Don't Starve While Building Your Dreams: Why Most Entrepreneurs Fail Before They Even Start

After my wife successfully transformed her struggling somatic therapy practice into a thriving business, something interesting started happening.

Her friends, classmates, and professional peers would approach her with the same question: "How do you do it? How did you build such a successful practice?"

Invariably, she would point to me and say, "You need to talk to my husband."

As a favor to my wife, I'd sit down with these aspiring entrepreneurs. What I discovered in those conversations was both shocking and predictable: most people who dream of starting their own business have absolutely no idea what it actually takes to build one.

The conversations usually went something like this:

Me: "So tell me about your business plan."
​Them: "Well, I'm passionate about [insert field here] and I know I can help people."
​Me: "That's great. How many paying customers do you need per month to cover your basic expenses?"
​Them: [blank stare]

That would be like me starting a multi-million-dollar construction project without a set of blueprints.

The $0 Business Education

What amazed me was how many of them were preparing to quit their jobs, drain their savings, and bet their financial future on an idea without having read a single business book. Not one.

This reminds me of Mark Twain's observation:

These were intelligent, educated people. Many had advanced degrees in their fields. They could read—they just weren't reading anything that might actually help them succeed as business owners.

Instead, they were operating on what I call "passion mythology"—the belief that loving what you do is sufficient for business success. They'd absorbed cultural messages about "following your passion" and "doing what you love" without understanding that passion without business acumen is just an expensive hobby.

The Maslow Reality Check

What these aspiring entrepreneurs didn't understand is that they were about to put themselves in direct conflict with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.​

When you quit your job to start a business without adequate preparation, you immediately drop down to the bottom levels of the hierarchy: physiological needs (food, shelter) and safety needs (financial security, health insurance, predictable income).

It's nearly impossible to think strategically, serve others effectively, or operate from abundance when you're worried about keeping a roof over your head and food on the table.

I watched this play out repeatedly.

Talented practitioners would leave stable positions to start their dream businesses, only to find themselves:

• Taking any client who would pay, regardless of fit
• Undercharging because they needed money immediately
• Making desperate marketing decisions that damaged their professional reputation
• Burning through savings faster than anticipated
• Returning to employment within 6-12 months, often in worse financial shape than when they started

They weren't failing because they lacked talent or passion.

They were failing because they'd created artificial urgency around generating income that prevented them from building sustainable businesses.

The Preparation Paradox

Here's where most entrepreneurship advice goes wrong: it swings between two equally dangerous extremes.

Extreme #1: "Just Do It" This approach encourages people to quit their jobs, follow their passion, and figure it out as they go. It treats preparation as procrastination and planning as fear.

Extreme #2: "Get Ready to Get Ready" This approach encourages endless preparation, education, and planning without ever taking action. It treats uncertainty as unacceptable and mistakes analysis for progress.

Both extremes lead to failure, just for different reasons.

As John Wayne said decades ago:

Starting a business without basic financial planning is stupid. Never starting because you're waiting for perfect knowledge is also stupid.

The Smart Approach: Bridging While Building

The intelligent path lies between these extremes. Instead of jumping off the cliff or never leaving the house, you build a bridge while still standing on solid ground.

This means:

1. Keep Your Day Job (For Now)

Your current income isn't a limitation—it's your competitive advantage. It provides the financial stability that allows you to:

• Take time to build properly
• Turn down clients who aren't the right fit
• Invest in quality rather than settling for cheap solutions
• Learn from mistakes without catastrophic consequences

2. Calculate Your Numbers

Before you do anything else, figure out the basic mathematics of your business:

• Monthly fixed expenses: What do you need to cover rent, food, insurance, and other non-negotiables?
• Target monthly revenue: What do you need to generate to replace your current income?
• Customer math: How many paying customers at what price points equal your target revenue?
• Timeline projections: How long will it realistically take to reach these numbers?

3. Start Small and Test

Instead of launching a full business, start with small experiments that test your assumptions:

• Can you get one paying customer?
• Can you deliver the promised value?
• Can you charge what you think you can charge?
• Do people actually want what you think they want?

4. Build Systems Before Scale

Use your early customers to develop:

• Standard operating procedures
• Customer acquisition processes
• Quality control measures
• Financial management systems

The Education Investment

One of the most shocking discoveries from my conversations with aspiring entrepreneurs was their resistance to investing in business education.

They'd spend thousands on professional training, certifications, and equipment for their craft, but they wouldn't spend $20 on a business book or $200 on a course about marketing and sales.

This is backwards.

The minimum viable business education includes:

Marketing Fundamentals

• How to identify your ideal customer
• How to communicate value effectively
• How to generate leads consistently
• How to convert prospects into customers

Sales Basics

• How to have conversations about money without feeling sleazy
• How to handle objections professionally
• How to structure pricing and packages
• How to close deals consistently

Financial Management

• How to track income and expenses
• How to forecast cash flow
• How to separate business and personal finances
• How to plan for taxes

Operations Systems

• How to deliver consistent quality
• How to manage customer relationships
• How to scale without burning out
• How to document and delegate processes

This isn't advanced MBA-level knowledge. This is basic business literacy that anyone can learn with dedicated study.

When Amy was first starting out, we invested $15,000 for a year-long training program with Michael Port.

Back then it was a LOT of money for us. But what we learned from that course has made us over 30 times what we invested.

And it will keep paying us for the rest of our lives.

The Bridge Timeline

Here's a realistic timeline for building your bridge while maintaining your day job:

Months 1-3: Education and Planning

• Read 6-12 business books
• Take online courses in marketing and sales
• Create your business plan and financial projections
• Set up basic business infrastructure

Months 4-6: Small Scale Testing

• Launch with 1-3 pilot customers
• Test your service delivery processes
• Refine your pricing and positioning
• Gather feedback and testimonials

Months 7-12: Systems and Growth

• Develop standard operating procedures
• Create consistent marketing systems
• Build a pipeline of potential customers
• Scale gradually while maintaining quality

Month 13+: Transition Decision

• Evaluate whether you've reached sustainable revenue
• Decide whether to transition full-time or continue part-time growth
• Make the transition with confidence rather than desperation

The "Good Enough" Principle

Perfectionist entrepreneurs often get stuck in the preparation phase because they're waiting for complete knowledge before taking action.

Here's the truth: there's only so much you can learn from books, videos, tutorials, and even mentors.

Your path is uniquely yours, and you won't make real progress until you engage with actual customers in the real market.

The goal isn't to have perfect plans—it's to have good enough plans that get you started and flexible enough systems that allow you to adapt as you learn.

All your plans will fail, but they'll get you going in the right direction.

The Backup Plan Reality

Smart entrepreneurs don't just have Plan A.

They have Plans B, C, and D:

Plan A: Everything works as expected (probability: low)
​Plan B: Things take longer than expected (probability: high)
​Plan C: Major adjustments needed (probability: medium)
​Plan D: Return to employment temporarily while regrouping (probability: always possible)

Having backup plans isn't pessimistic—it's realistic.

And realistic planning allows you to take intelligent risks rather than gambling with your financial future.

The White Belt Wisdom

There's an old saying in martial arts:

The same principle applies to entrepreneurship.

The difference between successful business owners and failed entrepreneurs isn't talent, education, or even luck.

It's persistence in the face of inevitable challenges and setbacks.

But persistence requires sustainability. And sustainability requires not starving while you're building your dreams.

The Long Game

Building a business is a marathon, not a sprint.

The entrepreneurs who succeed are those who can sustain effort over years, not months.

This means optimizing for endurance rather than intensity.

You're better off building slowly while maintaining financial stability than burning bright and flaming out when your savings run dry.

Your Next Move

If you're considering starting your own business, ask yourself these questions:

1. Have I read at least three business books in the past six months?
2. Do I know exactly how many customers I need to cover my basic expenses?
3. Can I test my business idea without quitting my day job?
4. Do I have 6-12 months of expenses saved beyond what I'll invest in the business?
5. Have I talked to at least five people who've successfully built similar businesses?

If you answered "no" to any of these questions, you're not ready to make the leap. But you can start getting ready today.

Don't be stupid.

Don't starve while building your dreams.

But also don't use preparation as an excuse for procrastination.

Build your bridge. Do your homework. Start small. Test everything. Then take the leap when you have evidence, not just hope, that you can fly.

Because the only thing worse than never starting is starting in a way that guarantees failure.

Your dreams deserve better than that. And so do you.