Getting Fired from His Cushy Corporate Gig Was the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Him

This entrepreneur is not world famous, not a household name (although you might know him.) But his story - of coming back after getting bucked from the horse more than once - is one we can all relate to!

Once upon a time, he was the golden boy. Indeed, that’s what his dad used to call him, “golden boy.”

President of his Junior class in high school, and then Student Body President. At UCLA, he was elected to student government again. He didn’t run for re-election that time because he chose to travel aboard a boat called the SS Universe and sail around the world (for school credit!) for four months.

• In China, back then, everyone was still wearing Mao outfits. They had never seen a foreigner before (especially one with such long, curly locks.)

• In India, the poverty overwhelmed him (though the Taj Mahal remains the most beautiful building he had ever sen.)

• In South Africa, Apartheid enraged him and he almost got arrested.

• In Brazil, he tried to bum a trip down the Amazon (until he came to his senses!)

And when he returned stateside, everyone said he was going places, that he might be a Senator someday, and he believed them.

But Then

In his third year of college, the anchor in his life, his sweet, loving, fun dad, died. His best friend. His guide. Dust in the wind.

Everything changed.

Our hero somehow made it through the rest of college. From the outside, he even looked OK. But inside? Bereft. Empty. Heartbroken.

Fortuntaely, a mentor noticed and helped steer him towards the path of a prestigious graduate fellowship. It was called Coro. It was the kind of kind of opportunity that opens doors and makes careers.

(And even here, he barely made it in, being the special case 25th interviewee in a class that should have only been 24. Who says mentors don’t pull strings?)

Coro was great, and led him . . . nowhere.

Crickets.

For the next three years, he continued to drift. He parked cars. He sold magazine subscriptions over the phone. He had a Master’s degree at 22, and he was spinning his wheels.

He almost married the wrong person. He was broke, emotionally and financially.

He certainly had no sense of self, no direction.

Go North Young Man!

Then on a whim, an old friend invited him to move north. She and her boyfriend had a spare bedroom he could crash there.

Something shifted with that act of kindness, that encouragement. The young man, so adrift but who had help such promise, got himself a damn good job, one that paid well.

And then he met a stunning, lovely, funny, sweet woman and her preciousness a six-year-old daughter. They were kind. Grounded. Real. Something inside him said: “It’s time.”

So he did what he never swore he would do and applied to law school. Not because he dreamed of it, but because it felt like a grown-up thing to do, like the right next move.

(IMPORTANT ASIDE: In my TikTok today, I share the story of Tim Ferriss saying, don’t dream big, act little. Big dreams can overwhelm, but the next, little step in the right direction? That is doable. You can see it here.)

Our guy turned out not to be a great law student, mediocre in fact. But because he was older, sharp, good with people, was charasmatic, and liked the law (even if it didn’t like him as much!) when graduation came, he landed the top job in his class, at the best firm in town.

Happy ending, right?

Wrong!

Your’e Fired!

Less than a year later?

Fired.

Why?

“You’re just not a good enough writer.”

He was a newlywed and they had a newborn on the way. And a mortgage. And no paycheck.

Yet, our guy was thrilled.

Clearly he was not meant to be an employee. He had long wanted to be an entrepreneur like dear old dad.

All’s Well That Ends Well

Six weeks later, with a small loan from an old friend, he opened his own tiny law firm. No clients. No plan. Just… forward.

At the same time, a series of books he had pitched to a prestigious publisher in NY long ago somehow hit the jackpot. It was more than a long shot, but who cares?

Steve had never been published, not even a letter to the editor. But the NY publisher said yes . . . to a four-book book deal!

So that year, they bought a house (with no money down), had a baby, and walked into a bookstore and he saw his name on the shelf.

The book read,

“The Small Business Bible” by Steven D. Strauss

So yes, I am today’s entrepreneur, but the story doesn’t end here. Just wait until Part II, in tomorrow edition, and you will be reminded that the path of the entrepreneur is never just a yellow brick road, not by a long shot!

The Takeaway

Take it from me, you do not need a perfect plan. You do not need to be fearless. You just need to keep going. The break does not always come when you want it to. But it does come - if you keep moving forward.

Steal This Strategy

📖 Book – The Small Business Bible
Steve’s bestselling book that started with nothing more than a crazy idea and a fired-up ex-lawyer.

🎥 Video – Steve Strauss on MSNBC
How a guy who was “not a good enough writer” ended up on national TV pitching one of his 18 books and talking entrepreneurship.

📰 Column – Steve’s Column at Inc.
From broke to bestselling. The long game of credibility, one byline at a time.

🛠️ Tool – Ask a Lawyer®
It began as 4 of these AAL books. Then came a column. Then TV and global speeches. Now a media brand with hundreds of thousands of readers.

🎙️ Podcast – Entrepreneurs on Fire – Steve Strauss Interview
Lessons from reinvention, failure, and building your own media empire from scratch.

About Steve

Steve Strauss is the best-selling author of The Small Business Bible (and 17 other books), Inc.’s small business columnist, a lawyer (non-practicing), and an entrepreneur. He sold his last venture, TheSelfEmployed.com to Mark Cuban & Zen Business. Need a ghostwriter or a newsletter for your business? Contact Steve!