You now have a problem. If you are reading a book like this, you've probably already woken up the entrepreneurial part of your brain and it makes you restless.

You yearn to do big, meaningful work. You want to cause an impact. You want progress and positive transformation in the world.

This will not go away; it will get worse if you don't act upon it. This book is going to move you in the direction of being a successful entrepreneur. If you trust my process, you won't just wake up your inner entrepreneur – you will live that way.

Let your monkey brain know that I will cover the ‘how’. I will cover how to create a concept and how to earn money from it. I will cover how to build a team and how to enjoy more freedom. For now though, we need to begin some basic tasks that exercise the entrepreneur mind.

Rather than just talking about this mindset stuff (because I do appreciate that the mere fact you're reading this book is evidence you're already on the path), I want to give you some real-life challenges that will automatically start to break you out of the monkey brain system and begin to activate your entrepreneur mind.

Let's begin by doing something.

I'm going to introduce you to ten tasks that are designed to challenge you. These tasks aren't theory. As you'll see, I've done each of them myself.

I've recommended these ten tasks to numerous friends and consistently the feedback is that they are nothing short of transformational.

As you read through these tasks, it might be easy just to keep reading on without putting them into practice.

If you do keep reading, make sure you come back to these tasks as soon as possible and complete them.

These ten tasks aren't just fun things to read about, they are tasks to be completed. You will need to ‘do’ these things to get the lessons.

Even if you think you can imagine what it would be like to complete these tasks – do them for real.

I promise, if you do, you will rapidly begin to flush out the industrialised worker mentality and open yourself up to a world of new opportunities. Magic will happen.

Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.

Bruce Lee

CHALLENGE 1: MAKE THREE CALLS

Begin something bold without knowing how, exactly, it will work out. You might want to plan an event, start producing a song, talk to an investor, introduce yourself to that person you've been admiring and just say ‘Hi, how are you today?’ Whatever it is, don't plan too far ahead, begin it and let it unfold AFTER you're in too deep. Make three phone calls and see what happens.

Let me take you back to the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey and walk you through some critical lessons I had along the way.

In the first year of university, my friend Marcus and I came up with an idea to run a dance party for 15–17 year olds. The more we researched it and created clever and cheap ways to market the party, the more it seemed like an entirely valid idea.

I was excited but didn't know what to do next. I called up my dad, explained the situation and asked him what I should do; and he said ‘make three calls’.

His suggestion was simple: make three phone calls to see if anyone else is interested in your idea. Not friends, not family, but three people who will either advance the idea forward or tell you why it's not for them.

My first call was to a warehouse shed company that had a big green building across the street from my local park. They told me that it wasn't a suitable venue and that they tried to have an 18th birthday party there once and it was a disaster. They suggested I call an actual nightclub venue.

My second call was more ambitious. I called the top nightclub in town.

After being put through to the General Manager, I said in my most professional voice: ‘I am from a dance party promotions company and we have selected your venue as a possible venue for our next big gig for under-18s. You're normally closed on a Tuesday night so we were thinking about running something in the first week of school holidays with you.’

To my amazement he didn't hang up on me, nor did he get excited. He simply asked me to fax through a proposal and then organise a time to meet with him through his assistant.

‘Well I can't send you a proposal today because I am out of the office, but I will have one to you by lunch time tomorrow.’

My third call was back to my dad to find out what a proposal was.

We met with the nightclub manager and he agreed to run the party. As we walked out the door, he asked if we had thought about running some radio ads.

We didn't have any money for radio ads, but I used my dad's advice again and made three calls to local radio stations.

To my surprise, I secured A$4000 of free advertising in exchange for the naming rights of the party. The radio station suggested we should get some prizes from retail stores. I made three more calls and found retailers who were happy to give us thousands of dollars' worth of prizes.

The retail stores suggested we have a fashion parade. I made three calls and found that one of the cutest girls in our class was a model who knew how to run a fashion parade. She suggested I also take her on a date some time and I made three calls to brag to my friends!

Our party was a huge success and my business partner and I both walked away with more cash than we could carry that night.

This became our sideline business, and we were both able to make good spending money while at university.

On that first day, I never knew how it would unfold, I just made those calls to see what would happen next. I hadn't a clue what we would be getting ourselves into, but it felt great to begin it. With each step forward, the next steps appeared and before long we had an exciting result.

I'm not saying you should be reckless, I'm saying that it's impossible to know how things will pan out until after you begin. Take the first steps, pick up the phone and put yourself out there. Make a move that is directionally correct.

The monkey brain loves the idea that decisions are black and white. It craves clarity and certainty, wants a recipe to follow and takes comfort that if it sticks to a plan, everything will be OK.

Sadly this isn't how the world works, and it isn't how entrepreneurial success happens either. Success is always in a mess, it unfolds from a world of grey decisions that are directionally correct.

The way success looks from a distance is as if it was a perfect plan that came to fruition. The way it is behind the scenes is a mess that was moving in vaguely the right direction most of the time.

When you look closely at successful people, few of their decisions were black and white and obviously safe. Safe decisions don't provide a payoff. Safe and clear decisions are actually dangerous for a person who's seeking the rewards of entrepreneurship. If the decisions don't feel risky and incomplete, then the opportunity is too obvious and therefore too contested. Directionally correct decisions take you into the unknown.

Your inner entrepreneur is OK with sitting in the tension of uncertainty. The entrepreneur knows that resources show up when they are needed and normally not beforehand.

Entrepreneurial people believe that they have access to any resources that exist on the planet, whenever they need them, and that they only need to have the right conversation to get them – this means you have to pick up the phone and start having conversations.

To begin this task, simply pick up the phone, send some emails and arrange some meetings. Begin the conversation without knowing where it will lead you.

The entrepreneurial empire builder is OK stepping into the unknown and having an adventure. The empire builder sees the whole world as a stage and everyone as a fellow player in the game of life.

The entrepreneur isn't scared, but the monkey and the reptile get terrified if they think you're not able to survive, or if there's no money for the little luxuries later on in life. If they feel threatened, the reptile and the monkey will do everything they can to hold the entrepreneur back.

CHALLENGE 2: GET YOUR MONKEY A BANK ACCOUNT

Set up a new bank account and put at least 10% of all the money you earn into that account. This ‘monkey account’ helps you to feel OK about taking risks, and will eventually stop you from needing to do boring, familiar tasks. Don't touch that money; its purpose is nothing more than to become part of ‘your wealth’. This automatic wealth-building plan will be an essential key for keeping the monkey and the reptile off your back.

After the success of our first dance party, Marcus and I were thoroughly convinced that we were going to be successful entrepreneurs. We talked endlessly about how, one day, we would have expensive cars, big boats and houses all over the world. We were planning out our dreams and we were excited.

Marcus's dad, Vac, took us aside and gave us some interesting advice. He said, ‘be sure to put 10% aside and then you can go blow the rest on whatever you want’.

It was shocking advice coming from an adult. Weren't we meant to invest it all, or pay off some debt (not that we had any), or save it up for a distant rainy day?

Vac was a clever businessman, and this was good advice: enjoy our earnings whilst putting aside 10% of everything into a separate, wealth-building account. He said, ‘if you just keep 10% of everything you earn, you'll build wealth. Having wealth puts you in a position to make better choices with your life’.

The monkey and reptile brain are risk-adverse. The monkey thrives on repetitive things and loves a system that just works on autopilot. The monkey will feel very safe about money if it knows that there's a repetitive system in place that stashes money aside.

As you step into the Entrepreneur Revolution, well-meaning people around you will tell you how risky it is to go and do big things like start a business. Having a safe stash of money, that just keeps growing, helps you to reason with your monkey and reptile brain.

You need your monkey and reptile brain to feel safe that this money will not be used by the entrepreneur for any ‘risky dreams or schemes’. The money you put aside can never be used for business, spending or risky investments. It's for boring stuff like cash, property, tracker funds and blue-chip shares.

The monkey and the reptile need to know your future is being taken care of, so this account will please the part of you that's conservative and safe and concerned about your long-term survival.

I set up a special account with my bank called ‘the monkey brain account’ and 10% of my earnings went into it from the start.

To this day, these earnings sit around in boring investments – nothing too sexy, nothing too risky. I keep about 3 months of living expenses in cash, and then put the surplus into boring investments that I won't touch. The purpose of this money is to ‘have money’, not to spend one day. So many people imagine that one day they will have money, but they are unwilling to hold on to any money when it arrives. I can assure you, if you find it hard to save a little bit when you are starting out, you will find it hard to save a lot when the numbers increase. The more money you earn, the faster you will discover ways of spending it that you never knew existed. That is why, from your first income in business, you must put aside 10% as your automatic strategy for accumulating wealth over time.

After that, it just keeps ticking along automatically and it works. I bought one set of shares for A$12 and they were at A$45 the last time I checked. I put some money into a fund that always seems to go up by 5% a year. I hardly look at it and it always shocks me to see how much it adds up to over time. It makes me feel very calm to know that I have money to fall back on if I need it.

The other thing to note is that when you put a bit of money aside, you don't miss it. I have lived on yachts, had penthouse apartments, travelled the world, eaten in the best restaurants and driven prestige cars, and never found myself unable to do something because of my savings strategy. In time, you'll see that your entrepreneur plan is going just fine without your little monkey money.

This money is not for spending at a later date, this money is for having. If you imagine that one day you will have wealth, then you can either wait for a massive payday to come and hope that you magically know how to handle it or you can begin building wealth every month and adjust to it as it grows. I've seen that people who get the big payday often lose it quickly, and people who build wealth slowly keep it for longer.

I've also experienced that when you have money, your reptile and monkey brain are more trusting of your entrepreneurial ideas – having money will open you up to a bigger vision.

CHALLENGE 3: STOP SPENDING TIME WITH PEOPLE WHO BRING YOU DOWN

Start making friends with more people who inspire you. Spend more time having conversations with people who bring out the best in you. Stop hanging around people who drag you down. Make a list of people you currently spend a lot of time with and decide who can stay and who might need to go.

You become just like the people you have regular conversations with. These people determine the dominant ideas you ponder, the opportunities you notice and the resources you can access. Your peer group normalises a level of performance and if you don't like the results your friends have, you had better consider spending time with people who live the kind of life you aspire to.

When you look at the list of people you spend the most time around, if you do not have many people who inspire you, you're better off spending time out networking in inspirational places trying to find some.

Today I'm fortunate to spend a lot of my time with very inspiring people. I talk regularly with people who run exciting, fast-growth enterprises, people who lead charities and people who've achieved remarkable things and continue to address meaningful challenges.

Most of my insights come from an ongoing conversation with a peer group of successful entrepreneurs and leaders.

One of the reasons I dropped out of university was because I realised that most people I spent time with were playing small. At the end of my first year in university I became aware that most people I met were struggling to survive. I remember talking to a Finance lecturer who shared the fact that he and his wife were really struggling to pay the rent. This scared me. Why am I learning Finance from a guy who's struggling to pay the rent?

I could see this was only going to make me believe that playing small was normal.

So I decided to set out and find some mentors to shadow. I figured that if I could spend time with wealthy, dynamic, inspiring people, I might actually figure out what they do differently.

It was a frightening move to leave my friends and peers. I was afraid that I would be alone and wouldn't fit in with another crowd. My parents were both the first in their families to have a university degree, and now I was going to become a ‘dropout’.

When I was 19 years old I went to work for a friend of a friend named Jon, a successful businessman and marketeer.

Jon's company promoted and ran events all over Australia. He had a big house on the water, a vibrant family and he was engaged in meaningful work. He wore casual shorts and sandals most of the time, woke up when his kids did, played lots of games with them and was great fun to be around.

When he asked me to join his team of ‘inspired sales legends’, I laughed, because it was a very different way of explaining a job compared with the door-to-door roof insulation company sales team I had been working in at the weekends. They simply called me a ‘door-knocker’.

The other people who worked for Jon were all interested in achieving big, exciting and meaningful things too. The inspired conversations began and my mind tuned into all sorts of new opportunities.

I went from having regular conversations about grocery bills, rent and university deadlines to goals, dreams, plans and revenue targets. I was employee number four in Jon's start-up and I got the chance to discuss every aspect of the business with him. I learned more in my first month with Jon than I had in a year of university.

I was hungry to learn, so at every opportunity I asked Jon if he could teach me about sales, marketing, finding suppliers, conducting meetings, building a team and running a business. He happily taught me what he knew and a mentor relationship evolved. The lessons began flowing fast.

He taught me a lot about business and he also taught me how to shift my mindset from the broke university student to someone who was comfortable with larger sums of money.

CHALLENGE 4: CARRY CASH

Carry £1000 on you at all times. If £1000 isn't enough to make you a little bit uncomfortable, carry the amount you'd love to earn in a day.

One day, my new mentor Jon asked me how much money I considered to be a lot. After some thought I replied, ‘There's not much a guy can't do on A$1000 a week’.

He laughed, and said that if I was only making A$10,000 worth of sales a week (I was on 10%) then he wouldn't keep me on his sales team. To Jon, A$1000 wasn't a lot of money. It was the bare minimum I could earn before he would fire me – this excited me no end.

Noticing my reaction, he asked me to do something quite strange, which had a powerful impact on my life.

Jon asked me to get my hands on A$2000 and bring it back to him. I told him that I had A$100 in cash, A$500 in the bank and a limit of A$1000 on my credit card. He said, ‘go ask your dad for the rest or something, just bring me A$2000 tomorrow’.

I somehow got my hands on this vast sum of money and brought it back to him. Without much of a care he took it off me, stuck a bulldog clip on it and said, ‘carry that in your pocket at all times’.

It was wild. I was walking down the street feeling that, at any moment, a gang of ninjas would jump me and steal my entire net worth. I was nervous and excited all at once, and my hand never left my pocket for the first few weeks (better safe than sorry).

Then, one day, something strange happened. I was walking past a jewellery store and I saw an Omega watch. It was awesome!

‘It's A$2000, you can't afford that’ I said to myself. ‘Wait a second… I have A$2000 in my pocket. I can afford it if I want it.’

After a brief conversation with my entrepreneur brain, I realised that, even though I could afford it, I would choose to wait until I had earned it. I decided that when I had turned over A$1 million in my own business I would buy it as a reward. That felt right, and it also made me feel empowered that I had made this decision on my own rather than feeling powerless in view of the watch's price tag.

Over the following 12 months this became a regular occurrence. I would notice something I thought I could not afford and then realise that I actually had enough money in my pocket to buy most things.

All of a sudden, I was in the driver's seat. I had the power over the things and not the other way around. I had lost my emotional charge on them, I had also lost my charge on the idea that A$2000 was a lot of money; it's just how much I carried in my pocket.

This activity quickly surfaced my hang-ups about money. I realised that I had a fear of being taken advantage of if I had money, I had a fear of people judging me, I had a fear of losing it, I had a fear of being irresponsible with it and a fear of only being liked because of it. In the process of carrying it, I examined those fears and let go of them.

Prior to engaging in this challenge I also struggled to talk to people about money in my sales conversations. I would deliver a flawless presentation and make a clear case as to why we could deliver value, but then I would shy away from talking about the price because I personally had hang-ups about money. After carrying cash for a few months, my non-verbal communication changed and I confidently talked about our fees as though it was pocket money – because for me, it was.

It's almost impossible to go ‘reptile mode’ when you have a wad of cash in your possession. The reptile simply won't register a survival situation unless it's worried about immediate survival issues. With cash in your pocket, you won't be worried about your immediate survival. If the reptile is calm, you also won't be as susceptible to juvenile promises of easy windfalls.

In the first year working for Jon I went from earning A$800 a month, as a broke university student, to earning A$12,000 a month doing something that I considered fun; plus, I was living in a gorgeous beach location. Few people take this sort of a jump so quickly, and I believe that the A$2000 in the pocket was a big part of that shift.

Carry cash so you don't ever feel your survival is at stake. It will also allow you to confront your issues around money and recalibrate how much your brain thinks is a lot. This activity will do more for you than reading all the money books or attending all the money seminars.

CHALLENGE 5: EVERY WEEK TAKE SOMEONE NEW TO LUNCH

Take two new people out to lunch each week and pick up the bill. Have no fixed agenda, talk about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It's not a sales meeting or a meeting to look for partnership opportunities, it's just a warm, friendly chat over lunch.

I was told that I needed to build a good network of people around me who weren't customers, clients or old friends. To help with this, I had to select two new people a week to take out for lunch at my expense. This was tough in the beginning, but wonderful later on.

Initially, I couldn't think of anyone who would want to go to lunch with me, who I would be willing to pay for. I was stalemated by my lack of confidence and my lack of money.

But I had to come up with two per week, so I just started asking people who I would never have thought would join me for lunch. Business owners, investors, accountants and occasionally an attractive girl if I was feeling particularly brave.

You'll be surprised at how many great people respond favourably when you say: ‘Can I take you out for lunch next week, it's on me, I don't know you well enough but I'm sure there's plenty of good reason we should be talking.’

To my amazement, people I invited were always quite happy to go out to lunch. I listened to their stories, got great advice, fresh ideas and found myself learning all sorts of new things. I learned to connect with people and discovered what people are going through in life beneath the surface.

I never went with an agenda, I simply showed up to talk about life and listen to their stories. I would often run ideas past people, ask them what books they were reading or if they had learned any life lessons I should know.

Without trying too hard, I was developing a network and I was able to start introducing people, which made me feel even more valuable.

Often I would get introduced to people as well. I would get referrals, opportunities and advice. Taking people out to lunch wasn't an expense, it was making me money.

When I got on the phone to make a sales call I had all sorts of stories to share and I was speaking from experience and a genuinely inspired place. People would listen to me talk about lessons I'd learned from others, and I made a lot of sales.

The reptile brain fears people it doesn't know. It believes that a new person is probably unsafe or untrustworthy. This subconscious belief will hold you back in business, because entrepreneurs have to meet new people all the time. An entrepreneur needs to be able to quickly connect with someone, build trust and find common ground to discuss. Without the ability to talk to strangers, you are limited to a very small pool of opportunities, but when you open up to new people you open up to new resources as well.

When you begin to do this, you will find out very quickly that taking people out to lunch makes you more money than it costs. Having a network builds your net worth more than almost anything else.

CHALLENGE 6: TUNE OUT FROM THE NEWS

Give up on all news. No papers, no radio, no TV, no news websites. Feel free to Google specific stories that relate to what you do, but avoid news as a form of entertainment.

On the weekends I would walk down to the local cafe on the beach and order breakfast and a juice and read the newspaper, to catch up on the rest of the world that I had missed out on while I was busily building my little empire through the week.

It was terrible: war, death, accidents, failing businesses, crashing stock markets, rising interest rates, rapists and murderers. This stuff was everywhere!

Well, it wasn't everywhere; a lot of it was happening in other parts of the world. Very few disasters were happening in my little beachside township, no murderers had killed people I knew personally and none of the wars were taking place in my local area.

When I took stock of this fact I realised that almost none of the news was relevant to my life at all. These events were going to happen with or without my involvement. Even though I was aware of these news stories, I wasn't going to reactively do much about it, other than to ride the emotional highs and lows of the story.

I had been led to believe that I needed to be up-to-date with these world events in order to function in society. I'd been told that news was important and it helped to shape my mind as a free thinker. I discovered that this isn't as true today as it once was, and that carefully selected books and websites are much better.

With encouragement from a mentor, I decided it was safe to tune out from the news. I bought good books for the weekend at the cafe and to be completely free from the world events of politics, wars, death and destruction.

And guess what happened? Nothing.

I didn't get surprised by the phantom boogeyman that the papers had been warning me about. I didn't lose all my money in a stock market crash that had been foretold on TV. No national draft picked me to fight a war that I hadn't been up-to-date on. Absolutely nothing happened – except I felt good.

I felt light and empowered all the time. Occasionally, someone would say ‘aren't you worried about flying?’ and I would say ‘No, why would I be?’ and they would look at me as if I was either a heroic champion for getting on with things under pressure, or a loony who simply didn't understand the imminent threats associated with the new insurgence of terrorists.

Either way, I made it through the dangerous world just fine.

My reptile brain was terrified of tuning out from the news – the news is perfect food for the reptile. It loved the emotional highs and lows that the news provides and, in the first few weeks, it really kept nagging at me to get a newspaper or switch on the TV for an update.

After a while, my reptile brain calmed down and I felt OK about living in a world without a daily download of the statistically improbable disturbances to the planet.

When you tune out from the news, you will probably feel anxious that you're missing out on something. Quickly you will discover that, if anything does relate to you, someone will tell you about it. After a while, you will be shocked at how much energy you once gave to this thinly veiled form of entertainment.

Today we live in a world where the best computer scientists are paid to create news content from around the world and from your friendship groups that grabs your attention and doesn't let go. The power of a digital newsfeed is that there are no ‘stopping cues’. At least an old-fashioned newspaper had a physical stopping point, but digital media can hold your attention indefinitely as you scroll and click endlessly between world events and social gossip.

I admit that I struggle with social media because I can see many positive benefits when it's used correctly, but it's easy to fall into the trap of endlessly scrolling and clicking.

An early investor in Facebook, Sean Parker openly said the system is deliberately built to trigger addictive chemicals in the brain to keep you on the platform for longer.

As an entrepreneur who values your time, anything that distracts you from your mission, makes you feel scared or reduces your ability to influence should be considered a threat. If you're using social media to build your business it's an opportunity, but be careful that it doesn't start using you.

After tuning out from the news, instead of getting worried about world events or gossip I stayed inspired and kept on doing things that worked.

I came to discover that my own life was more important than the stories presented to me by some newsroom editor or social media feed. When I focused on my own life I did things that were newsworthy myself. My life was becoming more interesting and I put value on my own unfolding story.

So much was happening that I decided to start writing it down.

CHALLENGE 7: KEEP A JOURNAL

Start a journal. Make lists of high-value tasks, write down your goals, draw pictures, write marketing copy and project your future. Keep track of your thoughts and mark down your milestones. Every entrepreneur needs to explore ideas, plans, goals, targets and keep track of important stories for perspective.

Every mentor I've ever had keeps a journal on them. It shows up at every meeting, it goes on holiday with them, it rides shotgun next to them in the car and sleeps by their bed at night.

There are so many ideas buzzing about in the entrepreneurial brain. Brilliant, multi-million-dollar ideas seem to come thick and fast, showing up virtually every day – almost like a replacement for the news I block out.

These ideas need to be explored on paper. Calculations need to be done, resources need to be calculated, lists of missing pieces need to be accounted for and diagrams need to be sketched.

No matter how smart you are, you need a journal.

My first mentor, Jon, insisted that I keep a journal. He would give me a magazine and tell me to rewrite the ads in a way that was more customer-focused. He would get me to work out projected revenues on campaigns we were running. He would ask me to list all the goals I wanted to achieve by my 21st birthday, and to make a tally of all the things I was most grateful for to date.

My journals filled up quickly and, by writing things down, I noticed that my mind was free to have even more ideas. I also discovered that a journal is an excellent tool for beating stress, because the brain tends to have a hard time remembering lists of more than seven things at once. As an entrepreneur, you will almost always have more than seven things you are mentally juggling and if they aren't written down, too much of your brain power is spent simply remembering what you need to remember.

To this day I'm constantly surprised when I go back through my journals from years earlier. Quite regularly the things I named as ‘big goals’ I could tick off the list just 24 months later. The things I wrote down that were stressing me out, were resolved. The ideas that I was exploring often evolved into something valuable.

Get into the habit of writing in your journal daily. Even if you just sit with it open and make lists of things that come to your mind. If you've not kept a regular journal it can seem foreign to sit and write but, eventually, you wake up a very creative part of your brain that loves to express itself.

Here are some key things to write down to get you started:

• What are you most grateful for in your life so far?
• Who's been helping you recently whom you haven't acknowledged?
• What do you want to achieve in the coming 3 years?
• What would you do if you had £100k to invest in your business?
• Who can you take out to lunch this month?
• What have you noticed since carrying £1000 in your pocket?
• What problems can you solve for your clients?
• Where would you like to go on holiday in the next 12 months?

CHALLENGE 8: PLAN YOUR HOLIDAYS FIRST

Using a yearly planner (I like giant Sasco wall planners) schedule in the holidays you want to take. Blank out the time you'll be taking off in the coming year. Rule out the long weekends you plan on taking off and the mid-week lazy days you want free.

This task is an exciting one and it will do wonders for you as an entrepreneur.

Most people plan their holidays around their work. They hope there will be some spare time and money for holidays each year. But you are not a robot, you are a human being with limited time to explore the earth.

The successful people I know plan their work around their holidays, and you should try this approach too.

Start the year by blocking out at least 6–8 weeks of holiday time. Take out a big year planner at the beginning of the year and block out your holidays first. Work out where you want to go, how much you need to set aside and then reverse-engineer your work to serve the lifestyle you want to live.

Why is this important? Firstly, it allows your brain to relax about getting some downtime because it knows the holidays are coming. This allows you to get so much done when you are working. It also allows your family and friends to relax about when they will be able to spend some real quality time with you. If your family knows that there is a good two weeks of planned holidays coming soon, they won't worry so much if you have to be home late or work through a weekend here and there.

Next, holidays also give you time to think. I have my best ideas on holiday. The monkey brain takes over whenever you do repetitive tasks that you are familiar with; going to new places snaps you out of that.

With distance between me and the functional elements of my business, I get to play with the big picture and the really important stuff. It's amazing how powerful it is to get some time in nature, away from all the screens. Holidays recharge you.

Finally, your holidays ensure you have deadlines. It's amazing how much gets done the week before you take two weeks to go sailing with limited WiFi. The week before, you somehow move mountains so you can switch off and enjoy the trip.

For most of the last 10 years, I've started the year by blocking out my holidays. There have been a few years where I forgot to do it proactively, and I ended up not taking my holidays and suffering for it.

As a result of this principle, I feel I've had an interesting multi-dimensional decade. As well as building businesses, I've had some great adventures. I've sailed Thailand, Vanuatu, the Mediterranean and the Australian coast. I've snowboarded the Alps, the Rockies and in Japan and Australia. I've explored waterfalls in Asia and Indonesia. I've volunteered and raised funds in India and Africa. I've partied in Ibiza, Las Vegas, Bali and Morocco.

The years I took holidays were always much better than the ones I just worked. Better financially, better for my morale, better for connecting with people, better for big dreams and better for my family and my health.

Don't skip this step. Find a way to make it happen.

CHALLENGE 9: GET STRUCTURED

Make an appointment with an accountant and a lawyer to discuss your business and wealth-building plans. Ask them to steer you in the right direction for tax planning, wealth protection and attracting investment.

Consider this:

• Entrepreneurs have structures in place that accommodate their big, global vision.
• Entrepreneurs use company structures, partnerships and trusts to manage their wealth.
• Entrepreneurs learn how the system works, so they can legally structure themselves and live exactly how they want.
• Entrepreneurs believe they should pay the tax legally required of them but not more (unless you love the way they spend it).
• Entrepreneurs believe it would be folly to expose their empire to the risk of being unfairly sued by an opportunist.
• Entrepreneurs believe they can leverage the resources of others, provided they can create fair structures that are attractive to investors and high-performing people.

All of this takes planning.

In recent years, offshore companies and structures have been broadly labelled as tax-avoidance schemes and indeed many of them are set up purely to dodge tax that should rightfully be paid. With that said, many entrepreneurs legitimately set up companies and structures so that they can do business all over the world, attract investment, reduce risk and pay their fair taxes in the jurisdiction that makes most sense from a global perspective. In this time in history, having an overly simplistic approach reduces your ability to scale up a great idea that could help people all over the world.

From a young age I was encouraged to meet with accountants and lawyers to discuss my plans and the types of structures that would best fit with them.

No one is born with an inbuilt knowledge of how legal and accounting systems operate, so it's something every ambitious entrepreneur needs to learn. There's also good reason why you were never taught about tax and structuring in school. The system is more than happy for you to earn money in your personal name, pay the highest possible rate of tax and be completely liable for every risk you encounter, even though both of these liabilities can be legally reduced.

Some people feel a moral obligation to pay as much tax as possible, and by all means if you feel that way you can send half your earnings to the government for them to spend with all their wisdom. Many wealthy people I know reduce their tax obligations legally and fairly, and then free up money to donate to charities, invest in new innovations or scale their own businesses faster. The choice is ultimately yours, because the system facilitates a broad spectrum of options for entrepreneurs. My only encouragement would be to know your options before you commit to any particular path.

You spend 100% of your life interacting with the tax and legal systems. It's crazy not to understand them and have a plan for how you will interact with them.

Some people think they will set up a structure after they make a lot of money. Sadly, this doesn't work and it can cost hundreds of thousands to restructure a company that is already up and running. You must create a wealth structure before you make money. It's a nasty catch-22. Companies, trusts, accountants and lawyers all cost money, and you have to spend this money before you have it but if you do, it will make life easier down the road.

Wealth structures are an investment and you need to find ways to build them. I recommend that you talk to lawyers and accountants before you make a lot of money. Many lawyers and accountants will meet you for an hour, free of charge, to talk about your plans.

We live in exciting times that will certainly take your business to a global audience, and the right structure will allow you to effortlessly scale up to meet your market wherever they are. You may want investment, and investors will want to know how you are structured before they invest.

To complete this challenge, you should set up several meetings with these business advisors to discuss your plans. Even if you don't go ahead with any of their suggestions, you will be more knowledgeable about your options.

CHALLENGE 10: GET AN ENTREPRENEURIAL TEAM IN PLACE

Identify people around you who can help you to implement your ideas and achieve the big goals you have for your future. No matter if you are starting out or you're already a millionaire, it will be the team you build today that will determine the results you get tomorrow.

There's no such thing as a self-made millionaire. In every case, people who are described as self-made are surrounded by a brilliant team of people. Entrepreneurship is a team sport and the more successful you want to become, the more great people you'll need around you.

Talking about your next big move in business is nice and it's important, however, there's no traction until you recruit key players onto your team. In the coming chapters we will talk about how to attract and build a team, and it's wise to start early to identify people who might join you as an employee or supplier.

I started out as a valuable player on my mentor's team, then I had to go out and build a team of my own.

It wasn't until I built a team that I was able to start my business. When I left my job with Jon to start my own company, it was only because my friend Glen was an exceptional sales person and he had agreed to be part of the team.

If you are starting out, here's my draft pick for who you should be looking for from day one:

1. A graphic designer – someone who can take the vision and create brochures, websites, sales forms, business cards and make a business idea look tangible.
2. A sales person – someone who's genuine, likeable and can ask that tough question: ‘How would you like to pay for that?’
3. A Swiss army knife – someone who isn't 100% brilliant in any one thing, but can get most things done well enough. They are organised, flexible, frugal and detail-orientated. They can do data entry if required, customer service calls, order supplies, book flights, fix most IT problems or quickly find someone who can.
4. A technician – someone who's brilliant at delivering value to your clients in the industry you're in (e.g. a hair dresser for your hair salon, a software coder for your technology business, a builder for your home renovations business).
5. A mentor – someone outside the business, successful, wise, who's been around the block and had a few bloody noses, available for late-night chats over a glass of wine. This could also take the form of a mastermind group rather than just one person.

These people could be a mix of full-time staff that you hire, virtual staff paid by the hour, or even people who are helping you out as a favour.

If you're already in business, with an existing team, this principle still applies. If you want to grow, you will need some new high performers and it's worth thinking about who could be your next great recruit or supplier. You'll know better than I do who you need next on your team but, rest assured, you got this far because of who you put around you, and you'll get where you're going for the same reason.

I have seen businesses start out with complex financial modelling, forecasts, projections, schedules and big ticks in all the boxes from government agencies who supposedly know something about starting up. Despite all the planning, they fail hard and fail fast if they don't have a team to implement the plan.

Some of the best entrepreneurs I know are quite bad at putting business plans together, and tend to write notes on scraps of paper more often than they write detailed plans.

One thing they are good at, however, is recruiting the right people around them and building a culture where high performers want to stay.

Entrepreneurial teams might not always have a plan, but they possess an amazing ability to pull things together under all sorts of conditions. They get sales in the door, deliver upon the promises of the business, keep costs down, start early, finish late, communicate powerfully and stand strong under pressure.

A powerful question I have asked many people is: ‘What would it take for you to quit your current job and come work with me?’ An alternative question might be: ‘Would you be willing to do a little bit of part-time work with me if we could find a way to fit it around your current job?’ Those questions are excellent for sparking useful conversations about how the business will evolve.

Make a list of people you'd like to have on your entrepreneurial team, even if they are currently employed elsewhere. Start keeping an eye out for a great sales person, a detail-oriented administrator, a customer service person, and so on.

You simply can't build a successful business on your own. You need to become a master at spotting the potential in everyone you meet.

DON'T SKIP THE TOUGH CHALLENGES

The tasks that I set out each have important lessons built in, designed to stimulate your entrepreneurial brain and shut down the monkey and the reptile.

If any of these tasks really challenge you and you feel uncomfortable, they absolutely have to be done. Try to dig deep and look for the underlying beliefs that make it so challenging. Over the years, I have seen these ten challenges bring up some strange beliefs in my clients.

What might you believe about money that prevents you from carrying it?

If you worry that you will lose it, explore why you feel you are irresponsible with money. If you are scared of being mugged, take a look at your belief that having money means attracting bad people and events.

What do you believe about yourself that stops you from associating only with inspirational people?

If you are worried that they won't like you, what makes you feel so unworthy? If you are afraid they will take advantage of you, explore why you believe successful people are manipulative.

What is it that makes you feel so uneasy about switching off from the news, taking leaps into the unknown or planning great holidays?

Anything at all that comes up in your mind and stops you from implementing these ideas is worth taking a good look at.

Is it possible that these limiting beliefs are holding you back in other areas of your life too? If so, you need to push through and do these toughest challenges the most.

I promise you that these ten challenges will change your life, if only you are willing to step into the unknown and trust the process.

It's not easy going from the world of ‘industrialised factory worker’ to the world of being an ‘entrepreneur’.

As we discussed, society has so many unspoken rules about what you should and shouldn't be doing. These ten challenges will most definitely feel uncomfortable at first, because they deliberately rub up against old rules that no longer serve you.

In the Steven King movie The Shawshank Redemption, the main character spends close to two decades tunnelling out of his prison to freedom. Inch by inch, he frees himself from the physical and psychological constraints of his maximum-security confines.

It's an inspiring movie for many people, and a powerful metaphor. I've given you ten ways to tunnel out of the Industrial Revolution and into the freedom of the Entrepreneur Revolution. Take your time, keep digging and inch by inch you will be closer to a whole new level of freedom.

Get a coach, a mentor or join a group to hold you accountable if you need to, but push yourself to get the breakthrough you deserve. The juice will be worth the squeeze.

As you tunnel your way out of the industrialised system, sometimes you will catch a glimpse of what it's like living outside the system and sometimes it will get tough.

No matter what, you must continue to lean in.