Abhilash Rao

The work you put into improving your funnel is effort well spent. But attempts to build a perpetual motion machine of profit almost always end with bitterness, because they require you to push too hard and too fast to do anything that lasts. The goal is to prime the pump with ads that are aimed at neophiliacs, people looking to find you. Then build

some other famous failures: Michael Jordan: cut from his high-school basketball team. Steven Spielberg: rejected from film school thrice. Walt Disney: fired by the editor of a newspaper for lacking ideas and imagination. Albert Einstein: He learned to speak at a late age and performed poorly in school. John Grisham: first novel was rejected by 16

Take a position: The best way to position a brand is through a structured approach versus The best way to position a brand is through an unstructured approach.

As Morgan McCall, in his book High Flyers, points out, “Unfortunately, people often like the things that work against their growth. . . . People like to use their strengths . . . to achieve quick, dramatic results, even if . . . they aren’t developing the new skills they will need later on. People like to believe they are as good as everyone says .

Be a Good Citizen As you assemble your network of support, be careful not to adopt a “take” mentality. Wharton professor Adam Grant has explored the roles of “givers” and “takers” in his research.