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Justin Welsh

@thejustinwelsh

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Writer & Entrepreneur. I write The Saturday Essay for 200,000+ ambitious people living and working on their own terms.

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The traditional linear career path and even linear business models are dying.

The new model is something I'm calling “illegible careers.”

And the most successful people will start working these weird career paths, running hundreds of fun and interesting experiments over their lifetime.

They won't even “monetize” the old way.

They'll practically just stumble into new revenue.

And every little experiment will tell them what direction to go next.

Nothing will make sense about it from the outside looking in.

Maybe one year they're consulting...

Then the next, maybe they're writing, or building a new startup, or lauching a newsletter, or doing a branded partnership, or whatever.

To everyone else, it will look so scattered.

But to the person in it? It will make perfect sense.

Because every experiment leaves something behind.

New skills, relationships, reputation, and a better sense of what you're good at and what people will pay you for.

That's the new game.

Then the question becomes:

How do you turn all of that into something that actually earns well without becoming another exhausting job?

I spent a decade figuring that part out while building my one-person business to $15M in profit.

I broke down the seven most important lessons I learned in the new model over the last decade into a short 30-minute read.

Free to read at my LINK IN BIO.

#entrepreneur #business #entrepreneurship #mindset #lifestyle by @thejustinwelsh

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a day ago

I escaped the corporate rat race on August 1st, 2019.

My big goal?

Do whatever I want, whenever I want, with whomever I want, and very little of what I hate.

I think that's a reasonable life goal.
Most people don't.

It took about 7 years, but I finally arrived at that place.

7 years of daily content, weekly newsletters, product creation, consulting, community management, etc.

Tons of work.
But work I picked and chose carefully.

And as my little one-person business grew, I was able to be even more discerning.

That's the upside you get when you build something small and flexible.

Of course, there's plenty of downsides as well.

But what job doesn't have those?

My downsides just happen to come with a calendar that I have full control of.

That's a trade I'm willing to make.

If you want to build your own little one-person or two-person business, get my 30-page guide for starting at my LINK IN BIO.

#entrepreneur #business #entrepreneurship #mindset #lifestyle by @thejustinwelsh

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2 days ago

My life before my little one-person business:

- Anxiety
- Poor health
- Totally overworked
- Multiple canceled vacations
- Physically & mentally exhausted

My life after I started my one-person business:

- 8x higher income
- 6+ hours per day of free time
- Move somewhere new every winter
- Awesome sleep and a happier marriage
- Daily coffee, Wordle, and workouts with my wife

What changed?

I went all-in on myself and the simplest version of a business you can build.

One-person.
A few products.
Multiple distribution channels.
24/7/365 worldwide discoverability.

If you want to try the same, check out my free 30-page guide for starting in my LINK IN BIO.

#entrepreneur #business #entrepreneurship #mindset #lifestyle by @thejustinwelsh

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3 days ago

If you chase after money, it has a funny way of avoiding you.

At least, that's what I've found in my career.

Instead, I'd much rather focus on something better:

Big, painful, miserable problems.

I started learning how to solve these problems back in 2009 in my startup days, and quickly figured out how valuable that was.

Solve one painful problem? Here's some money.
Solve another one? Here's more.
Keep solving them? Here's a boatload.

When you can save people money or time (or both) AND help them sleep better at night, you have incredible earning potential.

So work on that skill ferociously.

Here's how I do it:

1. Hypothesize

When you see a big problem, try to write down every single reason you think it might be happening. Guess. Jot every single thing you can think of.

2. Rank

Stack rank them from most likely to least likely to be the culprit. Start by cutting everything except the top 2 or 3.

3. Isolate

Starting with your most likely, figure out how to isolate your hypothesis and measure it effectively.

4. Prove or disprove

Don't guide the data. Let the data guide you. Were you right? Wrong? Talk to people as well. Qualitative and quantitative feedback are useful.

5. Install

Once you've figured out the actual fix, install it. Then move on to the next problem.

Congrats...you're on your way to being hyper valuable.

This is just one of seven incredibly important skills in entrepreneurship.

I break down this one even more, and six others, in a free guide to building valuable businesses.

Everything I learned in a decade building my one-person business to $15M in profit, compressed into a short 30-minute read.

Free at my LINK IN BIO.

#entrepreneur #business #entrepreneurship #mindset #lifestyle by @thejustinwelsh

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4 days ago

The worst thing in the world is getting fired without a backup plan.

I've watched it happen to so many good people.

$200,000 take-home pay one day.
$0 the next day.

What a nightmare.

That's why planning for the worst, while working hard to prevent it, is a great 1-2 punch.

Here's what I'd recommend:

1. Make some noise

Get online daily and share how you think about your industry. Let people see your name and face and become synonymous with something.

2. Build a network

Once you've made a little noise, jump into DMs. Invite people to connect. Grab coffee. Meet on Zoom. Help people. It's all about who you know.

3. Show off your expertise

At some point, don't just make noise. Translate noise into value. What have you helped your company accomplish? Toot your own horn.

4. Collect testimonials

If colleagues, managers, and peers like your work, ask them to write a little something about it. Put it on LinkedIn. Put it on your website. Show off what other people think about you.

5. Connect people

Lastly, make mutually beneficial connections.

Once people feel like you've helped them out, they'll remember you when opportunities show up.

If you can do these five things, you'll have one hell of a backup plan.

Because now you're building assets that belong to you instead of your employer:

A reputation.
A network.
Your expertise.
Ability to create opportunities.

Do that long enough and you can probably earn extra money without depending entirely on one company.

You just have to know how to turn those assets into income.

I spent a decade figuring that out and turned it into a $15M one-person business.

I broke down the 7 exact skills you need to go from corporate to solopreneur in a new 30-page field manual.

Hundreds of articles, hours of voice notes, and interviews with 8-figure entrepreneurs summarized in a guide you can read in less than 30 minutes.

Get it free at my LINK IN BIO.

#entrepreneur #business #entrepreneurship #mindset #lifestyle by @thejustinwelsh

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5 days ago

Successful people work on things that bring them joy and keep them interested.

Sure, they may do a few things that suck here and there.

But it's rare.

Take my business, for example:

- I write about what I love
- I help customers that I can benefit
- I deliver products that improve lives
- I have conversations with interesting people

All of that stuff is exciting and fun.

None of it fills me with dread, so a Monday isn't all that different than a Saturday.

So, when you're building your business, here are a few helpful questions to ask yourself:

1. What's a business I could run for decades?
2. What are tasks I definitely don't want to do?
3. What would a business make possible for me?
4. What people do I want to help succeed?

Answer them, work toward building that business, and you'll love what you do.

Now, of course, it doesn't happen overnight.

It took nearly a decade to figure out how to build a business where I did what I want, when I want, with whom I want, and very little of what I hate.

I jotted down the 7 most important skills I developed over that time and how you can develop them too.

I compressed hundreds of pieces of writing, hours of voice notes, and interviews with successful founders.

7+ years of learning in less than 30 minutes.

Read it free at my LINK IN BIO.

#entrepreneur #business #entrepreneurship #mindset #lifestyle by @thejustinwelsh

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8 days ago

The problem with loyalty to a company is that it often doesn't go both ways.

So, be sure you're not working yourself to death.

Don't let work cause you to miss dinners, skip workouts, not see your family, or miss out on that vacation.

None of that stuff proves you're “committed to the mission."

And it's more important to be committed to yourself and your family.

Work hard.
Care deeply.
Do excellent work.

But don't devote your life to your work.

Your job should support your life, not the other way around.

I know a lot of folks feel like they have to do this, because they lack leverage.

So make sure you're creating some by:

- Building impressive skills that travel
- Learning how to earn income on your own
- Understanding how to promote & sell yourself

Basically, make yourself really hard to corner.

That's how I got started building my own little one-person business.

Over 7 years, that business eventually grew to over $15M in profit.

And that became the leverage I needed to be essentially "uncontrollable."

I took the 7 most important skills for building a highly profitable one-person business and put them into a free field manual you can read.

Hundreds of articles, hours of voice notes, and interviews with successful builders compressed into something you can read in 30 minutes.

Free at my LINK IN BIO.

Read it. Apply it. And give yourself leverage.

#entrepreneur #business #entrepreneurship #mindset #lifestyle by @thejustinwelsh

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9 days ago

If you want to be great at something, surround yourself with the best people.

This is why I hate most “move somewhere cheap and peaceful” advice.

It's good for 45-year-olds like me, but it's terrible for young ambitious people.

But I get it. Cheap rent's awesome.

Being the smartest guy or gal in your zip code isn't.

If you’re young and you're serious about getting insanely good at something, go where the competition scares the hell out of you.

Surround yourself with folks who are:

Making more money than you.
Building and shipping faster than you.
Taking bigger moonshots than you are.
Doing work that makes yours look mediocre.

You should start thinking, "I need to step my game up.”

It's a very useful feeling when your environment changes what feels normal.

If everyone around you is coasting, you'll coast.
If everyone around you is working hard, you will.

You can always slow down later.

But when you’re young and hungry?
Go where the competition is scary.

Then stay long enough for it to build long-lasting habits in the way you operate.

This is why I spent 10 years working in cities and companies that challenged me like crazy.

I wanted to be around high-performers who taught me how to think faster, make better decisions, and raise my standards.

I built skills that would travel with me for the next 20 years of my career and helped me build a $15M one-person business.

There are 7 skills that stand out to this day as the most important ones.

They’re the ones I’d want to learn first if I had to start over from zero today.

And one of them has almost nothing to do with selling, marketing, or productivity, but probably made me more money than any of them.

I break all 7 down in a free 30-page guide that will help you get your own one-person business started.

Free at my LINK IN BIO.

#entrepreneur #business #entrepreneurship #mindset #lifestyle by @thejustinwelsh

1k

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10 days ago

If you want to build an incredible life, hang around incredible people.

That doesn't necessarily mean rich and successful people.

Kind people.
Interesting people.
People who lift you up.
People who normalize some form of excellence.

I've had such a wonderful time building an eclectic collection of friends.

Some are my health-nut friends, or intellectual friends, or athlete friends, or business friends.

Everyone has something interesting that they bring to the table.

A huge mistake I see people making is that they surround themselves with people who bring them down.

Complainers, whiners, life-aint-fairers.

Here's a challenge for my entrepreneur followers out there.

Find a fantastic, new, informative, high-energy business group to network with this month.

See what that does to your ambition.

Your ideas.
Your standards.
Your sense of what’s possible.

Because entrepreneurship gets a lot easier when the people around you make better decisions feel normal.

And once your standards rise, the next question is obvious:

What should you actually get good at?

I spent a decade answering that while building my one-person business to $15M in profit.

Eventually, I narrowed the biggest lessons down to 7 skills.

I broke all 7 down in a free 30-page guide on building a highly profitable solo business without letting it take over your life.

Hundreds of articles, hours of voice notes, and interviews with successful builders compressed into something you can read in 30 minutes.

Free at my LINK IN BIO.

#entrepreneur #business #entrepreneurship #mindset #lifestyle by @thejustinwelsh

1k

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11 days ago

One of the best business hacks is being your own biggest cheerleader.

Trust me, you're going to need it.

When you're just starting out, very few people will believe in you.

Maybe your spouse.
Maybe your friends.
Maybe your family.

Maybe.

So you better believe in yourself enough for all of them.

Talk confidently.
Toot your own horn.
Wear your own merch.
Celebrate the wins nobody else cares about.

You might feel a little ridiculous.

Good.

Because one day, if things work out, something funny happens:

Everyone who doubted you suddenly remembers being incredibly supportive.

"I always knew."
"I could see it coming!"

Sure.

The most important part of self-belief is that it keeps you in the game long enough to get good.

Then you *actually* have to get good.

It took me a decade to figure those things out while building my one-person business to $15M in profit.

I broke down everything I learned in a free 30-page guide to solopreneurship.

Hundreds of articles, hours of voice notes, and interviews with successful builders compressed into something you can read in 30 minutes.

Free at my LINK IN BIO.

#entrepreneur #business #entrepreneurship #mindset #lifestyle by @thejustinwelsh

1k

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12 days ago

A business that requires you all day, every day, is my personal nightmare.

I see so many entrepreneurs bragging about freedom while glued to a Slack channel, taking calls on vacation, and checking email at 5 a.m.

That’s the opposite of freedom.

A good business should make your life easier as it gets better.

More control over your time.
More money not attached to hours.
More time to be around your family.
Freedom to decide what your week looks like.

That requires some discipline.

Because growth almost always gives you a reason to add complexity.

Another hire.
Another offer.
Another meeting.
Another thing you gotta manage.

You have to learn how to grow without automatically adding a ton of work to your plate.

That was one of the hardest parts of building my one-person business to $15M in profit.

Luckily, I documented a lot of it.

And turned it into a free 30-page guide on growing a highly profitable solo business without burning yourself out.

Hundreds of articles, hours of voice notes, and interviews with successful builders compressed into something you can read in 30 minutes.

Free at my LINK IN BIO.

#entrepreneur #business #entrepreneurship #mindset #lifestyle by @thejustinwelsh

1k

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15 days ago

Your 20s are probably the worst time to optimize for comfort.

You have fewer obligations, more energy, and a longer runway than you’ll probably ever have again.

Don't spend those years trying to make your life cushy.

Easy job.
Easy schedule.
Easy coworkers.
Easy expectations.

Too many people do, then they hit 35 and wonder why nobody trusts them to do something difficult.

Do the opposite.

Find people who are better than you and make yourself useful to them.

Take on some work that scares you a little.

Become the person who can be trusted with expensive, painful problems.

And then stay long enough to actually get good.

You'll build a reputation long before you desperately need one.

Because later, freedom gets much easier when you already have experience people value, people who trust you, and proof that you can deliver.

That's how I spent the first half of my career.

The second half was figuring out how to turn everything I learned into income I controlled without creating another life-consuming job.

That part took me almost another decade.

Eventually, I narrowed down the most important lessons from building my one-person business to $15M in profit.

I put them into a free 30-page guide on building a highly profitable solo business without letting it take over your life.

Hundreds of articles, hours of voice notes, and interviews with successful builders compressed into something you can read in 30 minutes.

Free at my LINK IN BIO.

#entrepreneur #business #entrepreneurship #mindset #lifestyle by @thejustinwelsh

1k

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16 days ago