I started my first business because I lost my job for a political reason during martial law in Poland and could not find any because I was blacklisted. With some good luck and my diplomatic skills, the transition was smooth. We ended up making good money.

I started my second business eleven months after arriving in Chicago, with no money, a few connections, and poor English. Three years after I started it, my accountant doubted that the business could survive the next few months. Seven years later, we sold it for a nice chunk of cash.

In both cases, before I made any money, many among family and friends envied me the wealth I did not have. There is a perception that owning a business equals floating in opulence.

The truth is that starting and running a business is overbearing stress that only very few can withstand. In both aftermentioned businesses, some people dropped off because they could not tolerate uncertainty.

In my later business ventures and when running businesses for other people, I realized that the key to my success is in my exceptional ability to be effective under extreme stress conditions. Very few people can physically handle so much anxiety.

In the case of the author that stress manifested itself in LQTS because he has a genetic predisposition.

The author failed because he did not pay attention to people telling him that starting and running a business is a nerves-wrecking venture. Like people who envied me money I have not made yet, he expected a walk in the park.