charisma and minimal leadership skills.
They never end up making anything happen.
They waste everybody’s time who interacts with them from a business perspective.
These people are wantrepreneurs.
Many of them are brilliant and extremely capable.
But they’re insecure and fearful.
I’ve wasted a lot of time with these folks in the past and I can spot them from a mile away. They have all the red flags. But the big red flag is that they talk a big game but have never built anything.
They've never led a team. They've never sold customers. They've never actually made it happen.
If you're reading this thinking, damn this is me. I'm a wantrepreneur...
Don't worry. You can overcome it. You just have to jump out of the airplane and take some chances. You have to make something happen.
The best way to do this:
Tackle something small.
You need to begin with a small, achievable, uncomfortable goal. Like to get 3 people in your neighborhood to pay you to cut their grass.
This is the uncomfortable thing about small goals:
If you don't achieve them you don't have a good excuse. It's 100% on you.
Big giant goals are easy to fail at because when you give up and move on to the next exciting thing you can just tell yourself the odds were against you.
"It was too hard anyway. Nobody else has done it either so it's not my fault."
Setting big giant goals is a cop out in business.
Start small and get uncomfortable.
I promise you, no matter what you want to build there are examples of many other companies who have done the same thing and succeeded at scale.
Look at the ones who are winning. Don't overcomplicate it, copy what works and replicate their systems.
This is the easiest path to building a $1M/year business. It is not rocket science. You do not need a world changing idea. You just need common sense, the ability to take action, and the ability to stick with the same idea for 2-3+ years.
I hope this email helps you as you reflect on 2025 and think about what you might want to work on next.
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P.S. I launched a business brokerage.
Our goal is to sell a few businesses per year for clients. We recently helped a founder sell for 7 figures and want to do more.
If you're interested in selling your business and you think my network and reach could help fill out the form here.
If you want to get on our buyers list to see our deals, fill out the buyer form here.
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Onward and upward,
Nick Huber
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