When you hear one business story after another, a pattern begins to emerge: that there is no pattern.

There are underlying themes, common lessons, similar key takeaways… but there is no formula for entrepreneurship; no step 1, step 2, step 10.

And that truth is scary… but it can also be a massive comfort, especially when your story starts a little like this:

“When I was between the ages of 21 and 23, I did a lot of crazy stuff, and it all was rooted in a love to party. I liked to do everything to the extreme, and that was a huge issue. When we sold our company, I had 19 cents [in the bank].”

That’s Sam Parr, now the Founder and CEO of The Hustle, a media company well known for their daily tech and business newsletter.

Before he was sending his thoughts and ideas out to more than a million of people, Sam was stuck in a destructive cycle of alcoholism and rebellion – a cycle that left him out of a job, broke, and nearly homeless.

But that’s the thing about entrepreneurship, it doesn’t matter where or how you start, every decision is an opportunity to not just build your business… but to rebuild yourself.

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The Journey is sponsored by our friends at Salesforce Essentials. We use Salesforce Essentials every day and it’s part of our own business journey. Essentials combines sales and service tools in a single app to help small businesses win customers and keep them happy.

See how Salesforce Essentials can help you be your best business at salesforce.com/thejourney.