Ask HN: When can you call yourself a "successful entrepreneur"?
I struggle with this daily.
I started my career with a 9-5 job for 6 years in high-tech bioengineering sales. While working, a friend and I worked on a blog, which turned into some info-products that have, to date, grossed about $500k (though my take-home over 4-5 years is more in the $100k range).
I quit my job after 6 years, and launched my own online product and sold 250 sales within 6 months, and the product continues to sell on its own...but I have only pulled about $12k from this product so far (though it continues to sell and grow each month with little effort).
While this was all going on, I also picked up several one-off $2k-$3k clients and generated about $20k over 2 years for these jobs.
Now, I am trying to step my game up and get clients who sell products for $10k-$20k/unit. In my sales packages and copy, I want to say I am a successful entrepreneur, but I struggle with this on a psychological level.
First off, I am nowhere near my goals (that's why I am stepping up my business to higher value clients)...so how can I really say I am successful?
Secondly, my expertise in internet marketing has helped me sell services in the 2-3k range, and products in the $35-$100, but never something in the $10-20k range. How can I seriously call myself a success if my successes don't align with the idea of success I am trying to sell my clients?
Maybe this is all psychological, but I would be interested in hearing the opinions of other consultants/entrepreneurs...