Ever look back and think, “If I’d only known that back then…”?
That’s been the story of my entrepreneurial journey—a mix of trial, error, and the occasional forehead slap. After building and selling one company and coaching hundreds more, I’ve boiled it down to three lessons I wish I’d learned much earlier.
1. Find a Powerful Why
Nietzsche once said, “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” That line matters because entrepreneurship is brutal. Most businesses take 10–15 years to really take off, and if you’re in it just for the money, you’ll hit a wall. When you do, a paycheck won’t be enough to keep you going.
I learned that the hard way. When I built my investment banking firm in Hungary, I didn’t have a clear purpose beyond growth and profit. When the political environment shifted, I sold the business and moved on. Later, as a coach, I brushed off the idea of a “company why” as fluffy nonsense—until I realized that without it, my peer group lacked cohesion and members drifted away.
The real wake-up call came when I discovered that 180,000 small businesses fail every year in the U.S., taking millions of jobs down with them. That lit a fire in me. I decided my purpose would be to eradicate what I call Business COVID—the preventable diseases that kill small businesses—and in doing so, save two million jobs a year. That became the why behind Summit OS Group.
So how do you find yours? Peel the onion. Ask yourself: Why does this work matter? What positive impact can it create long-term? When you find an answer that makes you emotional—you’re there. (This is exactly the reflection process behind the Company Why™, worksheet that helps leadership teams articulate the real reason their business exists.)
2. Leverage Your Constraints
Orson Welles said, “The enemy of art is the absence of limitations,” and he was onto something. Constraints are not your enemy—they’re your superpower, because pressure forces invention when comfort would otherwise produce mediocrity.
Take IKEA. Founder Ingvar Kamprad turned every roadblock into innovation: price displays at trade shows to make up for lack of salespeople and a showroom, modular design to fix broken table legs, and a global supply chain after being boycotted by competitors.
In my first business, when capital raising dried up, we pivoted to M&A—a “blue ocean” few others were fishing in. Running low on cash forced us to streamline operations so drastically it became our competitive edge. If you’re short on funds, staff, or time, that’s not a handicap—it’s a forcing function that pushes you to get creative, test ideas cheaply, and build systems that scale later.
And one more thing: don’t make AI your first stop when brainstorming. It’s a great tool, but it can only tell you what’s already been discovered. Your mind—tested under pressure—is where real breakthroughs happen.
3. Seek Out Mentors and Guides
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Our chief want in life is somebody who will make us do what we can.” There’s never been more information out there, but wisdom is still scarce. Mentors provide what Google and ChatGPT can’t: accountability, perspective, and reflection.
I built both of my companies through mentorship. I shadowed top bankers, absorbed lessons from audio programs by Brian Tracy and Jim Rohn, learned sales psychology from Dan Kennedy seminars, and eventually joined Vistage—mostly to learn from the CEOs I was supposed to be coaching. Later, I launched my podcast, Management Blueprint, to learn from hundreds of other entrepreneurs. Every major leap I’ve made came from learning at someone else’s feet.
If you don’t have a mentor right now, find one. Most experienced business leaders are thrilled to pay their experience forward—you just need to ask.
The Challenge
So here’s my challenge for you: find your Why, leverage your constraints, and seek out mentors. Do these three things, and you’ll be halfway to building a business that lasts. Winston Churchill put it best: “Success is never final, failure is rarely fatal. It’s the courage to continue that counts.”
