How to Get Ahead of 99% of People: Unlocking Entrepreneurial Success Through Leverage and Skill Development

In the world of business, only a tiny fraction of entrepreneurs ever reach the milestone of $10 million in annual sales. In fact, just one in every 250 businesses achieves this remarkable feat. This means that 99% of entrepreneurs never cross that threshold. Yet, understanding the dynamics behind this rare success can empower anyone to break through common barriers and scale their business beyond typical limits.

This comprehensive guide explores the core principles that separate the most successful entrepreneurs from the rest, focusing on the interplay between the entrepreneur’s skill set, mindset, and the business vehicle they choose to pursue. By examining leverage, skill acquisition, belief systems, and strategic shifts in business models, this article offers actionable insights for those seeking to excel and surpass the vast majority.

The Reality of Business Success: Understanding the Landscape

Before diving into strategies for success, it’s important to grasp the reality of the business landscape:

• 90% of businesses never reach $1 million in annual sales.
• Only 9% of businesses cross the $1 million threshold.
• Just 0.4% (1 in 250) achieve $10 million or more in annual sales.

Despite the glamorous portrayals on social media, the vast majority of entrepreneurs operate in the lower tiers of revenue. Understanding this context helps set realistic expectations and highlights the importance of strategic decisions in scaling a business.

Two Pillars of Success: The Entrepreneur and the Opportunity Vehicle

Success in building a $10 million-plus business hinges on two key factors:

1. The Entrepreneur: The individual’s skills, beliefs, and mindset.
2. The Opportunity Vehicle: The business model or vehicle chosen to pursue the opportunity.

These two components interact through the concept of leverage — the difference between effort input and output gained. The goal is to maximize what you get out relative to what you put in.

Skills and Beliefs: The Core of the Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurs are often described through three lenses: skills, character traits, and beliefs. However, it’s useful to simplify this into two main categories:

• Skills: Concrete abilities that can be learned and improved.
• Beliefs: The mental frameworks that either limit or expand potential.

Character traits, such as patience or resilience, are essentially collections of micro-skills. For example, patience can be trained by practicing behaviors that patient people exhibit, like active listening or thoughtful responses. This reframing shows that all traits can be developed, given the right approach.

Soft skills are often misunderstood as innate or untrainable, but in reality, they are simply harder to measure than technical “hard” skills. However, both are trainable and critical for entrepreneurial success. For example, skills such as greeting people warmly, avoiding interruptions in conversations, or remembering names can be cultivated intentionally.

Beliefs, on the other hand, act as invisible lenses shaping how entrepreneurs see opportunities and challenges. Many limiting beliefs are inherited from one’s environment and upbringing, often unconsciously restricting growth. The key to overcoming these limitations lies in identifying and questioning beliefs that hold you back—those “unknown unknowns” that you don’t even realize are limiting your potential.

Example: Overcoming Limiting Beliefs

Consider an entrepreneur who developed a fitness app but believed that only the top-ranked athletes deserved to market such a product. Despite having all the skills and a great product, he refrained from promoting it. Once he challenged this belief and began marketing, his revenue skyrocketed from $20,000 to $100,000 per month almost overnight. This illustrates how beliefs can either trap or liberate an entrepreneur’s potential.

The Power of Leverage: Getting More Out of What You Put In

Leverage is the core concept behind scaling a business effectively. It describes the ratio of output to input — the more leverage you have, the more you get for each unit of effort you exert.

For instance, consider two people making cold calls. One is inexperienced and sets one appointment out of 100 calls, while the skilled entrepreneur sets 10 appointments out of the same number of calls. The skilled individual has 10x more leverage in this activity.

Four Types of Leverage

Leverage can be categorized into four main types, each providing a different pathway to amplify effort and results:

1. Collaboration: Leveraging other people’s time and efforts by building teams and delegating tasks.
2. Capital: Using other people’s money to grow your business or invest, allowing you to scale faster than with your own resources alone.
3. Code: Creating software or automated systems that can be used repeatedly without additional effort, multiplying your output.
4. Content: Producing educational or entertaining material that reaches a large audience repeatedly without extra input.

Each type of leverage can be maximized independently, and when combined, they create extraordinary growth potential. For example, a software company might use code and capital to scale rapidly, while a content creator leverages content and collaboration to build influence.

Leverage in Entrepreneurial Growth: A Career Perspective

Entrepreneurs typically progress through stages of increasing leverage:

• Employee: Limited leverage, trading time directly for money.
• Self-employed: Control over time but still limited to individual output.
• Employer: Employing others to multiply output.
• Licensing/Content Creation: Creating scalable products or content that can be sold repeatedly.
• Investment/Capital Deployment: Using capital to acquire or invest in multiple businesses, multiplying returns.

At each stage, the same skills can be applied in new vehicles (business models) with higher leverage, unlocking exponential growth potential.

Choosing the Right Business Vehicle: The Role of Opportunity

Beyond personal skills and beliefs, the choice of business vehicle profoundly impacts success. The right vehicle can multiply the effect of your skills, while the wrong one can limit growth regardless of effort.

Example: From Gyms to Licensing

An entrepreneur running multiple gym locations learned this firsthand. Despite owning six gyms, he was advised to exit the gym business and instead teach others how to replicate his success. This advice opened his eyes to new possibilities that he hadn’t considered, illustrating the concept of “unknown unknowns.” By transitioning to a licensing model, he leveraged his skills in a more scalable vehicle, leading to much greater growth.

Example: Scaling a Photography Business

Another entrepreneur with a successful photography agency pivoted to owning multiple studios under a hybrid model. Initially hesitant to abandon a profitable agency, he embraced the new vehicle after understanding the leverage it provided. Within 30 months, the business scaled to over $2.5 million per month across 30+ locations.

The Importance of Playing the Long Game: Infinite Mindset

Success is not about quick wins or finite goals with clear endpoints. Instead, it’s about adopting an infinite mindset—playing the game of business for the long haul.

Finite games have known players, agreed-upon rules, and clear endings (e.g., winning a championship). Infinite games have changing players, no fixed rules, and the goal is to keep playing.

Entrepreneurs who adopt an infinite mindset understand that setbacks, failures, and challenges are part of the ongoing journey. They focus on continuous learning, adaptation, and persistence rather than a single outcome.

Examples of Infinite Games

• Health: There is no finish line; the goal is lifelong wellness.
• Marriage: The aim is to sustain and grow the relationship, not simply to get married.
• Business: The objective is ongoing growth, innovation, and resilience.

This perspective helps entrepreneurs persevere through difficult phases and avoid the trap of quitting when immediate results aren’t visible.

Investing in Yourself: Paying Down Ignorance Debt

One of the most costly burdens entrepreneurs carry is what can be called ignorance debt—the cost of not knowing how to make money or scale effectively. This debt accumulates as missed opportunities, wasted time, and suboptimal decisions.

Investing in education and skill-building is the most powerful way to pay down ignorance debt. Unlike physical assets, education cannot be taken away, depreciate, or be taxed. It compounds over time, increasing your earning potential exponentially.

Quantifying the Return on Skill Investment

Consider two scenarios:

• Investing $1,000 in the stock market with an average return of 10% yields $1,100 after one year.
• Investing $1,000 in a sales training course and applying the skills learned could increase your income from $40,000 to $220,000 annually, generating an additional $180,000 per year.

The latter represents a far higher return on investment because skills multiply your income year after year, especially if you continue to learn and improve.

Strategies for Skill Acquisition and Career Growth

Skill-building is a deliberate process, often involving three key steps:

1. Document: Learn by observing and noting down processes and principles.
2. Demonstrate: Watch experts perform the skill to understand nuances.
3. Duplicate: Practice the skill yourself under guidance until proficient.

Active implementation is crucial. Skills cannot be transferred passively; they require effort and repetition.

The Value of Paid Learning Environments

Working in roles or companies that invest in your development accelerates skill acquisition. A good employer supports continuous learning through:

• On-the-job training.
• Workshops and seminars.
• Certifications and professional development.

If your current environment doesn’t support growth, seek opportunities elsewhere. Getting paid while learning is an ideal balance for sustainable progress.

Living Below Your Means to Fuel Business Risks

Financial discipline is essential for entrepreneurial success. Living below your needs reduces personal risk and increases business flexibility. For example, if your business generates $10 million in profit annually, but your personal expenses consume $800,000, you limit the company’s ability to reinvest or weather downturns.

Reducing personal expenses frees up capital to take calculated risks, such as acquisitions or new product launches, which can drastically increase growth.

Side Hustles as a Bridge to Entrepreneurship

Side hustles can serve as transitional vehicles from employment to entrepreneurship. However, they should be viewed as stepping stones, not permanent states.

The path typically involves:

1. Starting a side hustle while maintaining a primary job.
2. Building the side hustle until it matches or exceeds your current income.
3. Sustaining the side hustle at that level for at least six months to confirm stability.
4. Transitioning fully into entrepreneurship once the side hustle is reliable.

This approach requires grit, time management, and a willingness to endure initial hardships, such as working long hours and managing uncertainty.

Separating Identity from Business

Many entrepreneurs tie their self-worth and identity closely to their business success. This emotional entanglement can hinder objective decision-making and increase stress.

It is healthier to view a business as an asset or vehicle rather than an extension of self. This mindset allows for:

• Making tough decisions, like pivoting or selling.
• Embracing failure as a learning opportunity.
• Maintaining resilience during challenges.

The Role of Industry Experience and Founding Teams

Experience in the industry you choose to enter significantly increases the odds of success. Familiarity with the market, customer pain points, and operational challenges helps you avoid costly mistakes.

Additionally, many successful startups emphasize the importance of founding teams rather than solo founders. Diverse skill sets and shared responsibilities improve problem-solving and execution.

Practical Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Master Selling: The Foundation of Business Growth

At the core of any successful business is the ability to sell. Without sales, there is no revenue, regardless of product quality or customer lifetime value.

Developing strong sales skills should be a priority, as it directly impacts your ability to generate income and grow your business.

Invest in Continuous Learning and Skill Development

Commit to lifelong learning in areas such as marketing, sales, operations, finance, and leadership. The more skills you acquire, the greater your leverage.

Choose the Right Business Vehicle

Assess your current business model and consider whether shifting to a higher leverage vehicle (e.g., licensing, software, or content) could unlock greater growth.

Be Willing to Start Small and Scale Up

Many successful entrepreneurs began with small, service-based businesses that had little overhead and focused on learning foundational skills. Use these experiences as stepping stones for larger ventures.

Maintain Financial Discipline

Keep personal expenses low to maximize your ability to reinvest in the business and take calculated risks.

Adopt an Infinite Mindset

Approach entrepreneurship as a lifelong game, focusing on persistence, adaptability, and continuous improvement rather than short-term wins.

Conclusion

Getting ahead of 99% of people in business is not about luck or innate talent; it’s about strategic choices, skill development, and mindset. By understanding the power of leverage, investing in your skills and beliefs, and selecting the right opportunity vehicle, you can dramatically increase your chances of building a $10 million-plus business.

Remember, success is a marathon, not a sprint. Embrace the infinite game of entrepreneurship, stay committed to learning, and continuously seek ways to get more output for the effort you put in. With persistence and the right approach, you can unlock extraordinary growth and financial freedom.