"In general, I think that people spend too much time talking about their wins, and gloating, and how well things are going and never talk about the disarray or things that are going on behind the scenes, or things that they're struggling with. I think it's important to talk about this stuff; I think everyone goes through these types of things." - Mike Jackness on the business and life struggles he faced this year This is that time of the year when people talk about "best-of", "top 10 of the year", and all those things that highlight the most significant things that happened to them this year. It's a great way to look back on the successes and lessons of the year that is about to end and to get ready for the year that is about to come. In this podcast I will not do a "best of". Instead, I will talk about the struggles and the challenges I faced. Too many people talk about the glory of being an entrepreneur and sweep the mess under the rug. Being in ecommerce is not all roses and the bigger your business grows, the more problems you encounter.  So in this episode, I will talk about the hardships, the confusions, the worry and all the uncertainties that we faced head on this year, and what we did to get overcome them. I elaborate the following challenges my company and I faced head on: Having to reinvent myself as we adopted a new launch strategy (I talk about our new launch strategy in detail in this episode) Keeping up with explosive growth and the tough high-level decisions I had to make Hiring a C-level employee for the first time and how scary that moment was Trying to get our non-Amazon sales to catch up with our Amazon sales and the constant dread of something terrible happening to our account Being able to systematize everything Staying focused and keeping myself away from pet projects Working with my wife (happy wife, happy life right?) It definitely has not been an easy year but with all the struggles came the fruits of our labor: explosive business growth, a great team, and happy customers. We don't expect problems to let up anytime soon since we are gearing for more growth next year, but we do know that we will be giving it all we've got. And you should, too. Resources mentioned: Stamped.io AsiaInspection Our Amazon Product Launch Strategy for 2018 Free 2-hour Webinar If you enjoyed listening to our podcast, please leave us an honest review on iTunes. We badly need reviews to help us get discovered by other ecommerce entrepreneurs out there looking for our content and we need your help. In connection, we are having a 2-hour coaching webinar on December 21st and attendees can ask anything under the sun and we will give our honest unbridled advice that will be really helpful for your business. Normally I charge $500/hr of my consulting time but this webinar will be for free. The only thing we ask in return is that you leave us an honest review of the podcast. You can check out the details here. Thanks as always for tuning in. Until next episode, happy selling!