Falling In Love With The Journey, A Founder’s Story with Johannes Larsson

Johannes Larsson is the founder and CEO of Financer.com, an SEO geek, and an affiliate marketing expert. He’s been practicing entrepreneurship and digital marketing for over a decade and runs a global remote team. In his blog, he shares his expertise in SEO, affiliate marketing, and finance with a wealth of free resources for digital entrepreneurs.

I grew up in Sweden but moved to Malta when I was 18, and then eventually to Cyprus where I live now. I realized early on that your network is your net worth and that if I wanted to make it in business I needed to expand my horizons and surround myself with like-minded entrepreneurs. I spent my teenage years teaching myself a lot of the skills which I have taken into my business, such as building websites and making money online. At the time this might have been seen as a risk, focusing on a business that was just making a small income, to begin with, when my peers were focused on their schoolwork and further education. However, I always knew that my path would be different from other people and that it would pay off to be true to myself.

When I first started on my entrepreneurial journey I definitely suffered from shiny object syndrome. When you’re young and passionate about this exciting new opportunity of making money and building things online, it’s easy to get carried away and lose focus. I eventually realized the importance of putting all of your energy into one main focus and not stopping until you reach your goals. That’s when my financial comparison site Financer.com really took off and I started to see incredible results. Over time we’ve managed to take it from one country to 25, hire a team of amazing intrapreneurs all over the world and turn over millions of euros. You don’t achieve that when you’re spreading your focus on too many things. Now that Financer.com is established and has a great team behind it, there is more time for passion projects like my personal blog and my latest courses in SEO and affiliate marketing. It is always a pleasure for me to share my experience with others and help them to achieve the results they want from life.

You have to fall in love with the hard work, the hustle, and the challenges of business just as much as the good times. If you can’t find a way to enjoy the journey you’ll never make it to your destination. New entrepreneurs don’t always realize this, and I think it’s one of the main reasons people quit. The one thing you’re guaranteed in business is that things will never be completely straightforward. There is no magic point you reach where suddenly things become easy and there are no more difficult times. Yes, you’ll find ways to overcome these challenges, you’ll find amazing people to help you – but new opportunities always bring new problems as well. However, what is also guaranteed is that you’ll become stronger and wiser with every single challenge you face. Every time something goes wrong and you get back up again you realize you don’t need to be afraid of falling down at all. The people who manage to embrace every aspect of their journey and find excitement and enjoyment in everything they’re faced with – they’re the ones who make it in the long term.