At 19, I started a web design agency called pooq with friends. It failed. Over the next four years, I turned more than ten ideas into businesses, and most of those failed too. That is the experience behind the six lessons I first published in April 2016.
The most concrete mistake in that account was spreading my attention across too many different businesses. By the time I wrote it, I was concentrating on MIK, the SEO and web design agency in Switzerland and Kosovo, while other people managed the other businesses I had invested in. This is a record of that period, not a description of my current responsibilities.
1. Keep developing skills
My first rule was to keep learning the work itself. Enthusiasm for an idea does not replace the ability to deliver it. I argued for choosing work you want to keep getting better at, rather than choosing it only because it looks profitable.
2. Put effort behind the idea
The original essay was emphatic about hard work. Its lasting point is the gap between believing in a business and doing the work it requires. The long hours described there are not a universal formula for success. For a different framing of effort and rest, see work like a lion.
3. Adapt when circumstances change
I asked how quickly we recognise a new situation and respond to it. This was a question about paying attention and adjusting the work, rather than assuming yesterday’s approach will always fit.
4. Take the money side seriously
The original list included bookkeeping, pricing, taxes, investment and reserves. My point was that money coming into a company should not automatically be treated as money available for personal spending. These were areas I said an entrepreneur needed to understand, not a detailed financial plan.
5. Give one business enough attention
This is where my own story makes the lesson specific. One business idea followed another, but there was still only so much time to give each one. My response in 2016 was to focus on MIK and have other people manage the other investments. Starting more ventures had not solved the problem of divided attention.
6. Use technology to build something
In 2016, I pointed to smartphones, apps and social media as tools for creating a business. The invitation was to use the tools to make something, rather than only watch other people talk about success.
I ended that original piece by rejecting the idea of a secret daily routine that explains everything. These six lessons are grounded in my early attempts, including the failures. Their value is in the experience behind them, not a guarantee that following a list will produce the same outcome.
