If you want to be an effective entrepreneur, I’d say you should have at least 10 good friends who are already successful entrepreneurs. If that sounds like a lot to you, I’d say that something is very wrong with your mindset.
Few entrepreneurs succeed in isolation. Business is a social game.
I’d estimate that about half of the money I’ve made in business (and in my life overall) actually came from other businesses. The other half would be directly from consumers. That includes my computer games business. For my personal development business, a lot more of my revenue has come from other businesses.
While I like selling direct to customers, such as by selling tickets to my workshops, I’d need a lot of individual customers to match what one good business deal can do. How many individual customers would do more than $1 million worth of business with my company, even in a lifetime? I’d imagine not many. Yet I’ve done more than $1M of business with a few different business partners over the years, and I’ve done many other deals that have generated revenue in the $100K-$1M range.
Am I saying you can’t go it alone? No. You could do that. But the odds of success as a strict solopreneur who only deals with individuals are stacked against you.