

Ask HN: When can you call yourself a "successful entrepreneur"? - csalvato

What makes an entrepreneur successful?<p>I struggle with this daily.<p>I started my career with a 9-5 job for 6 years in high-tech bioengineering sales.  While working, a friend and I worked on a blog, which turned into some info-products that have, to date, grossed about $500k (though my take-home over 4-5 years is more in the $100k range).<p>I quit my job after 6 years, and launched my own online product and sold 250 sales within 6 months, and the product continues to sell on its own...but I have only pulled about $12k from this product so far (though it continues to sell and grow each month with little effort).<p>While this was all going on, I also picked up several one-off $2k-$3k clients and generated about $20k over 2 years for these jobs.<p>Now, I am trying to step my game up and get clients who sell products for $10k-$20k&#x2F;unit.  In my sales packages and copy, I want to say I am a successful entrepreneur, but I struggle with this on a psychological level.<p>First off, I am nowhere near my goals (that&#x27;s why I am stepping up my business to higher value clients)...so how can I really say I am successful?<p>Secondly, my expertise in internet marketing has helped me sell services in the 2-3k range, and products in the $35-$100, but never something in the $10-20k range.  How can I seriously call myself a success if my successes don&#x27;t align with the idea of success I am trying to sell my clients?<p>Maybe this is all psychological, but I would be interested in hearing the opinions of other consultants&#x2F;entrepreneurs...
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lmm
If you don't feel comfortable calling yourself successful then don't. (I'd say
you're successful when everyone who's invested with you has got their money
back, and you're pulling in a level that you're happy with).

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mkal_tsr
> In my sales packages and copy, I want to say I am a successful entrepreneur

Why? I'm serious about that. You seem to be hung up on the idea of being
called successful if only for personal validation ... but I think it's getting
in the way of actually being successful. If you're trying to sell units, what
do you think the buying company cares about more ... the product/service
fitting their needs and budget, or the salesman being able to say, "trust me,
I've done this before."

