Part 5: Entrepreneurial Support Systems - Mentors, Communities, and Strategic Partnerships for Success

It's almost time to head out on your entrepreneurial adventure.

Over the last few Parts we've talked about how important failure is in business.

Without failure there is zero learning.

So it's necessary for us, as entrepreneurs, to get used to and become antifragile in the face of failures.

You might be feeling pretty confident right now. And that's amazing!

However, when things get really bad it's hard to see the way forward.

When you are struggling to get customers, have bills mounting up and are second guessing everything you do… Is this really a good idea? Maybe I should have listened to those who said it was a bad idea? This is a terrible idea! These times happen. Of course they do. And they are hard even for the most antifragile of us! They suck.

Let's look at some additional mechanisms outside of ourselves that can keep us on the path.

Know the route

First up: know where you are heading!

It's really useful to have a map of the territory you are about to venture into.

This is the primary reason why books and courses are so powerful. The best ones give you an exact step by step guide of how to proceed. Having this pathway helps you stay focused.

I (obviously!) recommend my own

https://aibusinessbreakthrough.com/join/ as the pathway for AI entrepreneurship.

But, here's the kicker, it doesn't really matter which path you take.

The key is that you follow it to the end. Because by doing so you will learn. Remember that your first business probably won't be a hit. And that's fine. It's learning. It's practice.

By following one course all the way through you get a structured plan of learning - much like as if you were doing a course at university, just a lot more practical!

Don't jump from one course to the next. You'll learn nothing. Instead work all the way through one - extract all the knowledge you can. If you build a successful business via the course: fantastic. If not go again with a new business, new pathway and this time apply what you learned from the first course as well. Your knowledge will start to accrete very quickly and you'll be able to start skipping through the stuff you know and only pluck out the new gems.

Mentor

Second, look into getting a mentor.

Importantly a mentor is different from a coach. A coach won't necessarily have experience in your niche. And their main job is to get you to come to realisations yourself - it's not about them telling you what to do but instead you working it out. A mentor is someone who has done what you want to do and can help you along the way. They tend to be more directive - you should try doing this this and this - rather than you finding your own way through discussion.

Obviously all of this depends on the personality and teaching style of the mentor but this mentor/coach distinction is generally valid.

There will be two main types of mentors out there - those who advertise themselves as mentors and those who do not. Both are valid. With the later though you'll have to directly approach them and ask.

The main advantage of a mentor is that they'll help you shorten the path to success. They'll be able to see activities and behaviours and say "ok stop that" or "that looks promising". You are basically tapping into their years of judgement, accrued by making lots of their own mistakes in the past! This lets you skip forward in your own journey.

Expect to pay for a mentor. They are generally busy people. Whilst many of them will want to help more budding entrepreneurs they just don't have the capacity. So they'll realistically need to be remunerated for their time and years of experience. During writing I saw Justin dropped this post. Very relevant:

https://twitter.com/justinmooretfam/status/1768128913321144695?s=46&utm_source=promptentrepreneur.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=prompt-playbook-entrepreneurial-resilience-part-5

$1000 an hour is a steal if you consider the years of experience Justin has and how much time, money and agony that single hour could save.

Community

Third, find a community.

This is a group of people you can turn to for assistance, to share victories and defeats and the journey itself.

They come in many formats.

Personally I am part of:

• Whatsapp/Discord groups

• private entrepreneur dinners in London

• my own meet-up

• my own Circle community

• the Twitter/X AI community at large All these communities are useful for different things - sparking ideas, discussing plans, seeing what people are up to in the space etc.

  My recommendation is you find and join as many communities as you can and then stick to the ones you enjoy using. It's trick to quantify - some will just have a vibe that matches what you need. They'll have the right mix of value/chat, the right focus, the right level of members etc. You'll enjoy being there. That's the kicker.

  Importantly in any community make sure you are giving more than you take. If you are in there selling you'll i) get booted and if not ii) won't be liked by the members! Instead focus on giving and helping.

Premium Prompt - Co-founder

Fourth, don't work alone.

Think about partnering up or finding a co-founder.

This a BIG decision. Maybe even bigger than your choice of romantic partner because you'll probably spend more time with your business partner!

Because of this my recommendation is don't jump straight in. Instead do some projects with potential business partners.

This is another great reason why starting multiple businesses, one after another, is useful. You can team up with someone for a particular venture and see how it goes. You learn together, you build together.

Having a partner is super powerful because it means you aren't responsible to only yourself. Being an entrepreneur can be pretty lonely. And having that one other person to talk to, work through ideas and build with makes it a lot more bearable.

If it takes off and looks like a goer then formalise the partnership. At that time you need to sit down and have a frank discussion about roles/responsibilities and split. 50/50 is the "default" but that means you didn't think about it - generally it'll be something other than 50/50.

Look for someone who compliments rather than overlaps with you. It's tempting to find someone who is like you - chances are you'll really get on with them! But that's not what makes sense for the businesses.

If you are creative, find an operator.

If you are great at sales and marketing find someone who can deliver the backend.

You should combine to make a larger whole rather than double up on certain skills.

Last word on partnerships: be very wary of partnering with a friend or, worse, someone you are in a relationship with. What you like about them as a friend/partner will be very different to what you need in a business partner.

That doesn't mean it can't work. Only that you need to really think about it beforehand and have some serious conversations.