The Sweaty Startup: How to Get Rich Doing Boring Things
Nick Huber
HarperBusiness (April 2025)

Do you have what it takes to build your own business?

Nick Huber wrote this book to help as many people as possible to answer that question correctly. Most people do not but it is certainly well-worth knowing that before making massive investments of time and energy in a startup,  then funds as well as high hopes and great expectations.

According to Huber, “What matters most isn’t the type of business. It’s that [highly successful entrepreneurs since Benjamin Franklin] didn’t reinvent the wheel. Here’s the kicker:

“They kept going for five, ten, or twenty years. They built great businesses over time. They kept things simple. When they had more work than time to do it, they hired other people to help them for a few bucks less than they were charging. They managed risk and grew slowly. They built their skills and got better and better at making decisions related to business. They learned to lead other people. They became good at sales and persuading people to go along with them or buy from them.”

Huber makes brilliant use of reader-friendly devices. For example, here are five of several dozen “Cold hard truth” nuggets of street-smart wisdom that are inserted strategically throughout his lively narrative:

o “A lot of games that are glamorized by society aren’t actually worth winning.”

o “Execution is a thousand times more important than your idea. Hiring. Delegation. Selling. Logistics. Communication. The boring stuff. That’s what the winners get right.”

Note: Thomas Edison nailed it: “Vision without execution is hallucination.”

o “Every single business, when operated at a high level, is fundamentally the same. The owner or CEO is not doing the thing. They are operating the company.”

o “When it comes to business and sales, it’s not about you.”

o “In the early days you must do the things that do not scale. The hard stuff. The common things that work but that most people are unwilling to do because they are difficult.”

o Channeling one of Stephen Covey’s admonitions: “Doing the important but not the urgent tasks is the key to your business growth.”

o There is a direct correlation between the stress you have endured in your professional life and the amount of money you earn today.”

o “You are not a victim. Your situation right now is a direct result of your decisions and your actions in the past. Your relationships, your income, your physical and mental health, your assets, your network. The buck stops with you.”

I also commend Huber on his skillful use of checklists. For example, in Chapter 6, he examines a covey of habits of “highly successful salespeople”:

l. Realize not everyone wants to buy what you’re selling.
2. Get comfortable being uncomfortable.
3. Prove that you are an expert.
4. Manage expectations.
5. Add value first.
6. Make scarcity work for you.
7. Let the other party sell themselves.

Note: Whenever a sales prospect points out that a competitor quoted a lower price, I always reply, “They know what their stuff is worth.”

He thoroughly explains each “cold hard truth,” stressing dos and don’ts.

These are among Nick Huber’s concluding thoughts: “Believing in yourself is never easy. So put yourself in as many difficult situations as you can. Train your lizard brain to get back in the cage and leave you alone. Learn to love the pressure and the rush you get when there is potential for humiliation and failure…and then get out there and get rich doing boring things.”

Think of The Sweaty Startup as a high-speed, rigorous, salty, take-no-prisoners, balls-to-the-wall REALITY CHECK.

It is definitely not for the faint-of-heart. Nor is building your own business.