I wasn’t from a rich family. I had average grades in school. I was never the top 1% at anything I ever did. No one, friends or family, thought I would be the founder and CEO of a successful multi million dollar start up.

I look back at my naive self 5 years ago. What was it that made me successful? What is the secret formula?

Honestly, it’s hard to pinpoint to one thing. It’s more of a combination of various factors. Here’s the breakdown:

1) desperation / hunger / drive - failure was not an option for me. I quit my day job before I founded my company, so I knew I had to make it work because I vowed that I will never go back to working for someone else.

2) hard work - Find something you can be excited to wake up to every morning. I was passionate about my work, I lived and breathed it, it didn’t feel like work to me.

3) Discipline - how many years can you endure this? Building a successful business is not easy, in fact, it gets harder as you grow bigger. Mo money, mo problems. For reals.

4) optimism - shit is gonna go wrong, eventually. Can you stay positive no matter what happens?Watch silicone valley and it’s pretty much spot on. Roller coaster ride of your life.

5) luck - Im grateful for being at the right place, right time, meeting the right people, entering the right market with the right product.

Being a successful entrepreneur is not easy. The odds aren’t in your favor, I’m not gonna lie. But if you don’t at least try, you will never have a chance to succeed. My biggest fear in life is not failure, but regret that I didn’t give it my best shot.

This life isn’t for everyone, but with the right person with the right mentality, you too can accomplish everything I have and more. It sounds so cliche but if I can do this, seriously, a lot of the people in this group can too. It’s all in your head. You gotta believe it because life is a self fulfilling prophecy.

Good luck to everyone here who’s trying to make it! You’re already one step ahead of rest of the world.