7 deadly sins to avoid as a new entrepreneur

learn from my pain

Becoming an entrepreneur is one of the loneliest, most difficult, and soul-crushing quests of modern society—if you do it wrong.

When done correctly, it's one of the most fulfilling, intellectually stimulating, and rewarding experiences you can have in life.

I've built a company the wrong way before. Like watching someone slip on a banana peel, you can learn from watching my mistakes from the sidelines.

Without further ado, here’s the most common mistakes to avoid when starting a company:

1. Ordering Business Cards I call this the problem of focusing on "easy work" instead of the hard stuff that actually moves your business forward. In the early days, you should spend 100% of your time and energy securing your first client—before building a website, before creating a logo, and WAY BEFORE ordering business cards.
2. Writing Nice Emails Someone’s dog dies every time you write ‘it’s nice to e-meet you’ or ‘hope this email finds you well’ in an email. This email greeting should have been left in the 90s. Most people struggle to keep up with their inbox. Don't make it worse by sending long-winded emails, especially for sales outreach. Keep your message as concise as possible and focus entirely on clearly communicating how you solve their problem.
3. Working Dumb Hours Every entrepreneur struggles with this—spending time on work they should delegate. While this is challenging in the early days when cash is tight, 2025 offers more ways than ever to delegate and automate tasks on a budget. Here are two approaches I use: Outsource labor-intensive tasks overseas. You can use sites like somewhere.com to hire international talent at a fraction of domestic rates—often around $8/hour. Automate tasks using AI. Need a sales proposal? Let AI create the first draft, then polish it yourself. Want competitive pricing research? Use Perplexity's "Deep Research" tool for $20/month. There's no need to build everything from scratch anymore.
4. Prayer Marketing Prayer marketing means leaving it up to the almighty for customers to discover your new business. Remember: the internet is more crowded than ever with new businesses and ideas, and AI has turned everyone into expert copywriters. Stop living like Bon Jovi – before launching your business, create a concrete growth strategy. This could mean securing key partnerships, building a product waitlist, planning a launch event, or other specific tactics. And no – simply saying "we'll use Facebook Ads" doesn't count unless you're an experienced growth marketer.
5. Playing ‘Office’ There is a Seinfeld episode where Kramer ‘gets a job’ only to go to the office and just yap to people at the water cooler - only carrying a sandwich in his briefcase to work. Many entrepreneurs fall into this Kramer-like trap when starting out. They waste time scheduling pointless meetings with "synergistic partners," attending conferences for "education," or obsessing over HR policies, mission statements, and big company nonsense—all while being a one-person operation.
6. Bad Business Partners I am grateful that I have wonderful business partners, however, I know a lot of founders that have horror stories. This is one of the most common ways to derail your business. Before partnering with someone, spend extensive time getting to know them. Think of it like dating and marriage—discuss their values, observe how they handle stress, put them in challenging situations to see their true colors, and check their references (okay, maybe skip that last one for dating).
7. Sacrificing Your Health As I previously wrote, don't sacrifice your health to become an entrepreneur. You can maintain both health and business success through Founder Fitness. Many young entrepreneurs feel pressured to work 80+ hour weeks when starting out, but much of that time is spent on "busy work" like I mentioned earlier. Staying fit and healthy (including great sleep)

Okay, that’s enough fear mongering for today. I do recommend becoming an entrepreneur - make sure to side-step these common pitfalls.

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idea of the week ??

• problem: Weight training is becoming increasingly popular, but many people struggle with poor form, and professional trainers are often unaffordable.
• idea: A mobile app that uses computer vision to analyze workout form and provide real-time feedback and corrections through your AirPods/headphones
• how it makes money: Premium subscription ($10/month) for personalized form correction, injury prevention tips, and progress tracking. Partner with gyms and personal trainers for B2B revenue stream
• why it might fail: Accuracy challenges with varied body types and lighting conditions could lead to wrong advice. Also, people really hate when people record themselves at the gym… ah never mind, who cares.

friday fitness

Try these workouts out this weekend.

at-home workout:

For time (10-minute cap):

• 45 high knees (each leg)
• 35 reverse lunges (total)
• 25 bicycle crunches (each side)
• 15 diamond push-ups
• 5 burpees

Rest 90 seconds, then repeat

gym workout

AMRAP in 15 minutes:

• 8 barbell rows
• 12 dumbbell lunges (each leg)
• 16 lateral box step-overs
• 20 battle rope waves

outdoor workout

• Run 600m
• 40 bench step-ups (total)
• 20 decline push-ups
• Run 300m
• 30 park bench dips
• 10 broad jumps
• Run 200m sprint finish

tweet of the week

Okay below this isn’t exactly a tweet, but it’s insights shared by Shaan Puri regarding a viral tweet saying Las Vegas is dead.

Having just spent 6 days in Vegas, I can confirm it felt sluggish and depressing* ??

*Oh wait that was mostly due to the Canadian-American dollar exchange rate rn ??

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every second counts