As A Solopreneur, I Quit These 5 Habits That Silently Destroy Your One-Person Business.
Reclaim your time, energy, and productivity.
You are your own worst enemy.
Every business problem is a personal problem in disguise.
You are the bottleneck.
Solopreneurship is the greatest form of self-improvement.
You’ll find out more about yourself through starting and growing a one-person business than by reading any book, podcast, or meditation.
Here’s why.
Comparison is the theft of joy
There will always be someone making more money than you.
But business isn’t a comparison game.
Solopreneurship is the hardest self-improvement game disguised as a money-making game.
Every business problem stems from a personal problem:
Procrastinating while creating content? That’s your fear of being seen.
Scared to make an offer? That’s your childhood programming.
Constantly feel like cash flow is tight? That’s your sense of scarcity.
Can’t delegate? That’s your problem with a lack of control.
But people keep trying to read the next book to solve their problems.
After years of failing, I’ve learned:
The solution isn’t external.
The limiting beliefs you unconsciously carry around. The programming you haven’t updated since childhood. The faulty life lessons you learned at 16 and never questioned again.
They all come out when you start a business.
Solopreneurship will expose every flaw, insecurity, and limiting belief you have.
But here’s what you can do about it.
#1: Accepting random criticism
I’m Chinese-Singaporean-Australian.
Whenever I’m back in Singapore, every single family member has a criticism about how I’m living my life. It’s almost like a sport. They seem to take delight in pointing out your shortcomings or limitations in how you’re living your life.
But being 30, I’ve realized this will never end.
People will judge you no matter what you do. You’re doomed either way.
If you do it, you’ll be criticised.
If you don’t do it, you’ll be criticised.
Criticism is unavoidable.
So, if it’s unavoidable, you might as well bet on yourself.
But one powerful filter I’ve added to any criticism I receive:
If I wouldn’t accept their advice, I won’t accept their criticism.
This means that I stop accepting criticism from 99% of people in my life
There are very few people I actually admire and listen to.
Most people are mediocre. They haven’t achieved what I want to achieve. If you’re doing the work that only 1% of the people in the world actually do, how relatable do you think you’ll be? Exactly.
But that’s the paradox.
You’ll almost never be criticized by someone doing better than you. It will only be from people behind you. Your success is a reminder that you did something they wanted but didn’t. You are a mirror to their lack of action.
Former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously said:
“The opposition occupies the benches in front of you, but the enemy sits behind you.”
Sadly, criticism will come from those closest to you.
When you grow, friends, family, and colleagues will turn against you. They will tell you that “you’ve changed” because they don’t know how to say “you’ve grown.”
Criticism isn’t a sign to stop. It’s a sign to keep going.
#2: Accepting free advice
In 2025, I invested over $40,000+ in coaching, consulting, and community.
I hire a coach for every aspect of the goals I want to achieve:
A business coach.
A handstand coach.
A book writing coach.
Why?
I want to pay for curated expertise, experience, and real-world results.
I don’t have the time or patience to sift through random YouTube videos to piece together a solution. I want speed, implementation support, and accountability.
Every 1-hour session with my coach saves me a month (or more) of time.
I no longer need to go through the random trial-and-error they endured. I can shortcut my learning, take their hard-earned lessons, and iterate faster.
On top of coaches, I have a near-unlimited budget for:
Online courses.
Seminars.
Books.
Free business advice is too expensive.
#3: Trying to appeal to everyone
Whenever one of my clients is stuck with their offer, my first question is:
“Who is this offer for?”
It’s an immediate red flag if they answer with any variation of:
“anybody, everybody, or anyone.”
Why? Because:
If you’re everything to everybody, you’re nothing to no one.
You need to be something to somebody.
This isn’t about picking a niche. It’s about being able to say that you can solve this type of problem effectively for this type of person during this transition period of their lives.
People need to say ‘hell yes’ or ‘hell no’ to your offer.
You need to aim for that level of polarity.
Appealing to everyone makes you a commodity.
Appealing to a specific person makes you rare.
Being vague means no one really knows who you are.
When you are super-duper clear, even if they say no to your offer, they can refer you to others because they know exactly what you do and who it might be good for.
Broad = broke. Specific = sales.
#4: Being afraid to ask for the sale
“Thanks for the offer, but I already bought from someone else”
Those words felt like a slap across the face.
I had delayed presenting the offer.
Why? I felt self-conscious.
They had just bought a one-off coaching session with me. So, I procrastinated for a few weeks. I kept delaying.
Finally, my business coach told me to make the offer.
So, I did.
But by that point, the lead had already purchased a program from someone else. The worst part? The person they bought from was not a great coach. Many of their clients came to me after working with them.
But the situation was 100% my fault.
My competitor made an offer. I didn’t. They got the sale. I didn’t. I had no one else to blame but myself. Business is ruthless. A competitor's sale often means no sale for you.
Get used to rejection. Get used to being denied.
Get delusional about offering your offer.
But a ‘no’ is not a no forever.
It’s often a ‘not right now’ or ‘not yet’.
An offer delayed is a sale betrayed.
#5: Wasting time
You waste your time by death of a thousand cuts.
Those small yeses to small activities accumulate. I’ve recently had someone email me, demanding a 15-minute meeting. When I asked why, they responded, “I’ve got an idea I want to tell you about.”
But busy, successful people aren’t vague about their requests.
They don’t want to waste either their time or yours. Anyone who randomly asks for my time gets ignored. I no longer feel pressured to respond. If they aren’t a client or want to buy from me, they don’t get my time.
Be utterly ruthless with your time.
Every business meeting in my calendar must:
Move me towards my goals.
Have an agenda and purpose.
Result in a transaction or sale.
If they don’t meet all 3 objectives, the meeting gets cut short or removed.
In life and business, your time is the most valuable resource. You can’t get it back. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. You need to protect it at all costs.
I’m extreme about this.
I don’t:
Do laundry.
Clean my room.
Cook my own food.
Watch Netflix alone.
Spend time commuting.
I’ve designed a life in Bali where everything I need is within a 5-minute walk.
My gym, co-working space, guest house, restaurants, and laundry mat are all on the same road. My day is so predictable that it allows me to take huge risks with my business and saves my thinking for my writing.
This saves me at least 10 hours per week.
That’s a full day of work per week that I get back.
Over a year, that’s an additional 520 hours I can use to improve my wealth, health, or relationships.
You can spend your time however you want.
Time compounds whatever you feed it.
Spend it wisely, and time becomes your friend.
Spend it foolishly, and time becomes your enemy.
But there’s a certain way to spend your time that generates assets, not liabilities.
Your business won’t die overnight.
But if you’re doing these 5 things, you’re slowly bleeding.
One day, you’ll wake up dead. Wondering where all your time went.
You can get ahead by avoiding the biggest time sinks.
As the late Charlie Munger once said:
I want to know where I’ll die and never go there.
Avoid business death by:
Not accepting random criticism.
Not listening to people who don’t have what you want.
Not trying to be everything to everyone.
Putting out an offer every day.
Investing your time in productive tasks.
👉 Build your PROFITABLE six-figure one-person business while you work a 9–5 corporate job (Even if you have kids or a mortgage). If you want my one-person business growth system, I’ve created a FREE email course for you to get started
