What's your why? My why is to help people. And
more specifically, entrepreneur, which is what
I identify with. And it's what fulfills me when
I work with founders and have an impact on their
lives. That's my why. Thank you for answering
that. What common business practices do you think
overcomplicate? them getting into the business
and thriving in it? Impatience. Please go further
into that. You know, as entrepreneurs, we have
a sense of urgency. We're action driven. We don't
wait for things to happen. We make them happen.
But urgency can be easily confused with impatience.
Impatience is trying to get ahead of ourselves,
go faster than we can, jump higher than we're
capable of. And when you do those things, you
can get hurt. So it's a combination of urgency
and patience. It's a long game. To be successful
in life, it takes time. And if you want to rush
that, you want to cut corners, you want to...
accelerate when you're not ready to you could
get into some real trouble that's why so many
businesses fail I think 70 of businesses fail
within 10 years so you don't want to be you don't
want to be that statistic yeah and I tell you
with today and the way things are today everyone
seems to want a microwave business right just
pop it in there put a couple of minutes on there
and then boom But with that being said, Eric,
I know I'm 46. With that being said, so I know
about the years. But in 96 to 25, there is a
big difference. And so most people and some people
believe that entrepreneurship can happen overnight
because you could get many followers and all
these things. What does happen? People, people,
people go viral. I mean, there are people that
win lotteries, too. right the the the probabilities
are extremely low i think you're more likely
to be hit by thunder by lightning than than to
win the lottery but there are people that win
the lottery there are people that go viral on
the internet and grow their businesses very fast
but that is in my in my experience an anomaly
i think what i try to teach are principles time
-tested principles it has nothing to do with
when what and how these are principles that are
time tested that can be applied to 1996 1896
or 2025. the only thing that has changed today
are the methods of delivering our messages sometimes
transaction with customers you know what i teach
people on the internet is you have to continue
thinking you're a shopkeeper You have to hug
your customers, even if you're an online retailer.
It doesn't matter if you're physical or virtual.
Good customer service, wowing your customers,
taking care of quality products, quality service.
Those things are principles that never change.
Yes, and what I hear you also saying is relationship
is important. keeping that connection with people
rather than, like you said, whether it's face
-to -face or online, you still want to be able
to have that connection with people. And I realize
that sometimes we get disconnected by thinking
that being online doesn't have or create a good
relationship when in fact it does. As you help
so many businesses fund their business and pretty
much begin to fly what's a surprising lesson
you've seen um you've seen that they've had when
you're helping them like an aha moment for them
yes yes usually it's when i reframe a situation
and their anxiety goes from 10 to 2 because they're
looking at it completely different uh we get
stuck in our own mind you know i had a You know,
one time I had somebody wanting to raise a million
dollars. And when I asked them, why are you raising
so much money? It was an aha moment. Like, oh,
wow. I don't really, that's a lot of pressure
for me to go after all that capital. I only need
a couple of hundred thousand dollars. My anxiety
just went down and I got clearer about my next
steps. Yeah, so giving them that clarity. And
it's interesting. We are in our heads. You know,
as entrepreneurs, we don't have, you know, advisors
and people that can guide us. And we are in our
heads. We have no one to talk to. We can't talk
to our employees. We can't talk to our spouses.
They don't really understand. So we think in
a vacuum. And having someone. That can coach
us, can be a huge, huge asset. How long are you
with the business once you begin helping them?
Till the end. Either they buy me out or we sell
it to a third party or somehow we cash out. Okay.
I love that because usually sometimes there's
like this time frame. And as I keep hearing you,
Eric, I think of you as a mentor. You know what
I mean? with some very important areas, I think
it's really awesome that you could be a mentor
at the same time. Not to take up too much of
your time, but I wanted to ask you, what tips
do you have for entrepreneurs? Well, I have so
many tips. You know, I published a book last
year. You should pick it up. It's full of tips
for entrepreneurs based on my journey. I would
say enjoy the ride, man. You know, lower your
stress. It doesn't matter if it takes you an
extra year or two to make to get to where you
want to go. You know, that could be the difference
between an enjoyable journey and a stressful
journey. So enjoy the ride if you can. You know,
there's only one destination in this world. It's
the bus terminal at the end. You know, everything
else is a journey, whether you're successful
or... you know not or you sell your business
or not it's a continuous journey enjoy the ride
yes enjoy the ride which is a simple statement
but so hard to do but again for those that are
looking and seeking um or you know strategies
and investments uh definitely i think that you
have this this piece that a lot of people might
be missing eric do me a favor and share with
the audience um where they can contact you at
which is website yeah ericmalka .com or strategicbrandinvestments
.com okay any social media handles that they
can just follow eric on instagram or you can
find me on linkedin tick tock you know all the
usual Thank you for being here today. I'm really
happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions
as these episodes continue to move forward. This
is going to get more and more fun. We'll have
more and more engagement as well. We'll invite
people to participate in the show. And thank
you for giving us your time and attention. Have
an excellent time building out your vision and
becoming a vision pro yourself.