How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It: Summary & Key Insights

I grew up in a middle-class neighborhood in Pittsburgh, and from an early age, I learned that if I wanted something, I had to earn it. My first hustle was selling garbage bags door-to-door at age twelve. That simple act taught me one of the most important principles I’ve carried through my career: selling is learning. You have to understand what people want, what problem they’re trying to solve, and how what you’re offering fits into that picture.

In college, I ran small ventures—teaching dance lessons, opening bars, and taking on odd jobs. Each one taught me a new lesson about people, operations, and most importantly, failure. I wasn’t chasing money back then; I was chasing freedom. I realized I didn’t want someone else telling me what time to show up or what I was worth. That chip on my shoulder became the fuel I needed to start my first company. I learned early that business is about creativity as much as it’s about persistence. When you’re broke, creativity isn’t optional—it’s survival.

This foundation—selling, experimenting, adapting—became my playbook. It’s what allowed me to take on bigger risks later, because I already knew what it felt like to fall flat and get back up again.

Failure isn’t glamorous when you’re living it. I’ve been fired. I’ve been broke. I’ve watched deals collapse that I thought would change my life. But here’s the truth: every failure is feedback. It’s not the opposite of success; it’s a step toward it. When I got fired from my job at Your Business Software for closing a deal instead of doing what my boss told me, I could have sulked. Instead, I decided I’d never let anyone else have control over my ability to sell again. That’s how MicroSolutions started.

Failure taught me to trust my own judgment, to learn faster, and to adapt to whatever happened. Every stumble gave me a skill—negotiating, coding, reading balance sheets—that became indispensable later. The key is not to romanticize failing; it’s to learn how to process it. When you screw up, ask yourself what you didn’t know that you could have known. Then go find that knowledge. In business, curiosity is your best defense against repeat mistakes.

Over time, I stopped fearing mistakes. I started seeing them as the cost of doing business—and the tuition for a very real-world MBA. The sooner you learn to accept that mindset, the faster you’ll improve.