The First Five Years

The First Five Years: A Mindset and Accounting Guide for Business Founders This isn't another feel-good entrepreneurship book filled with inspiring stories and vague advice. It's a tactical survival manual for the brutal reality of business ownership, where 50% of ventures fail within five years.

The book dismantles the romantic myths of entrepreneurship with unflinching honesty. It reveals why 82% of businesses fail not from bad ideas, but from cash flow problems nobody talks about at networking events. It exposes the hidden costs of independence that employment masks, and the psychological phases every founder faces—from the initial hustle to the grinding middle years.

Structured around a five-year timeline, each chapter combines harsh mathematical realities with practical systems. The author advocates for controversial approaches: firing nightmare clients, taking profit first rather than hoping for leftovers, and building businesses specifically to sell whether you intend to or not.

The book includes detailed "Focus Planners" — implementation tools that transform concepts into measurable actions. From calculating your true survival number to preparing for inevitable crises, these planners force readers to confront uncomfortable truths about their ventures.

What sets this guide apart is its refusal to sugarcoat the journey. It acknowledges that entrepreneurship is as much about energy management and relationship building as it is about products and services. The final chapters tackle advanced concepts like systematizing operations to reduce owner dependency and preparing for exits that create freedom regardless of whether you sell.

For founders ready to face reality without the usual motivational rhetoric, this book offers a proven framework for not just surviving the first five years, but emerging with a valuable, systematized business that works without constant oversight.

The question it ultimately asks is simple: In 1,825 days, will you own a business or will it own you?