Back when I started my first business I was ignorant. I was innocent. More than anything, I was naive.

I didn’t know much of anything because I hadn’t been smacked in the face by the market yet. Just like most of us when we start out, you just don’t know what you don’t know. Along the way you find out this idea of yours is harder than you thought. No one cares that you launched your product. It’s a different story trying to get people to pull out their wallet. Driving sales and revenue takes hard work, patience and determination.

The worst part is, all the cynical bastards love to rub it in your face.

Today I realized something. After being smacked in the face over and over. Being told no again and again. Falling short on my revenue projections. And a million other failures on top of that, I haven’t changed. I’ve realized my biggest strength after all of it is staying naive. I still believe I can change whatever world I’m in and I’m 100% serious when I say that. If anything, I have more confidence and belief I can do even more now after going through all of that. I won’t let the scars change who I was when I first started.

Call me crazy but I prefer to be called naive.