The year is 2009. It’s at the height of the recession; back when the app store was still brand new and I was an awkward-but-ambitious 16-year old accidental entrepreneur. News spread fast about the teenager from New Jersey who built his own website business by going door-to-door, and my company Chop Dawg and I became an overnight media sensation. But just four years later, I was forced to reverse-engineer myself and my company back from the brink. By becoming a student of entrepreneurship, I developed a framework to follow containing the principles that make up the successful entrepreneur’s DNA.
So many decisions we make as entrepreneurs are interdependent on factors outside of ourselves, such as consumer demand, timing, and economics. Some founders follow a business plan; others operate by the seat of their pants. But as a collective, entrepreneurs need a personal framework to follow. With humor, personal reflections and stories from other entrepreneurs in the game, The Entrepreneur’s Framework explores the set of principles inherent to the successful entrepreneur alongside actionable steps to take for yourself and your business.
In a perfect world, every entrepreneur would score 100% on each principle within The Entrepreneur's Framework and be done with it. But that’s not reality; no matter where you are on your entrepreneurial journey, you’ll never stop finding ways to innovate and improve upon what you’ve built. It’s part of what makes a successful entrepreneur: Striving every day for a better version of 100%.
Self-awareness is the key principle behind The Entrepreneur’s Framework. Being self-aware is not only about identifying why you feel and do the things that you do; it’s also recognizing the what. By asking what, you not only know the result that needs to be changed, but what can be done to change it. Be open about your thoughts and feelings with others, and you will have a fighting chance to overcome the ways that you self-sabotage every day. Self-awareness is also about being open with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses and holding yourself accountable. No one else is looking, so it’s all up to you. Think of self-awareness as the guiding star that will allow you to become successful with every other principle of the framework.
There’s a unique challenge we face in the New Economy because of the wealth of information we have at our disposal. People feel well-informed by reading articles about problems that others are going through, and mistake having knowledge as empathy. Real empathy is the ability to understand other’s experiences, and going beyond the Band-Aid solution and investing in an actual cure. Of course, to understand and feel for the lives of all people is a gargantuan task. That’s why entrepreneurs should pick a slice of humanity to truly understand. Empathy can turn a passion into a purpose. It is what allows you to discover what it is that fulfills you, drives you, moves you to impact others and create value at scale.
Leadership is a shared mindset. Whether you’re a brand new startup founder or run a company with 500 people, you can encourage each person on your team to tap into the best version of themselves. Every person on the team should feel like a leader of change. Rather than getting caught up in your own power, help others discover their own and you’ll become more powerful yourself. The reality is, leaders create leaders. Leadership is about being real with others and yourself, for the greater good of becoming better. Not acknowledging your weaknesses is not a strength — it’s a weakness in itself. Outsource your weaknesses and embrace your strengths as a leader; you never get to superstar level alone.
Whenever I am doing anything, I always ask myself the same question: Is what I’m doing related to and contributing to the system I set in place for getting my company to the moon? A lot of what makes us feel frustrated, annoyed, or even overly happy is the short-term stuff; short-term stuff we weren’t prepared for, mentally, emotionally, or physically. But it doesn’t feel like the short-term stuff at the time. It’s about training your instincts. Can you remember what you were upset about a year ago? Probably not. These things take up all of our energy and distract us from accomplishing bigger, more important goals. Once you understand this concept, you can begin to leverage long-term thinking to help block out the noise.
Truly game-changing visions take time to form in individual lifetimes. The long-term thinkers who are quick on their feet realize the opportunities before they are ever spoken of on the news. They are able to not only understand the tides of opinion and desire, they are the ones creating these ripples in the first place. The truth is there is no way to know what your business, product or service will be like in a decade — so it’s always the right time to question yourself on whether or not you can do better.
A healthy economy is one where many people feel like they have a hand in the system and are producing something of value and making money doing it. When the economy caves in, there are always pioneers who are able to take advantage of the momentary dip. I was able to do this during the Great Recession with my website business, and it afforded me my low startup costs and limited competition, increasing my odds at the time for success. Similar to a nurse checking your vitals at the hospital, you don’t know how your business is doing until you check up on your economic vitals.
Here’s a little secret: if you feel like you are working too hard at something, you probably could find an easier way to do the same thing. This is where instituting real operations helps, because it puts everyone on the same page of working smarter, not harder. You and your team could be considered the brain of your company, bringing the logic and decision-making needed to execute your vision. But it is the clearly defined roles each team member plays that create the heartbeat. Without a company process, logic can easily get confused or obscured by emotions and short-term thinking. I’ll never stop tinkering with the Chop Dawg formula to improve on it. We’ll always come up with new ways to bring the team and clients closer together. It’s a life of constantly overhauling things while maintaining the parts that work. The same goes for you.
I’m sure you’ve heard the sage advice, “Find your passion” before. Passion should be something that pushes you, moves you, and motivates you. But passion alone can’t do anything productive for you; think of it more as a cluster of energy. While you need that cluster of energy, passions alone aren’t sustainable because they can really change over time. That’s where purpose comes in. Follow your passions to find your purpose as an entrepreneur. Only through hindsight, and the years of experience and of knowing myself, have I been able to look back and determine my purpose. I believe that purpose gives you a bit of a chip on your shoulder. Once you’re clear and honest to yourself about what you want to accomplish in life and open about it with others, you set out to prove that, no matter the stakes.
Grade yourself on each quality to visualize your entrepreneurial attitude
Self-Awareness i %
0% 100%
Self-awareness is the key principle behind The Entrepreneur’s Framework. Being self-aware is not only about identifying why you feel and do the things that you do; it’s also recognizing the what. By asking what, you not only know the result that needs to be changed, but what can be done to change it. Be open about your thoughts and feelings with others, and you will have a fighting chance to overcome the ways that you self-sabotage every day. Self-awareness is also about being open with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses and holding yourself accountable. No one else is looking, so it’s all up to you. Think of self-awareness as the guiding star that will allow you to become successful with every other principle of the framework.
Empathy i %
0% 100%
There’s a unique challenge we face in the New Economy because of the wealth of information we have at our disposal. People feel well-informed by reading articles about problems that others are going through, and mistake having knowledge as empathy. Real empathy is the ability to understand other’s experiences, and going beyond the Band-Aid solution and investing in an actual cure. Of course, to understand and feel for the lives of all people is a gargantuan task. That’s why entrepreneurs should pick a slice of humanity to truly understand. Empathy can turn a passion into a purpose. It is what allows you to discover what it is that fulfills you, drives you, moves you to impact others and create value at scale.
Leadership i %
0% 100%
Leadership is a shared mindset. Whether you’re a brand new startup founder or run a company with 500 people, you can encourage each person on your team to tap into the best version of themselves. Every person on the team should feel like a leader of change. Rather than getting caught up in your own power, help others discover their own and you’ll become more powerful yourself. The reality is, leaders create leaders. Leadership is about being real with others and yourself, for the greater good of becoming better. Not acknowledging your weaknesses is not a strength — it’s a weakness in itself. Outsource your weaknesses and embrace your strengths as a leader; you never get to superstar level alone.
Short-Term Thinking i %
0% 100%
Whenever I am doing anything, I always ask myself the same question: Is what I’m doing related to and contributing to the system I set in place for getting my company to the moon? A lot of what makes us feel frustrated, annoyed, or even overly happy is the short-term stuff; short-term stuff we weren’t prepared for, mentally, emotionally, or physically. But it doesn’t feel like the short-term stuff at the time. It’s about training your instincts. Can you remember what you were upset about a year ago? Probably not. These things take up all of our energy and distract us from accomplishing bigger, more important goals. Once you understand this concept, you can begin to leverage long-term thinking to help block out the noise.
Long-Term Thinking i %
0% 100%
Truly game-changing visions take time to form in individual lifetimes. The long-term thinkers who are quick on their feet realize the opportunities before they are ever spoken of on the news. They are able to not only understand the tides of opinion and desire, they are the ones creating these ripples in the first place. The truth is there is no way to know what your business, product or service will be like in a decade — so it’s always the right time to question yourself on whether or not you can do better.
Economics i %
0% 100%
A healthy economy is one where many people feel like they have a hand in the system and are producing something of value and making money doing it. When the economy caves in, there are always pioneers who are able to take advantage of the momentary dip. I was able to do this during the Great Recession with my website business, and it afforded me my low startup costs and limited competition, increasing my odds at the time for success. Similar to a nurse checking your vitals at the hospital, you don’t know how your business is doing until you check up on your economic vitals.
Operations i %
0% 100%
Here’s a little secret: if you feel like you are working too hard at something, you probably could find an easier way to do the same thing. This is where instituting real operations helps, because it puts everyone on the same page of working smarter, not harder. You and your team could be considered the brain of your company, bringing the logic and decision-making needed to execute your vision. But it is the clearly defined roles each team member plays that create the heartbeat. Without a company process, logic can easily get confused or obscured by emotions and short-term thinking. I’ll never stop tinkering with the Chop Dawg formula to improve on it. We’ll always come up with new ways to bring the team and clients closer together. It’s a life of constantly overhauling things while maintaining the parts that work. The same goes for you.
Purpose i %
0% 100%
I’m sure you’ve heard the sage advice, “Find your passion” before. Passion should be something that pushes you, moves you, and motivates you. But passion alone can’t do anything productive for you; think of it more as a cluster of energy. While you need that cluster of energy, passions alone aren’t sustainable because they can really change over time. That’s where purpose comes in. Follow your passions to find your purpose as an entrepreneur. Only through hindsight, and the years of experience and of knowing myself, have I been able to look back and determine my purpose. I believe that purpose gives you a bit of a chip on your shoulder. Once you’re clear and honest to yourself about what you want to accomplish in life and open about it with others, you set out to prove that, no matter the stakes.
Since founding my company in 2009, I've been on a mission with my team at Chop Dawg to help as many entrepreneurs as possible. To date, ChopDawg.com has helped launch over 300+ next-generation digital products for startups, SMBs, non-profits and Fortune 500's around the world. When I'm not running my company, I love to share my experiences as a young and experienced entrepreneur as a nationally syndicated radio and podcast host, and as a professional keynote speaker for conferences, universities and events across the globe. But above all else, I always remain a passionate student of entrepreneurship.
Media & pressBefore I even wrote this book, I decided I would donate ALL profits to Big Brothers Big Sisters in Philadelphia. It seems fitting to me that a book about a young entrepreneur’s journey - written to provide other entrepreneurs a framework to succeed - should benefit the next generation of entrepreneurs in such a tangible way. At any given moment, there are 1,200 kids on Big Brother Big Sister Independence Region's waitlist for the support of a Big Brother or Big Sister. It costs $1,700 a year to support each match. Mentorship is so important when it comes to entrepreneurial success, so when you buy a book, you are directly supporting this initiative to help the next generation of entrepreneurs. Thank you for your support!
Before I even wrote this book, I decided I would donate ALL profits to Big Brothers Big Sisters in Philadelphia. It seems fitting to me that a book about a young entrepreneur’s journey - written to provide other entrepreneurs a framework to succeed - should benefit the next generation of entrepreneurs in such a tangible way. At any given moment, there are 1,200 kids on Big Brother Big Sister Independence Region's waitlist for the support of a Big Brother or Big Sister. It costs $1,700 a year to support each match. Mentorship is so important when it comes to entrepreneurial success, so when you buy a book, you are directly supporting this initiative to help the next generation of entrepreneurs. Thank you for your support!