Embarking on the entrepreneurship journey can be extremely challenging and nerve-racking as well as incredibly rewarding and fulfilling. Many aspiring entrepreneurs are sold on the dreams of success and being rich. However, if it were that easy, everyone would be an entrepreneur. 

In this episode of the Making Bank podcast, we welcome guest Andre Swanston. Andre Swanston was born and raised in the Bronx, New York. Over his career, he has become a proven leader and entrepreneur with a wide range of experience in marketing, finance, and starting and scaling companies. Andre has most recently completed the fifth largest exit of any black CEO. He was the former CEO and Co-Founder of Tru Optik. Under Andre’s leadership, Tru Optik became the preferred over-the-top data and technology partner for many of the world’s largest media companies, brands, and agencies. Before founding Tru Optik, Andre had served as the Vice President of Investments at JP Morgan Chase. Before that, he had also led the Media and Entertainment division at a boutique investment bank in New York City. After selling his company, Andre now serves as the Senior Vice President of Media & Entertainment Vertical at TransUnion.

On the podcast, Andre talks in depth about the future of digital media and OTT. He also talks about his journey as an entrepreneur and what it took for him to grow and scale his business into what it is today. Andre knows firsthand the struggles and barriers many new entrepreneurs face when starting out. He advises on what to do on the business side of things and how you need to condition your mindset to set yourself up for success. 

There are quite a few things that a new entrepreneur has to look out for when they start a business. However, Andre narrows it down to two key things that every entrepreneur should have:

Ambition

An entrepreneur’s ambition is the foundation on which their success will be built. Without ambition, you don’t have a goal worth striving for. The reason why top entrepreneurs are seen as people cut from different cloth is because of their ambition. It’s essential to understand what motivates us. Without a motivator, achieving our goals becomes pointless. What sets 90% of the people apart from new entrepreneurs is that most people don’t have what it takes to motivate themselves and work towards achieving their ambitions. It’s not about how intelligent you are or how much money you came from. Every human being lives their own lives with different life experiences. We all start from various places in life, but where you start shouldn’t affect where you end up. Be ambitious about your goals and work towards them. Often people overestimate what they can do in a short time. Just because your goals are ambitious doesn’t mean you have to achieve them in an unrealistic time frame. Understand your motivation and develop a plan to reach your goals based on your actual capabilities.

Perseverance

There are many skills and characteristics that many successful entrepreneurs share, but the most essential characteristic an entrepreneur can have is being perseverant. Perseverance is what allows an entrepreneur to stay on course and reach whatever goals they set out for themselves. Without persistence, your ambitions and goals become obsolete. The real differentiator between an average person and a successful entrepreneur is an entrepreneur’s ability to persevere and endure the hardships and obstacles he faces on his journey to success. The road to success will never be easy, especially when you have bigger ambitions than the rest. That’s why you have to find and understand your motivation. The only time you’ll be able to have complete confidence in yourself is when you know you have the ability to persevere through any hardships you may face as an entrepreneur. One of the most common regrets people have is that they quit early when things got tough. Many entrepreneurs don’t make it to the top 1% because they quit early due to a lack of determination and perseverance. Failure and shortcomings are a part of the entrepreneurial journey. We need to understand that mistakes and failures should be treated as lessons. Learning from your mistakes is an essential part of life, so remember to embrace your failures and pick yourself back up every time you get knocked down. Stay focused on your ambitions and goals and continually work towards achieving them, and success will follow.