Life Lessons from Leading 8 Startups with Mika Mikailian
Micha Mikailian is a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience and over 8 startups. He made his first million dollars in his early twenties and has continued to grow and expand his empire today. He’s committed to creating and supporting businesses that live on the bleeding edge of our evolution and are contributing to a more sustainable, just, and abundant world for all of us. He is currently the CEO and founder of Intently, a website browser extension that helps you stay focused on your goals by replacing all ads online with motivational and goal oriented pictures. Favorite Success Quote “It is better to walk alone than with a crowd that is walking in the wrong direction” Key Points 1. Learn to See Yourself as an Entrepreneur When you begin identifying yourself as an entrepreneur, you start to make it a part of your identity and way of life. You no longer see yourself as an overworked employee but rather an entrepreneur who is building his side hustle into a business that will give him the time and freedom he and his family want. When you identify as an entrepreneur, you no longer see yourself as a college student trying to figure life out, but a young businessman preparing to innovate and change the world and learning the skills necessary to do it. How you see yourself will determine who you become. See yourself as an entrepreneur. 2. Entrepreneurship is a Tool Many famous entrepreneurs claim that business is a game, and while business itself may be a game, entrepreneurship is a tool. It is a tool to create freedom and wealth and happiness in people’s lives. It is a tool to change the world for the better and inspire others to be the change they want to see. 3. Focus on Your Personal Development “Your level of success will rarely exceed your level of personal development because success is something you attract by the person you become” In the podcast, Micha shared how, like many pro athletes, even though he had made a lot of money, his character and personal development did not match the income. This lead to a number of very poor life choices and multiple failures. If you want to see and sustain success, you need to develop yourself as an individual. Learn to handle your emotions, learn to set and achieve goals, to have a vision bigger than yourself and interact socially. Then and only then will you be successful. 4. Outsource the Unnecessary Life is full of unnecessary tasks and redundant minutiae. The more of it that you can outsource, the better and more productive your life will be. Cooking, editing, scheduling, cleaning, anything that can be eliminated should as soon as you have the income. The less energy and brain power you expend on useless crap the more you can expend on creating your ideal lifestyle and having as much fun as possible.