August 23, 2016 4 min read

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Unlike many entrepreneurs, Sam Ovens figured out very early on that the nine-to-five wasn’t his destined path in life. He wanted more, so after just three months working his first post-college job, he quit and moved into his parent’s garage to start his first business.

After nine months of hard work and spending all the money he had, Ovens' first business - a reverse job board -- went live. It quickly failed miserably, as did the next two businesses he started.

Rather than giving up and going back to the mundanity of office life after each failure, Ovens used the experiences as learning opportunities. Why didn't his great ideas fail to resonate with consumers? What did he do wrong? What did he do right?

This self-evaluation and his willingness to learn and grow, led Sam to try his hand once more at entrepreneurship, starting his fourth company - a business consulting firm.

This time his efforts paid off. By age 26 - just four short years after opening his consulting business -- Ovens had made more than $10 million. Needless to say, he has also moved out of his parent’s garage.

I spoke to Sam recently to hear what advice he had to share with other entrepreneurs. What follows are his top four tips -the most valuable lessons he learned through his own process of entrepreneurial trial and error.