Joshua H. Davidson - The Entrepreneurs Framework: How Businesses Are Adapting in the New Economy

Some of you who are reading this book may have already known about me. You might even think of me as a success, given the following:

• You hear that Ive been an entrepreneur for a decade, working on my company, Chop Dawg.
• You see that Ive helped build and launch more than 250 web, mobile, and wearable apps.
• Youve seen that Ive worked with some of the largest brands and Fortune 500s in the world.
• You hear that I employ dozens of people.
• You hear that I work with clients all across the globe.
• You see that I travel the world, speaking at events, conferences, universities, and seminars.
• You see that I have hundreds of thousands of fans on social media.
• Youve seen newspaper articles, magazine articles, podcast interviews, radio interviews, blog posts, and so on, about me.
• Youve heard me host on the radio and on podcasts about entrepreneurship.
• You even see that I am (now) a published author.

This is what I consider the highlight reel .

Its accurate, but it doesnt speak at all to the hundreds of failures that it took to eventually get to the steady success that I (mostly) enjoy today. It doesnt include the internal battles, the close - to - the - brink legal troubles, or the fights with team members, clients, vendors, and partners. It doesnt show the nights when my mind was my own worst enemy or the days when I wondered if I was going to be able to make payroll or find that next client, and felt almost paralyzed due to the fear of becoming an embarrassment to those whom I look up to most. It doesnt show the moments when I felt so frustrated, so angered, that I would turn into the Incredible Hulk. And it certainly doesnt cover those sudden, unexpected moments that have derailed entire plans that my team and I spent months (and sometime years) researching, investing, and planningall to just fail spectacularly.

Yes, my business belongs to the 10 percent success rate, those elusive businesses that were able to make it past the first five years. But I still feel its so important for me to show that Ive had more failures than successes on my journey. I refuse to glamorize entrepreneurship or bullshit my own story. I owe it to you to be candid and direct throughout every single page of this journey you are about to embark on. I am not a top entrepreneur, and Im nowhere near the class of some of the tech giants you read about and watch every day. However, Ive managed to do something that most in this game fail at: build a business that is viable, provides real value, makes real money, solves real problems, is bigger than myself, and is self - sufficient .

Entrepreneurship is naturally cutthroat. It is emotionally draining. It will take everything out of you, and it has no obligation to give anything back. It will challenge you in ways you cannot fathom. This is why you must understand not only the strategies necessary for playing this game but also understand how the game is played.

And the scariest part? You need to fear becoming complacent and taking things for granted. You need to use your natural fear of being an entrepreneur and turn it into an endless source of motivation to be better.