> Seems like there's got to be a better way than just grinding through the same mistakes everyone else made and rolling the dice?? There is! What I recommend i

> Seems like there's got to be a better way than just grinding through the same mistakes everyone else made and rolling the dice?? There is! What I recommend is, to use a term I hate, networking. That is, get to know, on a social basis, other people who have experience starting and running businesses (not just businesses that are like yours, either). You'll hear war stories. Pay attention to them and learn their lessons vicariously. Also, read books and articles that analyze business failures. That's far more valuable than reading about business successes. The odds of you replicating the successful path of someone else's business are much lower than the odds of you replicating someone else's mistakes. "Make your own mistakes, not somebody else's." Be an optimist, but also be honest about the reality that even under the most ideal circumstances, there's a significant chance that your venture will fail and plan accordingly. Hope for the best, plan for the worst and all that. I do think the key to success is resiliency. The people who win aren't the ones who never fail, they're the ones who get back up and try something else.