You might know Anthony Scaramucci from his infamous 11-day stint as the White House Press Secretary in 2017.

A big personality turned into a punchline overnight.

But “The Mooch” also has a pretty interesting entrepreneurial origin story, starting his own paper route as a kid, all the way to building SkyBridge Capital from scratch.

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He shared about his journey in detail with Ed Elson on First Time Founders this week.

He touches on themes I think we can all relate to as soloists:

• Moving past the no’s by believing the yes is around the next corner
• Not waiting for perfection - just get going, then adapt
• Avoiding a victim mentality by removing “should’ and “ought” from your vocabulary

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But the piece that rang most true for me was being able to operate by your own measure, and accepting that an entrepreneur’s path is going to look and feel a lot more erratic than your peers in more traditional paths.

Because it is.

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He discusses the idea of the cocktail party test:

In my experience, this took a while to get comfortable with.

Our comparison brain is always looking for some sort of relative benchmark or validation that we’re not “falling behind”.

This instinct goes into overdrive when things slow down, and I could easily start to think “where would I be if I would’ve stayed on the other side?”

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But I’ve found there’s an emotional muscle that builds over time that orients not on title or salary or ‘expected’ social status.

But rather around:

• Do I believe in what I’m building?
• Am I truly adding value for those I seek to help?
• Am I honoring myself and my unique expertise in how I deploy myself?

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I think if you can say yes to those, The Mooch’s ‘cocktail party test’ should be a breeze.

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Hope you enjoy the interview — note: he does touch on his stint in the White House and his regret in taking that job, but otherwise the conversation largely stays out of politics.

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💡

-Wes