eSCAPE: The 4 Stages Of A Successful Entrepreneur | Anik Singal

Anik Singal is considered to be one of the most successful digital publishing marketers today. His company makes over $20 million in sales per year.

He is also the Founder and CEO of Lurn, Inc., an e-learning platform for entrepreneurs.

When you start a business, there are things that you need to consider if you want to achieve entrepreneurial success. That is exactly what Anik talks about in his book, eSCAPE: The 4 Stages of Becoming A Successful Entrepreneur.

Are you ready to understand the world of entrepreneurship through Anik's eyes? This is an interview that you don't want to miss!

Watch the video below:

(Click here to watch on YouTube)

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Anik Singal knows, firsthand, the struggles that entrepreneurs face.

Throughout his book, he weaves the challenges that he faced along his entrepreneurial journey, making it relatable and real to the reader. I'm reading his book now and I'm loving it.

Let's face it… being an entrepreneur is not easy. Millions of people aspire to achieve the entrepreneurial dream. Unfortunately, a lot of entrepreneurs fail to build successful businesses. Anik was inspired to write his book after seeing this trend play out time and time again.

Here is a sneak peek of my interview with Anik Singal where we talk about the 4 stages of a successful entrepreneur.

How did you become the successful entrepreneur that you are today?

I started my business 16 years ago in a college dorm room. I went to Google and I typed in “how to make money.” Next thing I know, I landed on a forum where people were taking information and selling it online.

Despite failing over 50 times over an 18-month period, I didn't give up. Why? I don't know. This was a part of my journey of discovering what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.

One day I was fed up. I wanted to quit. I posted back on the forum and said, “Thank you, everyone, so much for your help but if I don't make any money in the next 24 hours, I'm done.” That was when someone reached out to me.

To this day, I still have no idea who they were.

This person told me that they were impressed with my persistence and expressed that they would help me for the next 24 hours with any questions that I had. This person showed me a system. That night, I was up until 3 am, woke up 6 hours later and I had made my first $300 while I was sleeping. I made more money in 6 hours of sleep than I did in 18 months of trying every day.

That was the last time I ever had a day in my life where I made less than $300. That was over 15 years ago. Gradually, I grew my business to over $10 million a year. I had 96 employees and 3 offices worldwide. However, in 2010, the industry collapsed.

Within two years, I found myself $1.7 million dollars in debt at 27 years old. I was at rock bottom. I asked myself, “What is your vision?” In 2013, I stopped chasing money, got my life back, and paid off all of my debt in 16 months. Ever since then, my business has skyrocketed.

In your book, you talk about 4 stages that every entrepreneur must conquer if they want to be successful. Do you mind sharing with people what those 4 stages are?

Let's start by looking at the logo of my book. The little e stands for “employee” and the smiley face that goes to the big E stands for “entrepreneur”.

In between, you see the letters, SCAP. This is the four-letter acronym that represents the four stages that it takes to become a successful entrepreneur.

Stage 1 – Self

This stage is all about one's core beliefs. I believe that we are all born entrepreneurs. That is our original coding. Have you ever watched toddlers try to walk for the first time? Imagine how many times they fall and cry before they get up. Children don't have limitations.

Unfortunately, over time, life and society beat our sense of belief out of us. All of the sudden, we start to live our lives to please others, whether that's our teachers, parents, mentors, or coaches.

Along the way, we lose our entrepreneurial habits and we become obsessed with people pleasing. We want to build a good wrap sheet, get a good SAT score, have a good GPA. All for what? So that you can be evaluated by people who don't even know you.

They determine your worth based on numbers on a piece of paper. Hopefully, you impress them enough to get admission to their University. It doesn't stop there. You get a job, but if you want a raise, you are expected to work harder than anyone else, come in early, and stay late.

Conversely, as an entrepreneur, I can wake up whenever I want. When the alarm goes off, I could hit snooze if I really want to.

Let me share a story with you. When I was driving the other day, I saw a guy in his car eating a bagel while shaving and driving. I thought to myself, “That man is scared of somebody. He doesn’t want to be late for work because he is so accountable to someone else.”

I wonder what he would have done if it was for his own business and himself. Would he have slept in, and then got into his car and shaved while driving? The truth is, no.

When you find your purpose in life, you live in alignment with your true self. This means that you are less likely to rely on external validation from others for your sense of self-worth. Every day you wake up excited to take on the day and work towards a vision for the future that you value. A purpose driven life is the best life.

Stage 2 – Catapult

I have students that say to me, “Anik, I want to make one million dollars! How do I do it?” I say to them, “Well, have you made one hundred dollars?” People don't get it. You've got to create momentum and have a plan in place that you start working alongside.

How do you start a big fire? Do you come in, have a line of people with 1,800 flamethrowers ready to go at one time? No. You have to start it off as a small match and eventually, it becomes a massive fire.

The process of creating momentum takes training. It's not something that anyone is used to. We are always given things to do. All of the sudden, you have to do things on your own. It's about creating a process with a focus on your end goal.

Stage 3 – Authority

Let's say that there are 40 kids in a classroom. In school, there is always a natural leader who stands out from the crowd. What about the other 39 kids? When are they going to get a chance to learn what it's like to be a leader?

They may be too shy so they end up falling to the back, but we let them.

You can't be an entrepreneur without leadership. It's impossible. You don't have to be Martin Luther King. However, you've got to be able to lead and inspire people to rally around you, whether it's your employees, contractors, or customers. There's an authority that you must have. We aren't taught that in school.

Stage 4 – People

Dealing with people can be challenging. In the personal development industry, people will say, “If someone is negative, kick them out of your life.” I don't agree.

When I was growing my business, my father, my mother, and my wife all had moments where they were negative. However, who would I be today if it weren't for the three most important people in my life?

Probably only 3% of people in your life are actually toxic. It's up to you to learn how to manage the rest of them. Negative people actually love you so much that they are scared for you.

You need to learn how to remove negative people's fears and add more people like you, in the form of mentors and coaches. These are the people that will be there to support you through the tough times. This is what we teach people how to do in this stage.

What are some mindset shifts that someone needs to make in order to become a successful entrepreneur?

First and foremost, people need focus. Years ago I read an article that was written about Mark Cuban. His email was at the bottom of it so I reached out to him. I expressed that I was focusing on five online businesses and asked him for one piece of advice.

He replied, “Drop four and focus on one.”

I was so pissed at his reply. However, later on, I was at an event where I heard a speaker give a talk on the mathematical evidence behind the term focus.

He said, “If you are working on multiple projects and each one requires 100 hours of your time, you can work on each project for one hour per day. It will take you 100 days to finish one project. However, now you will have 10 finished projects that need to be marketed. Conversely, you could take those 100 hours and apply them to one project only. If you do that, you will have something to go to market in 10 days.”

Get rid of the shiny object syndrome. Don't chase money. You want to ask yourself, “What is the impact that I want to make in this world?” Entrepreneurs find a problem, put a solution together, and create value. They move the needle of human society.

Secondly, expect, embrace, and learn from your obstacles and failures. People are too scared of failing. Before this interview, I failed. All of my technology fell apart. Visually, our interview could have been better. That's frustrating because I had a vision of how this was going to go. I asked myself, “Does it really matter?” I realized that it did not.

People watch interviews because they care about the content. I knew that this moment was an investment that would never happen again, so I embraced it. I can still deliver for people who give me their time, despite not having fancy videography equipment.

You need to have a relationship with failing.

Learn from it, look for the silver lining, and move forward. We fail thousands of times for every success that we have. You just don't get to hear about it from people like myself. Today was one failure after another. The trick is to not make the same mistake twice. However, new mistakes should always be perceived as celebrations.

Third, ask yourself, “Are you willing to sacrifice and put in the hard work that it takes to achieve success?” My friends see all of the things that I have and they think it's great – the cars, the house, the money. However, once they take a closer look at what my work involves they tell me that they don't want to chase what I have.

There is no shortcut to success. You have to be willing to do whatever it takes and learn to embrace the sacrifices. This may mean seeing your children 30 minutes less every day, watching Netflix movies less, or saying no to social gatherings.

What are some of the habits that successful entrepreneurs have?

At this point in my life, I'm blessed to say that I've been able to create relationships with a lot of millionaires and billionaires. Every single one of them is awake at 5:30 or 6 am and ready to attack the day. I believe that it's what you do after you get up that matters most.

The first hour of my day is mine.

It sets my tone, feelings, and energy for the rest of the day. I don't pick up my phone and look at social media or scroll emails. Every night before I go to bed, I put my vitamins in a container, fill up a bottle of water and put both beside my bed. First thing in the morning. I chug 1-2 bottles of water in order to get my brain going. After that, I'll read on my Kindle.

From there, I jump for 3-5 minutes so that my heart rate goes up. This kicks my body into high gear. Then I shower, grab some coffee, have a glass of green juice and a nutritious breakfast. Now my mood is set and I'm ready for an awesome day. In the middle of the day, I like to take a break and rest my brain.

There are a few other success habits I want to touch on.

First, I believe that everyone needs one day per week to recharge their battery. For me, that's Sunday. I hang out with my family and friends.

Secondly, the most successful people are skilled at harboring relationships. Of all of the “SCAP” stages, I've mastered the 4th one. I'm always in awe of how quickly my problems are solved because I have created a solid network of people who are there to support me.

Someone once told me that little things make big connections. I'm big on nurturing relationships so that people know that I'm listening. I genuinely care about people. As a result, they show up in the same way for me.

Lastly, I'm a big fan of reading. I read one book per week, which amounts to 50 books per year. It's fair to say that books have changed my life.

Can you share with people a little bit about your book? Why did you write it and why should people get their hands on it?

This is my life's work and a true passion of mine. Three years ago I determined what my purpose was in life. My goal was to empower entrepreneurs all over the world. I've been in the online world for 15 years now. Everyone knows me as an Internet marketing guy. However, I contribute so much more to people's lives.

The time that I have spent with my mentees and how I was able to impact their lives had nothing to do with Facebook ads, email marketing, blogging or SEO.

Rather, it was the late-night conversations that we had, where we shared our hearts with one another.

I have over 300,000 students. I have some that have gone on to become multi-millionaires that are richer than myself. However, a large majority of my students are where they were when they started with me. They have access to the same pieces of training, coaching, tools, and programs. This used to drive me crazy, so I tried to find the answer to this problem.

This is the third writing of this book. It's taken us forever to put it together. I told my wife that when I die, I want my obituary to say, “great husband, great father, wrote eSCAPE.” This book, in my opinion, is the road to becoming an entrepreneur.

The coolest thing is that we got Damon John from Shark Tank to write the forward. He came to me and said, “I wish I could give this to everyone that pitches us.” This is when I knew that we were onto something big.

This book was written because a lot of entrepreneurs are struggling and failing and they don't know why. If you are an entrepreneur who is succeeding and you want to scale up, the answers are in this book.

In closing, I always say, “When life pushes you, stand straight, smile and push back!”

These are Anik Singal's 4 stages of a successful entrepreneur.

I encourage you to get a copy of his FREE book. It's a game changer. Are you ready to take your business to the next level and achieve the entrepreneurial success that you desire?