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Find a mentor.
It’s as if there’s a successful person sitting somewhere waiting for some wannabe to bother and badger them, hoping that businessperson will take them under their wing. I am a rational individual, so I usually view business relationships like this: if you’re not giving them more value than they are giving out, they won’t care what you have to say. So the only way someone can “mentor” you is if they are related to you in some way. Someone who is just going to help you and show you the ropes for no other reason than to see you succeed is extremely rare, if not nonexistent. -
Talk to people before you create the business.
Similar to the above advice, this is just as stupid. First of all, when was the last time you went somewhere for the sole purpose of listening to a businessperson ask you about business ideas they want to start and whether you would be a customer or client? Never. Not only have you never gone somewhere for that, but whenever someone following this advice goes to an online platform and tries to ask such questions, they are easily banned or blocked because no one wants to be bothered. I regularly use the Telegram chat app, and the guy who developed the app didn’t come to me and ask, “Would you want a phone app where you can talk to anyone around the world for free?” And even if he did, I would have either said “yes” to shut him up or ignored him. Why? Because there was no product in front of me that I could use and find useful. So if someone says to you, “Talk to people before you develop your business,” even if they add the qualifier “your potential customers,” just know these people are stupid and are simply repeating whatever they’ve picked up from other clueless people in the business sector. -
Buy a course/read a book/consulting.
All of these are just signs of grifters and scammers. Don’t read a book, don’t buy a course, and don’t join a group. If you have a business idea and some skill to execute it, go ahead and start. Those who write business books are only doing so because they want to sell books and get your money, that’s it. You don’t see successful business men and women publishing books about how to succeed in business because whatever amount of money they’d make selling the book, they’d make far more by using that advice to generate more money. And remember: those who can, do; those who can’t, teach and try to rob you. -
Develop AI/LLM wrappers.
If you don’t control the stack, you don’t have a business—you have a wrapper. All these AI wrappers and the people who own them calling themselves “businessmen/women” are just trying to steal your money and run. These are not businesses; they are grifters trying to profit before OpenAI and others develop the same product and shake them off like the parasitic flies they are. If you are not developing the graphics cards like Nvidia, you’re just a wrapper that will be obsolete in a few months. If you want to compete in the age of AI, compete with Nvidia because they own the stack. OpenAI needs them; Facebook and Google need them. Without them, there is no AI or LLM. But you won’t, because developing your own graphics cards that could compete with Nvidia requires billions of dollars.
Think about this analogy: let’s say a guy came to you with a business plan to sell burgers in a McDonald’s parking lot. What do you think would happen if that guy gained any traction? And let’s assume the guy was also sourcing the burgers he sells from McDonald’s itself. What do you think McDonald’s would do when they see you competing with them and making money from your “little food cart”? Yep, that’s what I thought too. Nvidia is the factory, OpenAI is McDonald’s, and AI/LLM wrappers are the guy with the food cart in front of McDonald’s trying to compete against McDonald’s.
Is anyone else sick and tired of this stupid so-called “advice”?
byu/silverbullet20 inEntrepreneur
Posted by silverbullet20
12 Comments
You are speaking truths here! Be my mentor please?
A lot of this forum seems like people regurgitating things they have heard from motivational speakers. One recent post says “You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to take action.” As if that is the most profound thing in the world — but if you’re just starting out it’s more confusing than anything. If anything, I would say there’s less margin for mistakes in the beginning. When I started my first business, I had finite resources and my family’s ability to eat was dependent on getting it right.
I don’t know man, I’m pretty successful and it would be cool to help guide someone else and pass that on.. Business, deal making, numbers, strategy sessions.. this stuff is my passion. Not too many people to talk to that like it the way I do.
Talking to people/peers is also great, but they have to be sharp, experienced, and genuinely want for your success.
Books are incredible tools and one of the few ways to truly gain a competitive edge over your peers. Invest your time in books. Would not buy a course though.
Consulting can double or triple your cash flows overnight, but again only the right people. I would never hire a consultant for an idea or a startup. Only a proven model you’re entering into, or a cash flowing entity.
Your disposition makes it sound like you’re early on in your career. Most people around you at that age tend to not truly want you to succeed, and it’s hard to know which direction to go.
Your view on mentorship is quite cynical. People love talking about what they do specifically to people who express genuine interest and passion. When I first started my business I asked for help and advice left and right. “You remember when you first started and how tough it was? Thats where i am now”. Every successful entrepreneur I spoke to was terrified when they first started. Every one I talked to was willing to help. Its all about people and contacts after all. I credit 2 maybe 3 guys from those initial stages who were critical in my growth.
This sub has reached peak self-parody with “do not read books”
What is crazy is the number of negative posts I have seen the past few days.
I am sure many would love a mentor. Someone who can give them sound advice from experience or a pick me up when they hit a low…
Great post to all the negative on this space.
Finding a mentor was the biggest factor that got me off my ass and out into the field on my own, I know it’s cliche but there are people out there who don’t mind talking shop and answering questions for the cost of a nice lunch
Well, you’re kinda weird philosopher. Not everyone has your type of insight and therefore would do with help….of whatever kind.
I disagree with you on books; it’s condensed knowledge you can explore. I read Peter Drucker as a boy…more than 40 years ago and still read him now. The same book. I picked it up by a street seller.
I think your attitude shows in your post OP. Personally I think you need to change what you are focusing on. You are here because you want to grow your business or start your business I assume.
Business people create – create product, create jobs, create a solution to solve problems. As there is a lot of unceratinty with businesses, you need a somewhat optimistic attitude, as you don’t know whether you can do that or not. Products might work or fail.
Courses and books are good overviews, they are just information and it takes effort from you to join those dots. How much effort depends on whether you have mentorship that can point you in the right direction, the right knowledge/information and skill to support it.
I have a mentor, a few actually, whether they consider themselves that to me I’m not sure. They are all in completely unrelated businesses too compared to myself. I run a mobile service company and they were in marketing/media, one used to run and laundromat, one did printed circuit boards.
I agree on the books and courses. I read one book lately that’s helped (48 Laws of Power), but all the coaching, business books and courses just come across as a scam by people who couldn’t shake it at the business. Or maybe they just cracked the code, when everyone is rushing for gold, sell shovels…
1.Mentors are hard to find , they aren’t sitting on a park bench waiting for you. You are correct you need to provide value first , but the value doesn’t need to be monetary. While my business is still in the early stages I have helped mentor many people through hard times and decisions based on experience . People want to help other people, but most of us have learnt that wanting to help someone and someone being willing to do the work isn’t the same thing. I am very selective around who I commit my time to now.
2.Talking to people , you go faster together than alone that’s just a fact , perhaps your personal cynicism is repelling people ? I have had tons of success on forums and chat groups and rely heavily on some communities for my business.
3.Books are gold if you can apply them and you know when to finish reading a book and when to move on .
There are some incredible books that allow you to gain perspective without making the mistakes to learn the lessons. I have yet to meet a very successful person that doesn’t read extensively whether they are in business or in high paying careers.
I think the issue with reading is you need to have the experience and background to apply the value otherwise it’s like reading about how to be an astronaut as a 70 year old pensioner. A waste of your time . People make the mistake of reading books that aren’t relevant to where they are like books on scaling from 1-10million when you haven’t started a business yet.
Paying for courses. I think this is the same thing as books right place time and frame of mind a course can massively accelerate your progress. Courses and books are the next best thing to a mentor .
4. I can’t say much about AI LLM as a business model but I can definitely espouse the value of it in a business setting I use a custom gpt to do planning for systems and controls and read technical documentation etc for me . I could 100% see that as a service someone would pay for it saved me hours of time and work for complex system design and troubleshooting .
I think you’re cynical about these things because they haven’t worked for you. I suspect they haven’t worked for you because you haven’t figured out how to use them in a way that brings value and therefore you see them as useless.
Best of luck out there
**”Buy a course/read a book/consulting.**
All of these are just signs of grifters and scammers.”
Bad, bad mindset man. I contribute 100, no 1000% of any success I have to mentors. No one is “scamming” you to literally provide you their experience for money. Sure, the quality of the product will vary, but why on earth would you waste 2-3 years of your life making expensive mistakes when you could pay someone $5k to learn it in 3-6 months? Of course, that ONE course / mentorship won’t have all the answers. Nothing is guaranteed, but you have to make the best out of the experience.
Quick story – I paid $18k for a mentorship to learn how to build an Airbnb arbitrage business. It was a “1:1” mentorship, meaning I got access to the guy’s WhatsApp.
What do you know? His course was crap, and his 1:1 access meant I’d hear from him once every few days. Scammer right?
Well, I’m sitting here complaining, but I still turned that experience into a 7-figure portfolio in 2 years. Sure, it was not a quality product. Sure, $18k was ridiculous for what I got, but the point is I was committed to making it work on day one. End of story.
Last thing I’ll say about mentorships, etc. Why on earth would any of these wealthy entrepreneurs ever connect with you for free? Over coffee? No way. You’ve got to pay to be in their circle. You could get upset about it, but that won’t get you anywhere.