Phillip Lew is the founder and CEO of C9 Staff, a boutique remote staffing solutions company with access to 35 top international talent markets. He helps entrepreneurs, investors, business owners, executives, and agencies around the world leverage the power of overseas staffing in order to expand their capabilities while saving up to 70% in overhead costs.
Phillip has always been a business-minded individual but he has had his fair share of past failures, which include having to file for bankruptcy. But ever resilient, Phillip picked himself up and built C9 Staff which is now poised to make 8-figures this year.
What were the top 3 mistakes you made as an entrepreneur, and if you could start over what would you do differently?
Growing too big for my britches.
I built my first company out of college. I was aggressive, overly confident, and ambitious. I believed what I knew was enough to propel me to success. But it all backfired. The business crashed and I ended up filing for corporate and personal bankruptcy. It took me 6 years to fix up my credit and get my finances back on track. It was a cold and hard lesson in humility.
Moral of the story: Be humble. No matter how successful you are, you’ll never be mistake-proof. In fact, the more successful you become, the more exposed you are to potential mistakes. If your mind is full and you think you know everything, you become blind to situations that can potentially harm you.
Being too trusting
Early in my business career, I made the mistake of trusting the wrong people for the wrong reasons. This mistake not only cost me money, but it also caused me a lot of emotional and psychological torment.
After that, I learned to trust but verify. Not everyone has your best interest at heart. You don’t have to be distrustful of everyone. You can trust people but always verify if they’re who they say they are and if they mean what they say to you.
Refusing to believe in yourself
After my first business failed, both my finances and self-esteem were in tatters. I came to the point where I started to believe I’ll just go find a job, work for someone, and just be good at it. Less risk. Less responsibility.
Fortunately, with the help of my family and friends, I realized I was not built for a life like that. And so I snapped out of my self-pity, picked up where I left off, built a new company, remembered the lessons I learned from my past failures, and now we’re about to break our first 8-figure year and Q1 is barely over!
The lesson – believe in yourself. It’s easy to think you’re not good enough, you’re not big enough, you’re not successful enough, or you’re not smart enough. But oftentimes, the truth is that there’s very little that separates you from everyone else.
Generally speaking, people tend to underestimate themselves and overestimate the competition, especially after experiencing failure. However, you need to always be clear with what you know and what you’re capable of and you also have to know what your competition knows and what they’re capable of. That way, you enter the arena with a clear picture of what you and everyone else can and cannot do and that will give you confidence in your edge over everyone else.
Phillip Lew Founder and CEO of C9 Staff
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