It's almost impossible to read an article, open a book, visit a website, or hear an expert speak (who isn't an expert these days?) without being buried in well-intended and unsolicited advice. Advice that’s almost always intended for someone else. Make sense? Nope, I think not. The best kind of advice is almost always given to ourselves. Because you're the only one who knows what you really need. Of course, you’ve got to have an open mind and it takes some courage to do something with your own advice. That’s why we’d rather give advice to other people; it’s much better for our egos. But how can you advise others when you're not even capable of managing yourself? Would you take skiing lessons from someone who can't ski? Seriously. Just stop. Cut it out. Try listening for a change. You might actually hear something, make a connection, and earn more…. attention, respect, and money.

In order to back that up, I’d like to share a series of five articles featuring the 5² Life Hacks that I use as guidelines for myself. Isn't it comforting to know you don't have to take them personally? I’ve learned all 25 by trial and error, some by damage and disgrace. Anyway, this is the second of the series: 5 Life Hacks as an Entrepreneur. Wanna read it in Dutch? There you go. Cheers!

10X GROWTH MINDSET — To achieve goals that are ten times bigger than you envisioned, you gotta think and act outside all of the boxes. If you can’t think like that, you’re done. Going from 1 million turnover to 10 million is the equivalent of doubling three times. Same thing for 10 million to 100 million. Not bad, right? An annual increase of the targets by 20% usually causes a tsunami in most organizations. People are scared of losing their jobs and their bonuses, right? Poor things. But you’re not gonna change peoples’ minds with that approach and you’re certainly not gonna put a man on the moon either. Build a big company with balls, where everyone has bold ideas, where everybody is shooting for the stars and bringing home the bacon. Go big or go home.

INCREASE HAPPINESS — Nowadays, you practically trip over the self-appointed gurus looking to help you scale up your business with a borrowed program. That's so cheap, mate. You can grow without those guys. You might not grow as quickly, but the decision to grow is elementary to growth and only you can make that decision. How about this: starting today, be a supplier of happiness, of which Zappos is a great example. How do you do it? Ask your clients. Certainly not by harassing people with the NPS-question. Decide that you will not be satisfied until all of your clients are your evangelists, shouting from the rooftops about how you’ve improved their quality of life. What do you think it would take, huh?

DIFFERENTIATE OR DIE — Ask an average entrepreneur what he excels at, and you'll often receive the most generic answers you can imagine. All champions have at one point made the choice of what to do with their life. You don't become a world champion at sports; but you become a world champion at the 110 m hurdles. Why is it so difficult to indicate how your company distinguishes itself from the rest of the world? Why is it so hard to be specific and unique? Of course, it's fine that you can't explain it all in one breath, but what would it be like for you if you could? Would it affect your identity, your market share, your profits? Could this transform your company into an actual, well-known brand? In the end it’s harder to stay average than to be the best at something.

IT'S BIG FUN — There are quite some entrepreneurs who've found themselves in a situation that doesn't give them the pleasure they were looking for. If you’re not having any fun, you gotta make it fun. Or, in the words of Jim Rohn: “If you don’t like how things are, change it. You’re not a tree”. Why did you become an entrepreneur anyway? Because you wanted to do things your way, right? It’s either gotta be fun, or you gotta quit. Great. Now do it. Today. Being an entrepreneur is the best thing that could have happened to you. Or would you like someone else to determine what you should do? If you’re an entrepreneur and you don’t like to do something yourself, you’ve got three options: quit, delegate it, or outsource it. Is that so hard?

THREE ESSENTIALS — You're working against the odds when you don't integrate three adjectives into your business model: repeatable, scalable, profitable. In other words: take care of clients who continue to buy, give it an exponential component that makes your turnover go through the roof, and prevent costs from rising at the same pace as turnover. Need an example for clarification? Take Salesforce. Each month, clients pay at least €75 per user for a service they can't easily get rid of. That last part is essential. Do not only deliver an awesome experience for your clients but also create a lock-in whereby it’s too expensive to leave. And the difference between 10K or 10M users hardly makes a difference to Salesforce. Got it? Good. Go do it.