I've got it pretty darn good. I work only when I want to work. I can work anywhere in the world. I work with only people I like. I do only the kind of work I want to do. And I make a lot of money.

If that isn't the definition of having it good, what is?

I travel about three months out of every year. This past year, I was in England, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Nicaragua, and Argentina-not to mention New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Yellowstone National Park. When I travel, I take my computer with me. I spend half of the day visiting parks, shops, and museums and going to concerts, dance performances, and the theater. I spend the other half working on my computer.

And because my business interests are international, travel is largely first-class and paid for by one of the companies I consult with.

My office is more a grown-up version of a boy's tree house than it is a workplace, complete with a personal gym, jujitsu room, billiard table, movie-screening room, and art studio. It is located 1.1 miles (an eight - minute jog) from my main home, which is in one of America's best cities, on the Atlantic Ocean in South Florida.

I take off early when I want to and come in late anytime I wish. I have eliminated all of the stress that used to characterize most of my workday.

And if I want to, I can do no work at all for six months or a year or forever.

In short, I am living the dream.

The purpose of all of this self-congratulatory talk is to tempt you to heed my advice. The reason I have this great life is due to one thing and one thing only: About 30 years ago, I decided to become an entrepreneur.

The most profitable thing I have ever done in my entire career of building wealth has been to invest in start-up businesses. Last time I checked, the returns I have enjoyed as an investor in small businesses have exceeded 25% per year.

There was a time when people thought they could earn that kind of ROI in the stock market. That was a very stupid and very costly notion.

If you are a great investor, you can make 10-15% in the stock market. But you can make 10 percentage points more than that, on average, by starting and/or funding small businesses that you understand.

Start-up businesses have given me so much-a steady growth of income, a base of wealth that has doubled every three years, the opportunity to get involved in so many other, interesting investments, and a rich and stimulating business life.

Although I sometimes grouse about working too hard, the truth is that I love starting new businesses. It's challenging, but it's also a great deal of fun. And when the business starts to work and the money starts flowing… well, it feels pretty damn good.

Thirty years ago, my track record at starting new businesses was a very mixed bag. But these days, I am usually confident that the businesses will work. This kind of confidence comes from 25 years of accumulated experiences, good and bad, and learning from them.

So if you were to ask me, “What is the absolute fastest way to become rich?” I'd have to answer: by starting a small business.

That's my answer. It doesn't mean it has to be your answer. You may not want to invest the time and energy that it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. You may be too timid. You may be too tired. You may lack the self-confidence to launch your own thing. But I'm hoping I can persuade you to consider this path. Because it is, as I said, the best way to become wealthy.

If investing in your own small business is not for you, then there are still plenty of other recommendations for you. You can look into stock, bond, options, precious metal, and so on. You won't be making 25% per year, but you'll do all right.

But if you are willing to become an entrepreneur-even a part-time entrepreneur-you will be amply rewarded. Not only can you double (or even triple) your money every three years, you can also enjoy the many other benefits of being your own boss:

The freedom to choose your own schedule The power to create your own products The excitement of being fully challenged The knowledge that you are providing an income for your employees.

My friend Anna W. asked me to help her start a business based on her love of music. She'd been looking over her current retirement plan and figured out that if she keeps her present job and continues to increase her responsibility and her income, she will be able to have a comfortable retirement in 14 years (at age 67).

That's not bad. Most people in her age bracket won't do that well.

But if she puts her energy and resources into creating a successful business of her own, she can look forward to a much better return on her “investment.”

Anna is going to start her new business on the side, working evenings and weekends. She's going to find a partner to back her, develop her product, and take it to market. When we went over the numbers, it became clear to Anna that this secondary business-if it is successful (and I'm pretty sure it will be)-will allow her to achieve her retirement goals in five years instead of 14, while she is still relatively young.

At that point, she can do whatever she wants to do with the rest of her life.

That's what a business can do for you.

Think about your own financial situation. Are you okay as you are-or would it be helpful to triple your money every three years?

If you need that kind of way-above-average ROI in your life, you simply have to consider starting your own business. Don't quit your day job. Just get something going on the side. You don't have to invest a ton of money or work endless hours. You can do well starting small.

Here are five proven (and absolutely true, in my experience) secrets of highly successful entrepreneurs that will help turn you into a business-building genius. These are very general principles. I am just touching on them here. In later essays, I'll explain them in detail.

Secret No. 1: Don't Spend Too Much Time Planning

When you are entering a market, you don't know (and couldn't possibly understand) the hidden problems and challenges you will face. You won't understand those problems until you make a few mistakes. And you won't solve them (and go on to making a success of your new business) unless you are capable of changing directions quickly.

Most successful new businesses (probably 90% of them) end up following practices that are different than anticipated. That's why it doesn't pay to spend too much time and money planning. Do a reasonable amount of noodling. Figure out the big strokes and give yourself a bailout option. Then go for it. He who can adapt wins.

Secret No. 2: Don't Spend Too Much Money

The vast majority of business start-ups that succeed do so on limited budgets. Almost none of them have the benefit of venture capital funding.

The great majority of new businesses are hampered (and enhanced) by flying on empty. People involved in businesses that have limited funds must think harder, work harder, and (most importantly) sell harder. Their primary initial effort is to bring in the cash. And that's how it should be. There is only one thing that will surely stop any business in its tracks: a lack of cash flow. Ironically, limited capital usually means a quicker and stronger cash flow.

Secret No. 3: Get Operational Fast

The most common reason for new product/project failures is wasting time getting ready. Between making overlong and expensive business plans, endlessly tinkering with the product, fooling around with focus groups, and second-guessing yourself, it's easy to let a good product/project lose its steam.

Bootstrappers don't mind starting with a copycat idea targeted to a small market. Imitation saves the cost of market research-and the start-up entering a small market is unlikely to face competition from large, established companies.

Secret No. 4: Go for the Quick Cash First

Contrary to what some business books may say, successful entrepreneurs are almost always those who take the fastest route to cash when launching a new venture. They do so because they don't have a choice. (See Secret No. 2.) After the cash starts coming in, they have the time and funds to improve the product, enhance customer service, and refine operations.

Keep in mind that the best-laid plans are often arrogant. You don't know for sure how to best serve the market. When launching a new business or product, figure out how you can get to breakeven fastest. This kind of thinking will force you to pay closer attention to the market. And the market is your master.

Secret No. 5: Forget About the Crack Team; You Are It

Successful entrepreneurs don't hire experts to run their businesses. They figure it out for themselves. When it comes to making your new product/project work, rely on nobody but yourself to make sure it gets done right. It may be stressful and time-consuming to do a lot of extra work, but it will pay in the long run. You will understand the project in an intimate, extremely valuable way.

You should want to learn about how your business works from the bottom up. You should want to know how to buy the products and services you learn. You should want to understand how to hire the best people. And most of all, you should want to understand how to bring in new customers at an acceptable cost. This is the key to every successful start-up.

Having started hundreds of successful small businesses in my career, I am bold enough to think that I understand how the start-up and development process works. I outlined it all in my book Ready, Fire, Aim. In my humble opinion, it is the best book ever written about starting and growing an entrepreneurial business.

In future essays in this series, I will tell you everything I know about building and starting a successful business. That means, as a member of the Wealth Builders Club, you will learn all of the most important things you need to know to avoid costly mistakes and ensure your success as an entrepreneur.

I am going to share with you all of my secrets, such as:

Why you shouldn't quit your job to start your business The four basic types of business, and which one I think you should be in The myth of the natural-born salesman How to come up with tipping-point ideas The handful of numbers you need to know to run your business How to groom protégés to run your business for you so you can live your dreams.

Take Action Now

If you listen to what I tell you and make it a point to keep yourself informed and educated, I have to believe you will come out a big winner.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of small businesses you could start this year. With the advent of the Internet market, there is virtually nothing you like to do that can't be turned into a business.

My success rate in business is probably 80-90% these days. The main reason is not that I know so much more than I used to (although I do) but that I'm much more reluctant to get into something I don't understand.

Make yourself a promise to devote a good part of your time this year to creating and/or developing a second stream of income. Allocate learning time every week. Develop a three-page business plan. Make at least one new contact every month-and use that contact to start your business.

No matter what type of side business you decide to start, assign to it a specific financial target each year, and reach that target by figuring out how much you have to accomplish every month to get there. Break those monthly targets down to weekly objectives and the weekly objectives down to daily tasks, just as I've detailed in my book, The Pledge, which I've sent you.

But don't feel overwhelmed. I do not want you to quit your job and risk your life savings. I will show you how you can start slowly, from your home, investing only modest sums, working weekends or at night, and build your little business slowly until you can figure out the best products and how to sell them.

Much of this you can get from reading my latest book, The Reluctant Entrepreneur. So read that, as well. But also read all of the essays in this series, too, since they will contain everything I've learned since writing that book. When that's done-and that should take about a year (maybe less)-you'll be ready to hop onto that 25% train.

I call it being a “Chicken Entrepreneur,” and that will be what our next essay is all about.

To your wealth,

Mark

Entrepreneurship is based on selling. You test the market with a product you think will sell well. If it does, you keep selling. If it doesn't, you try something else.

This approach lent its name to my best-seller: Ready, Fire, Aim. The main idea is that to start and grow a small business you must develop a pragmatic, action-oriented mentality. Rather than spend too much time and money refining theoretical ideas, you develop a prototype quickly and then see if the market will buy it.

As I said in the book, for every business that fails because of poor planning there are a dozen that never get off the ground because of too much planning.

The Ready, Fire, Aim approach obviously doesn't apply to surgical procedures and rocket science. But it will be very useful for 90 percent of the new-business ideas you are likely to come up with.

Want to start a business selling diamond-studded collars for kitty cats? Fine. There are two ways to go about that:

You can spend most of your time and money manufacturing a line of such collars - and only after that is done, start to think about how you can sell it. You can make a single collar and go down to the local flea market or your neighbourhood pet shop and see if you can find a customer for it. Most people start businesses the first way. That's why most businesses fail.

But with the Ready, Fire, Aim approach, you devote 80 percent of your initial resources to discovering an efficient way to sell the product. Once you have done that, you have found the key to successfully market it. With that key in your pocket, you don't have to worry about all the other problems that will arise in the natural course of business. You won't have to worry, because you will be able to create the one thing that can solve almost every business problem: cash flow.

Here, in a nutshell, is what I mean by Ready, Fire, Aim:

Ready: Get your product idea ready. Make it good enough to sell. Don't worry about making it perfect. There will be time enough for that later.

Fire: Start selling it. Sell it every way you can. Test different offers. Test different ad copy. Test different media. Keep testing until you discover something that works. This is your Optimum Selling Strategy (OSS).

Aim: Expand your customer base by focusing on your OSS. As your customer base grows, develop business procedures to accommodate that growth. Hire the best people you can to manage your business. Discover, through “back-end” marketing tests, other products and services that your customers will buy. Use those discoveries to refine and perfect a fast-selling line. As this back-end business flushes cash into your company, invest a good deal of that cash into front-end marketing.

That is the cycle of a successful start-up venture.

Ready, Fire, Aim doesn't mean you are willing to be sloppy. Nor does it mean you are willing to sell second-rate products to your customers.

On the contrary, Ready, Fire, Aim is the only truly practical way to find out what your market really wants from you.

And for a small business, Ready, Fire, Aim is the best way to get from good to great.

Think of it this way:

When we say we have “a great new product idea,” what do we really mean?

When I say that, I mean I have a strong feeling that the product will sell well - that it will be a big, commercial success.

But the truth is, I have only a hunch about how well my idea will do. Experience has taught me that my hunches are often right… but not always. If I spend too much time and energy preparing a business based on a hunch, what happens if the hunch doesn't pan out?

What happens is that I'm left with nothing - no money or materials or energy - to start over again. The essence of entrepreneurship is the ability to try and fail and then try again. You can't do that if you blow your wad the first time you try.

So nowadays when I get the feeling that I have a great idea, I figure out how I can test that idea as quickly and as cheaply as possible.

Once I know the idea has “legs” then I can roll out a sales program. And once a successful sales program is underway, I can refine and improve the product.

The truth is, I can never perfect a product in isolation. I used to think I could, but, once again, experience has taught me the arrogance of that kind of thinking.

To get from good to great, you need the help of superstar employees and, most of all, feedback from your customers. The best customer feedback comes not from surveys or focus groups but from marketing results. Find out what your customers want by selling things to them. This gets you back into the Ready, Fire, Aim loop.

If I had to pick one thing - one characteristic or quality of my work that is most responsible for the success I've had launching businesses - I'd have to say it was this Ready, Fire, Aim approach. It's something I believe in strongly. That's why I wince when I read the start-up advice of so many “experts” who advocate feel-good busywork over selling.

I was hoping that when Ready, Fire, Aim was published we'd see no more foolishness of this type in the business press. But here's just a short list of the misguided (and even ridiculous) advice I've read since my book came out:

Create an instant-impact message that describes the chief benefit of your business. Put it on business cards and brochures, which you should hand out at business functions and meetings. Find a great office space and fill it with furniture. Take a field trip to discover how your product or service will satisfy people's desires. Protect your “great ideas” by registering your business name, logo, and slogan. Create a paper trail - tracking all meeting dates, attendees, and discussions. Consult a lawyer and obtain his or her advice on how to best protect your business and make sure you set up the right legal structure. Check with your municipal authority to make sure “they permit a venture like yours” to work out of the home. Buy business insurance and “talk to an accountant or attorney” to make sure you're not missing anything. Get a toll-free phone number (to give the impression that your business is much bigger than it is). Do these things before you find out whether your product can sell, and your business is practically guaranteed to fail.

Again, here's my advice for starting a business:

As soon as possible, get the product ready to test. Test it as aggressively and creatively as you can. Spend 80 percent of your initial resources discovering the most cost-effective way to make the first sale (your “Optimum Selling Strategy”). Refine and adjust your sales process as market conditions change. At the same time, gradually develop business procedures to service your customers and improve your products according to your customers' buying preferences.