Here’s What I Wish I Knew As a 25-Year-Old Entrepreneur (That Cost Me A Lot)

Ah, to be young… and stupid.

When I look back on my 20s, I definitely thought I was working hard.

But really, compared to now, I was just coasting.

Are you familiar with my friend Warren Buffett? I did a grand opening event for him a few years ago and was reminded that Warren knows a thing or two about something called compounding.

He built his empire on the notion that effort and money, compounded over time, adds up to HUGE amounts of wealth.

So basically, I spent my 20s building a million-dollar business and working 40 hours per week.

Sounds cool, right?

WRONG.

I should have spent my 20s building a BILLION-dollar business, and working 80 hours per week.

Why?

Because all of that effort then would have produced compounded returns now that I’m 31.

I figured this out around the time I turned 30, when I looked around and said, well damn, I’m nowhere near where I thought I would be at this stage of my life. I better do something about that!

So I started taking rapid action.

I probably haven’t taken a full day “off” — doing absolutely no work on my companies or personal brand — for well over 18 months.

But that’s OK — because my efforts are compounding over time and will make my 30s and 40s and beyond MUCH, MUCH EASIER.

But if you’re thinking, Peter, dude, I’d die if I worked that much, and I can’t think that far ahead!

That’s OK.

There are two reasons why you’re wrong. No offense.

1. If you’re doing what you honestly want to do with your life, it’s not work. It’s play. And it’s awesome.
2. If you’re executing hard and smart, returns on your efforts take weeks to see — not months, and certainly not years.

Take friend and fellow entrepreneur Nicolas Cole, who went from zero to 200,000+ views in his first 30 days on Medium.

30 days to nearly a quarter million views — and for him, traffic means attention, prospects and real business for his ghostwriting agency.

Let me prove this to you another way:

When I finally got into honest alignment with what I really wanted in life, I made some serious changes.

I started blogging like a madman. I built my personal branding website. I shot videos. I went nuts.

And in less than 6 months, I got a column in Inc. Magazine, got published in Forbes and The Huffington Post, was named a Millennial Move Maker, got into Columbia Business School, and made the top 15% of the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in America.

6.

Months.

But it takes rapid action, something my friend and former Navy Seal, Brandon Webb, calls “violence of action.”

That’s what I wish I knew as a Millennial entrepreneur: the power of compounding.

It’s time to get to work.

Thanks for reading! If you want to get to work and achieve your most honest, biggest goals, click to check out my free course on how to build your influential personal brand and scale your business, where I’ll show you exactly how I did it.