When I first made the leap into entrepreneurialism, I wanted it all.
I wanted everything at once. I wanted to build my dream business overnight and have an enormous community of fans and friends and make millions of dollars creating products I loved.
Having zero experience and a small network, those ambitions soon sputtered out. I adopted a new mindset: I figured out how to "level up."
Doing work you're passionate about is important. But the word "passion" has become a bit played out. Everything in entrepreneurship is positioned toward making money doing what you love.
You should work toward doing what you love. But sometimes you'll have to go through several iterations of this process, gradually "leveling up" to get closer to what you want and who you want to be.
Level 1
I graduated college in 2009 and had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do. I figured I had two choices:
- Go back to school
- Join the corporate rat race
The only problem was that I didn't want to be a doctor, lawyer, or engineer. So more school didn't make sense to me. And I didn't want to do the corporate thing. Hell no.
In fact, the very thought of working in a cubicle made me want to throw myself head first into a boiling vat of tar. Not very inspiring.
Since I refused to take the next "logical" step, I was stuck at low-paying jobs waiting tables and answering phones. I started officially working at a chain restaurant to make ends meet, and it sucked. I wasn't happy and I wasn't making any money. I was fed up and frustrated. So I decided to take things into my own hands.
Level 2
I stopped waiting tables in 2012 and immediately started doing SAT test prep for Kaplan. Was test prep my #1 passion? HELL NO. But it was a level up from serving steak.
My hourly rate was $18. I thought this was fantastic at the time. Then I found that they were charging the families I was helping over $100 per hour for me to come to the house and teach little Timmy quadratic equations. In other words, I was doing $100 worth of work, and Kaplan was taking $82 out of my pocket.
Not cool.
Level 3
At that point, I realized that I had a viable skill that people had proven they would pay me for, and I decided to level up. I launched my own test prep company — effectively cutting out the middleman and reaping all the benefits.
I learned that I didn't have to start from scratch. Rather than scouring Craigslist for clients, I cut the line and made deals with private admissions coaches who prep high school students for their college essays, interviews, and packaging themselves.
I sold myself well and became their in-house test prep instructor. Everyone won. Instantly, I went from having no clients to a treasure trove of them overnight.
Level 4
From there, I decided to level up again. I got bored of test prep, but realized how much I loved business and marketing.
I started freelancing online and got crafty about how to make money using skills I already had. Along the way, I learned how position myself in a saturated marketplace, write amazing copy, and close sales. I eventually bootstrapped a web development firm that started pulling six figures in a year.
Game on.
Level 5
At that point, I realized there was something to this whole online business thing. I started devouring whatever information I could find about entrepreneurialism, startups, email marketing, copywriting, sales funnels, building an audience, and more.
Then, I made the best decision of my life and started my blog, where I wrote about my experience as a frustrated 20-something who knew there had to be more to life than the nine-to-five. I found an audience — or rather, they found me.
Soon after, I began working with really awesome startups like Art of Charm and Pavlok, as an employee in some cases and a consultant in others. They brought me on to develop deep marketing strategies and funnel positioning to help them separate from the pack, as well as to write copy.
I got the inside scoop on what it takes to dominate an online business and then knew I was ready.
Level 6
In 2014, I leveled up and took the leap of going full time with Rich20Something. I managed it completely by myself.
There was no turning back. I wrote and wrote and wrote and created a huge following by giving all of my content away for free. I made money by teaching young people how to start their own freelance businesses.
Level 7
Nowadays, I've got a full team with me, in the trenches, every day. Hustler city over here in Rich20 HQ, Santa Monica. There are three full-time employees, a few part-timers, and dozens of service providers whom I depend on every week for various tasks.
I've made a career for myself that didn't exist, the ultimate win.
The takeaway
Each time I took on a new project, it got a bit closer to what my ideal vision looked like. That's leveling up.
Even now, I know Rich20Something isn't my final stop. Each project has taught me new, valuable skills that I carry with me from one business to the next.
You don't need to build your dream business overnight. Feel free to go through the process of "becoming" and actively try many new things. Your goal should be to find something that feels more and more like "you" every time.
Focus on growing and constantly leveling up.
Try not to get frustrated with this process, especially the amount of time it's taking ... because the growth you're going through is crucial.
You probably aren't ready to run your dream business right out of the gate anyway — and that's OK. Believe me, I speak from experience. One step at a time.
Daniel DiPiazza is the founder of Rich20Something, where he teaches young people how to start businesses that they care about and live happier lives. Grab his "Startup Series" — a free "mini-course" designed to jumpstart your productivity, help you overcome tough obstacles, and launch a project you care about quickly.
