02/17/2026
If you want to get this book for free, keep scrolling. 👋
If you are looking for a magic button to make a million pesos while sleeping on a beach in Bali next week, I have bad news.
That world is a lie.
It is a marketing hologram sold to you by people who make money selling courses, not building real companies.
You see the social media posts of 20-year-old "CEOs" posing with rented sports cars. You hear about "passive income" myths. They show you the champagne, but they hide the stress. They show you the revenue, but they never show you the profit margins.
I’ve had enough of it.
So I wrote a new book to shatter that hologram. It is called "How To Really Be An Entrepreneur."
This isn't a textbook written by someone with a PhD. I am not a professor guessing about business; I am a practitioner. I have stared at a bank account with zero balance and figured out how to make payroll. I have launched products that crashed and products that made millions.
This book is a de-programming manual.
We are going to destroy the "Employee Mindset" that is keeping you broke.
🚫 We will kill the myth that you need "passion" to start.
🚫 We will kill the myth that you need a perfect product to sell.
🚫 We will kill the myth that you are the most important person in your company.
Instead, we will build a framework based on leverage, speed, sales, and cash flow.
🔥 THE FRIENDS-ONLY OFFER
The regular price for this book will be $47.
But for my friends here on social media, I am doing something different for the pre-launch.
I am offering it to you for ONLY $3.
"Ian, why not just give it for free?"
Because I know human psychology. If I give it to you for free, you will download it, save it to a folder, and never look at it again. We do not value what costs us nothing.
But if you pay even a measly $3, you have skin in the game. That $3 is the guarantee that you will actually read the book and apply the knowledge. It is a commitment contract between me and you.
👇 HOW TO CLAIM YOUR COPY:
1. Send $3 via PayPal to [email protected]
2. Take a screenshot of the payment and DM it to me here on Messenger.
3. Sit tight. The book releases at the end of February.
Reading this book won’t make you an entrepreneur. Doing what is in this book will.
If you are looking for a transformation, send the $3. Let’s get to work.
Table of Contents:
Part I: The Foundation (De-programming)
Chapter 1: The Employee Hangover
Topic: Breaking the mindset of trading time for money. Why "being your own boss" is a trap if you just create a job for yourself. Understanding the difference between a freelancer, a business owner, and an entrepreneur.
Key Concept: You don't get paid for effort anymore; you get paid for results.
Chapter 2: The Passion Trap
Topic: Why "follow your passion" is often bad advice. How to find the intersection between what you like, what you are good at, and what the market is actually willing to pay for.
Key Concept: The market doesn't care about your passion; it cares about its own problems.
Chapter 3: The "Zero to One" Grind
Topic: The reality of starting from scratch. Dealing with the "Valley of Despair," resourcefulness over resources, and the art of bootstrapping.
Key Concept: Momentum is hard to build but easy to lose.
Part II: The Mechanics (Building the Engine)
Chapter 4: Validation Before Vision
Topic: How to test your idea without spending a fortune. The MVP (Minimum Viable Product) approach, pre-selling, and gathering brutal feedback early.
Key Concept: If they won't open their wallets, they aren't customers—they're just being polite.
Chapter 5: Sales Cures All
Topic: Why sales is the single most important skill. Overcoming the fear of selling, understanding rejection, and the difference between marketing (generating leads) and sales (closing deals).
Key Concept: You are a salesperson first, and a [your profession] second.
Chapter 6: Cash Flow is Oxygen
Topic: Financial literacy 101 for non-accountants. Understanding P&L vs. Cash Flow, burn rate, and the danger of "vanity metrics" (likes/revenue) vs. "sanity metrics" (profit/cash in bank).
Key Concept: Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, cash is king.
Chapter 7: The Product Paradox
Topic: Why "good enough" shipping beats "perfect" planning. Iterative development and avoiding the trap of endless tweaking. Building systems that deliver the product reliably.
Key Concept: Perfect is the enemy of done.
Part III: The Expansion (Scaling Up)
Chapter 8: Fire Yourself
Topic: The transition from "doing" to "leading." Documenting processes (SOPs), delegation, and trusting others to do the job (even if they only do it 80% as well as you).
Key Concept: If you can't step away for a week without the business collapsing, you don't own a business; the business owns you.
Chapter 9: Hiring for Hunger, Not Just History
Topic: How to build a team when you can't afford top-tier talent yet. Hiring for attitude and aptitude. Culture fit vs. skill fit. When to hire full-time vs. contractors.
Key Concept: A bad hire costs more than just their salary.
Chapter 10: The Art of the Pivot
Topic: Recognizing when something isn't working and having the courage to change direction. The difference between quitting and pivoting. Case studies of successful pivots.
Key Concept: Fall in love with the problem, not your solution.
Part IV: The Longevity (Staying the Course)
Chapter 11: Mental Armor
Topic: Managing the psychological toll. Burnout, loneliness, and decision fatigue. Building a support network of other entrepreneurs (masterminds).
Key Concept: Entrepreneurship is a marathon of sprints.
Chapter 12: Calculated Risk & The "Unfair Advantage"
Topic: How to identify and leverage your unique advantages. Assessing risk without being reckless. How to outmaneuver larger competitors by being faster and more agile.
Key Concept: Don't play fair; play to your strengths.
Chapter 13: The Exit Strategy (Even if You Stay)
Topic: Building a business that could be sold, even if you never sell it. This forces you to build value, assets, and systems rather than just a lifestyle income.
Key Concept: Build it like you're going to sell it tomorrow, run it like you're going to keep it forever.
Here's the Foreword of the book:
Foreword by David M. Cox
Director of Education, The Internet Business Academy
https://TIBA.mba
In the halls of academia, we teach theory. We discuss the macroeconomic forces that shape industries, the psychological underpinnings of consumer behavior, and the precise calculus of supply chain management. We grade on a curve. We offer extra credit. We provide a syllabus that tells you exactly what to expect and when.
The real world offers none of these mercies.
The marketplace does not grade on a curve; it is a binary system of pass or fail, profit or loss, survival or extinction. There is no syllabus for the chaos of a startup. And there is certainly no extra credit for trying hard when the cash flow dries up.
I have spent my career at the intersection of education and ex*****on. At The Internet Business Academy, we strive to bridge the gap between what should work and what actually works. It is a wide, treacherous canyon filled with the wreckage of good ideas that were poorly executed.
That is why this book is so necessary.
"How To Really Be An Entrepreneur" is not a collection of polite theories or comforting platitudes about "following your dreams." It is a field manual for that canyon. It is a survival guide written in the language of the trenches.
Ian del Carmen does not write from an ivory tower. He writes from the front lines. He understands that entrepreneurship is not about the glamour of the exit; it is about the grit of the entrance. It is about the unglamorous, often painful process of wrestling a vision into reality against a world that is indifferent to your success.
In these pages, you will not find the usual prescription of "passion plus perseverance equals profit." You will find a far more potent medicine. You will learn why your employee mindset is a liability, why sales is the only metric that truly matters, and why you must eventually fire yourself to truly succeed.
This book challenges the modern mythology of the startup. It strips away the vanity metrics and the social media posturing to reveal the mechanical bones of business building: cash flow, validation, delegation, and the cold, hard math of customer acquisition.
As an educator, I look for resources that do more than inform... I look for resources that transform. Information is cheap; it is available everywhere. Transformation is rare. Transformation requires a shift in identity.
This book demands that shift. It demands that you stop thinking like a worker and start thinking like an owner. It demands that you stop seeking permission and start seeking results.
If you are looking for a gentle pat on the back, put this book down.
If you are looking for a roadmap through the reality of building a business that lasts, turn the page.
Class is in session. But this time, the test comes first, and the lesson follows.
David M. Cox
Director of Education
The Internet Business Academy
https://TIBA.mba
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👇 HOW TO CLAIM YOUR COPY:
1. Send $3 via PayPal to [email protected]
2. Take a screenshot of the payment and DM it to me here on Messenger.
3. Sit tight. The book releases at the end of February.
Reading this book won’t make you an entrepreneur. Doing what is in this book will.
If you are looking for a transformation, send the $3. Let’s get to work.
