The truth is, you should be looking for hard things. The hard things are what keep the competition away. The hard things are what create barriers to entry. The hard things are the things that, once you push through, make it nearly impossible for anyone else to follow.

Or, as I always tell my students: The hardest-working entrepreneur will always beat the most talented entrepreneur.

Talent is a multiplier, sure, but effort is what builds the foundation. And the best part? You don’t need to be the most talented to outwork everyone else. You just need to be relentless.

Hard Work Is the Business Model

For as much as entrepreneurship and startups are glamorized in popular culture and the media, the reality of entrepreneurship is that most people don’t want to be entrepreneurs. Yes, they want what they perceive to be the outcome of entrepreneurship — money, freedom, recognition. But they don’t want to do the work.

My student was just another example. He wanted a big audience, but he didn’t want to spend months mastering storytelling or production techniques.

Founders want big exits, but they don’t want to spend years grinding, iterating, and figuring out how to build something irreplaceable.

This is why so many people start things and never follow through. They dip their toes into entrepreneurship, realize it’s way harder than they expected, and quit. They convince themselves it was a bad idea. They move on to the next easy thing, hoping that will be the one that magically takes off.

But the people who win? They’re the ones who expect things to be hard. They don’t flinch at the grind. They embrace it.

If you want to succeed, stop looking for shortcuts. Stop chasing easy. Instead, ask yourself:

What’s the hardest version of what I’m trying to do?

What’s the thing most people in my industry aren’t willing to do?

Where can I put in 10x the effort of my competitors in a way that actually makes a difference?

That’s the game. Because at the end of the day, the world is full of people looking for the easiest way to get what they want. And if you’re willing to do the thing that’s too hard for them — the thing that requires more patience, discipline, and resilience — you’ll be the one who wins.

And that win? It won’t happen because you got lucky. It won’t happen because you stumbled onto some magic formula.

It’ll happen because you worked your ass off while everyone else gave up.

Entrepreneurship Isn’t Supposed to Be Easy—That’s the Whole Point!