Chris Koerner (host) presents a short, experience-based talk about the often-hidden downsides of entrepreneurship and a four-part GRIT framework to recognize and counter them. He defines G=Grind (work is messier and longer than expected), R=Risk (primarily time/opportunity cost), I=Isolation (loneliness and lack of peers), and T=Turbulence (emotional and financial ups-and-downs). For each, he prescribes an antidote—Gratitude, Reminders, Interaction, and Traction—illustrated with personal stories (80+ businesses started, multiple failures and successes) and a final CTA linking to a community (tkowners.com).
Chapters
They're not telling you the whole story. Who's they? Me. People like me. People on the Internet that talk about business. They're not telling you the whole story. And so I wanted to take just a few minutes to make this video to help you really understand what you're getting yourself into with this whole thing called entrepreneurship. I've developed a four step framework to identifying these downsides to business ownership and overcoming those downsides. I call it my GRIT framework. Grit. If you can overcome these four things with my four tactics, then I'm confident I. Entrepreneurship can be for you. But if you don't know what they are, then you've got a major blind spot, my friend. And I advise you to not even attempt it. And if you're just now coming across this channel for the first time. My name is Kris Kerner. I've started over 80 businesses and I've had a lot of failures. My businesses have generated hundreds of millions of revenue, tens of millions in profit. But I have had failed partnerships, lawsuits, headaches, heartaches, and everything in between. I've seen some stuff. So just know that this video is based on 17 years of beating my head against the wall in entrepreneurial. So what does GRIT stand for? G. Grind. Entrepreneurship is a grind, and not in a good way. It's hard, it's dirty, it's messy. When I see a news article break about some big name entrepreneur that blew up, that had a big lawsuit, I always try to see it from the other side of the table because I know how messy business can be. Progress can feel impossible at times. It always takes longer than you think, and it always costs more money than you think. And it's always harder than you think. It's a grind. R stands for risk. In my experience, it's not a huge monetary risk to start a business because I start stuff with only a little bit of money. But it's a time risk. It's an opportunity cost risk. Which is why I preach the opposite of focus. Spread out your risk. Focusing on just one thing is a risk in and of itself. What if you pick the wrong thing? Now, the I in GRIT stands for isolation. You're probably underthinking how isolating entrepreneurship is. People don't understand. The guys I go to church with, the guys I went to college with, they don't get it. And it's not their fault that they don't get it. They just haven't done it. And so I don't have people to commiserate with. And then the T stands for turbulence. It is volatile. Would you believe that since becoming a full time entrepreneur, I've had more zero dollar income years than I've had positive income years? I'm not joking. Thankfully, the positive income years more than outweigh the zero income years. And I hate to break it to you, but the financial turbulence is not even the biggest part of it. It's the emotional turbulence. It's a constant roller coaster. Do you know how many times I've shaken hands on a deal or signed a deal that was supposed to be life changing, that was supposed to change everything and it all fell apart like I could count. I would need three or four hands to count how many times that's happened. And each and every time that happened, I was elated. I was on top of the world. Even my John McAfee story, I was sure that would bring me tens of millions of dollars. What a partnership? No. And it didn't. Over the course of two or three hours on any given day, you will go from way up here to way, way down here. And that's every day. It is turbulent. Oh, but if you're a dad, if you're a mom, you gotta put on a brave face. You can't let that show. It's not their fault that you did that. They need you to be unwavering. And speaking of turbulence, you ever experienced turbulence on a plane? Of course you have. You know what I do? I look at the stewardess, the flight attendant, I look at their face, I look at their eyes. Almost every time, they're stoic, they're unfazed. And when I see that stoicism, I feel safe, feel like it's going to be okay. And it always has been. There's been one time it wasn't on an airplane, but one time when the expert in the room was not stoic. That was the birth of my third child. My wife was having some serious issues and the doctor, I looked at her and she looked very worried. She had delivered like 1500 babies at this point. Thankfully, due to a couple miracles, he was safe and fine and everything's great. But that's the face you need to have for your family, for your loved ones, the stoic face. Okay, but now that we've gotten the GRIT acronym out of the way, what is the solution to all four of those things? Well, let's start with G. Now, I'm kind of an acronym nerd, so I made the solution acronym, the same GRIT as well. What is the solution to the grind part? It's gratitude. Sounds hokey, but man, the older I get, the more I am reminded that gratitude solves just about everything. Everything. If you're in an argument with your spouse, try to be grateful for them. Grateful that you have them, and that annoyance will just float away. The same is true in business. Be grateful for the grind. What a privilege. This is what you wanted to work on. It's not the universe's fault that it's harder than expected, that it's taking longer than expected. That's just your optimism. And you should be grateful for that too. Most people don't have that optimism. Remember that there are no wasted efforts. Compounding doesn't care that that initiative failed or that that business took three times as long to get off the ground. That was not wasted. So be grateful r risk. Right? What's the antidote to risk? Reminders. Reminders. We forget how important remembering is. We have to learn and relearn the same lessons over and over and over if we want it to truly sink deeply. So remember to offset the risk. Remember why you started this in the first place. What were the metrics that you originally saw that made you excited about this idea in the first place or this initiative or whatever? Remember, go back to that spreadsheet that you made when you were hyped about this. Look at it. Remember those numbers. Remember the plan. Remember, it's going to take longer than you think. 95% of the time, 5% of the time, it's going to take a lot less time than you think. And that's actually really exciting. But don't count on that. You didn't hear it from me. You need core values. You need a mission. You need to write it on your mirror with dry erase marker and read it every time you brush your teeth. Remember. Remember your why. Remember your goals. Remember. Remember your children, your wife, your girlfriend, your boyfriend, whatever. Remember why you're doing this. And the I. Remember the I. Isolation. What's the antidote to isolation? You need interaction. Interaction with other people, preferably other entrepreneurs. But it doesn't have to be the case. Remember, fear and loneliness are best friends. You need to interact. You need to interact with your spouse. I'm terrible at this. You need to talk to them. And if the feedback that you get from them makes you more anxious or stressed, then you need to tell them that because they don't know that I had to do this with my wife. Like 10 years in. I was like, babe, I love you. I love talking to you about everything, but you're too much my hype man. I would tell her about a deal that went south or that a vendor or a customer or a partner that did me wrong. And she would get so angry with me on behalf of me, which is what great, supportive spouses do. But that would just stress me out. So finally I had to say, babe, you're probably doing this in the right way, but it's not the right way for me. I just want you to listen. Just soak it in. I already know you're an active listener, so I don't need you to interject with, like, follow up questions. Just let me vent. Right. Interaction is the antidote for isolation and t turbulence. What is the antidote for turbulence? It's traction. Traction is the antidote. Progress little wins. Even if that email was opened. That's it. That's traction. Cling to that like it's your last hope. And here's the thing with traction. We all experience it, we just don't notice it or we're not grateful for it. Back to the G. So don't sit there and think, well, how am I just gonna, like, go out and, like, grab traction if, like, the market's not giving it back to me? You're getting traction. It might just not be the traction that you're hoping for or expecting right now, but you're getting something. And the more traction you remember, the more traction you point out and call out, the less turbulence you'll have. Your highs will be a little lower, but your lows will be a lot higher. Because whatever situation you're in, it's usually not as bad as you think. And it's usually not as good as you think either. If everything's crushing it, there's probably stuff you haven't uncovered yet that will make your excitement die down just a little bit and vice versa. So, guys, I know I'm not like the mindset guy. I'm not like the big picture guy. That's not my calling in this business world. I really like being tactical and specific, but I think that I undersell the mindset shifts that I've had to make unknowingly. I wish it was deliberate. I wish I could refer a dozen books to you. Just help fix the problem. But I think I undersell or under appreciate those that I've had to develop over the years. So I was out on this walk, I had my camera, and so I thought, let's put this together and get it out to the world. And if you want to fix that eye problem, the isolation, check out tkowners.com there's 700 of us in there building businesses, and we're all going through the same crap. If you know a friend that's lonely or something, trying to build a business but struggling, which is basically everyone, send this video to them and it'll make their day. See you next time on the Kerner Office.
