In this Ask Evan episode, host Evan Carmichael answers a viewer’s question about the secrets of genuine entrepreneurial success. He distills his response into three core principles. First, he stresses the importance of starting with a clear "why"—building a business around genuine passion and a desire to help others rather than merely chasing profit. Second, he advises aspiring founders to model success by studying and emulating the strategies of established entrepreneurs, both within their industry and beyond, noting that success leaves clues that can accelerate learning. Third, he links earnings directly to the amount of value delivered, arguing that higher customer value translates to higher revenue and that short‑term, money‑first tactics undermine long‑term sustainability. Throughout, Evan uses a conversational, motivational tone, peppered with examples like Oprah Winfrey and Richard Branson, and concludes by encouraging viewers to engage with the video.
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Hi, I'm Evan Carmichael. Welcome to another edition of Ask Evan. Thank you for joining me. Today I'm going to answer a question from one of my readers, Allison, who asked me what the secrets of true entrepreneur success is. So that's a bundle of a question. I'll try to narrow it down and keep this video pretty short. I'm going to share 3 things with you that hopefully can help Allison and everybody else who's watching. The first is you got to start with the why. So you want to start a business that you're really passionate about, something that you care deeply about and you feel you're going to be able to help other people with. Too many entrepreneurs start a business because they think they can make a lot of money, and making money is part of running a business, but it's not the reason to be in business. You should want to start a business because you're able to help people, you feel you can add a lot of value, and you're really passionate about what you're doing. If you look at any successful famous entrepreneur, you'll see that they started the business because they really had a strong desire to change the way things were done in their industry. It wasn't about making making a lot of money. Now, making money comes, but it's not the main focus. So if you're starting a business just to make money, I'd look at starting something else. Look for a way to turn whatever you're really passionate about, where you feel you can help people, into a business. The second thing I would do is try to model success. And when I was first getting started, I didn't know anything. I was 19 years old, running my first, you know, real business. And I was overwhelmed, scared, didn't know what to do. And I then, you know, the discovery came that, you know, I'm not the first guy to try to do what I'm trying to do right now. There's others who have gone before me and success leaves clues. So I started looking at successful entrepreneurs who were in my industry who I could model. And that got me excited, gave me ideas, and it also showed me that a lot of these guys, they started with nothing. They just had an idea and they had to overcome huge obstacles to get to, you know, where they eventually got to. So it gives me motivation as well to keep going and eventually I was able to build that company up and sell it. So look at people who are in your industry who have related products or services that you can, you know, you look up to. Look at other entrepreneurs who might be famous and you respect for different reasons even if they have nothing to do with your business. So if you really like Oprah Winfrey or Richard Branson or whoever it is, read their stories and how they got started and look up to them and try to model some of the things that they did and apply it to your business. So by modeling success, you're able to take what may have taken somebody else years and a lot of trial and error to figure out and implement that into your business really quickly and hopefully not make all the same mistakes that they did to kind of get to where they are. So I'm a huge fan of modeling success. And the last bit of advice that I want to leave you with today is the amount that you'll make— and that's what a lot of entrepreneurs are eventually looking for, like, how much money am I going to make? The amount you're going to make is going to come down to how much value you provide. So if you want to make more money, you have to provide more value. So think about the customers that you're targeting, think of how you can help them, and try to think of extra ways that you can go above and beyond to really solve their problems. If you need to make more money, provide more value. And it's basically as simple as that for running a business. The entrepreneurs make money in proportion to how much value they provide to their customers. So don't look for, you know, cheap ways out of just trying to grab as much money as you can. It's a short-term strategy. To really build a long-term successful business, you have to be able to provide a lot of value to your customers, and the more value you provide, the more you're going to get paid. So hopefully that helps. If you guys like the video, please give it a thumbs up. I always appreciate those when I see them coming in, and I'd love to hear what you have to think if you want to leave a comment under the video. So thank you, and stay tuned for next episode.
