There will always be critics in life, especially for entrepreneurs.

Death is a certainty. Even for a newborn. Just as criticism is certain for ideas in an infancy stage.

Criticism isn’t always bad. In fact, if executed properly, it can be very beneficial. Fear of criticism won’t make you, your idea or your business better. Feedback can provide areas to improve upon, but there may be a time when a filtration system is necessary.

Many great ideas were first faced with great backlash.

Premature Baby Incubators: The doctor who created the baby incubator was initially rejected by the US medical community. According to Medscape.com, Dr. Couney created a preemie display (25 cents per entry) in order to fund the…

While I do really like my dog, Frank (see picture below), he’s not the reason I like pet products.

It’s actually quite simple. People love their pets.

When they see a new product that solves a problem for their pet, they buy it. Decision to buying time is decreased because the product is intended for a pet, not a human. There’s not much to overthink.

Unlike children’s toys, people buy toys for their pets on a whim. The pet chews it up and they buy a new one. …

That’s one of my favorite chapters from the legendary business book, “Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive” by Harvey Mackay.

So often, I see people on their quest to growing their business or professional lives torch bridges and ruin relationships.

The decisions often come out of short term, lizard brain thinking, not thinking about the long term impacts.

VC’s are traditionally known for being exceptionally good at not burning bridges. …

“If you’re not a risk taker you should get the hell out of business” — Ray Kroc

I see a lot of people jump on the bandwagon of starting a business because it is cool. The excitement of starting something new with a gleeful bliss, without an underlying willingness to work their asses off to make it happen.

Whenever we talk to an entrepreneur who is in the final stages of pitching us on working with them, I hammer on four key things;

1. Starting a business is a lot of hard work and takes a lot of time.
2. Santa Clause…

The Importance of Making “Entrepreneurship” a Top Priority
by Eric Corl @EricCorl

Photo by Matthew Guay on Unsplash

There are two types of startups. We will focus on one.

“Subsistence” startups are those that are not planning to be a big company. Their goal is to have a level of financial independence while enjoying what they do.

These startups have become fewer since 2013, equal to the number in 1980, when the population was smaller. In recent years, there are fewer people aiming for subsistence startups.

Startups that significantly affect the economy are the “Transformational” startups. …

I’m a firm believer in helping other entrepreneurs. Recently, I was giving an entrepreneur some friendly advice, in response to their question. Following a theme I’ve noticed permeating our society, it bothered me. How can I get X for free?

In this case, the entrepreneur was looking for advice on how to encourage traffic to a website without spending money. Not a difficult response. The difference between SEO and SEM.

But as I thought through it more, I remembered being 21, cranking out content, adding external/internal links and alt attributes, then putting it out into the world wherever I could…

We have all heard of the different phrases used to label entrepreneur personalities. The Wantrapreneur. The Imitator. The Serial Entrepreneur. The Prodigy. The Mompreneur. The Opportunist. The Solopreneur. The Innovator. And probably a lot more.

Over the past 15 years of talking to hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs and selecting to work with less than 1% of them, I can place each of them into one of five categories.

1True Entrepreneur. They understand that there’s risk associated with starting a business and that ideation without execution is fruitless. …

Over the past 12 years in business, Idea Buyer has helped commercialize over 1,200 ideas. Additionally, the company has generated over $100 Million for intellectual property clientele.

That’s really solid at the surface, but it doesn’t share the heartaches that had to be learned from.

Idea Buyer is selective in which projects the company is willing to work with. Over the years, I’ve picked some real turds. (And that’s why I get to write the article.) No one has a crystal ball. You go on the little that you know and the potential it could have. …