While there isn’t a shortcut to success, there are coaches, mentors, and books that can certainly help you along your journey. Today on Inside Automotive, we’re pleased to welcome Jake Kelfer, entrepreneur, best-selling author, and motivational speaker, to walk us through his latest book titled The Elevated Entrepreneur: Unlocking the Secrets of the World’s Greatest Coaches, Performers, and Entrepreneurs. Kelfer and his work have been featured in ESPN, Forbes, and USA Today, to name a few. 
Kelfer began his journey with the dream of playing in the NBA; after realizing that may not be so realistic, he decided he just needed to be on the court somehow. Instead, he went to college to become a sports agent. He had a job lined up at his dream agency at graduation, and they went on a hiring freeze. The dream had a roadblock before it even began. After some networking and planning, he got a job working for the Los Angeles Lakers. Seeing Kobe Bryant in his last season with the Lakers and his impact on the team, Kelfer was inspired to try to do that himself.
Kiefer ended up writing his first book, Elevate Beyond, a few months later and started speaking all over the world, working with more NBA athletes. He wanted to turn dreams into reality. The book we are discussing today helps further that dream along. The Elevated Entrepreneur was created “to help people regardless of economic status to be able to create a life they desire. To be able to build a business that works for them.” There is no right way to accomplish this, so in this book, Keller shows 39 different entrepreneurs and what they did to gain their success. He wants the reader to “find who they resonate with and to pick and choose the “mentor” to push them forward towards success.”
Kelfer had this to say, “We look at successful people after they have become successful, but we didn’t see the last ten years it took them to get there….we have to change not only our perspective, but we have to gain certain skills like disciplined committed actions to get to where we want to be.”
When asked how he would define success, Kelfer stated, “I think success is ever evolving. It’s our compass, our guide to get us to where we want to go. For me in my life, success is being able to do what I want, when I want, with who I want, and I want to inspire others to do the same.”
After the pandemic, people are taking the opportunity to do something for themselves, like starting their own businesses or going out to get the job they want. “Covid gave hours of people’s day back to them because there was no commuting. We finally got the time and remission to create something. Not only is that an amazing opportunity for people, but you are creating way more competition. With the advancements of technology, we have seen more people have less barriers to access what they need. This has created two things. One the best can stand out and two it created a need to differentiate yourself from the crowd,” Kelfer explained.
With our economic climate, people many aspiring entrepreneurs wonder if now is the right time. Kelfer said, “I’m a big believer that there is never going to be the right time. If you want to wait you can keep waiting. You don’t have to go all in, you don’t have to just spend one hour on this. You have to figure out the plan of what you are going to do and what is the first step you can take to make that dream your reality. And so is it the right time? I don’t know but if you are willing to start and put in the time things will line up.”
When asked what the book’s most significant takeaway is, Kelfer proposed, “What you desire is possible. There are people out there that have way less than you become way more successful. There are people who started with success and continued to become more successful. When you read this book and learn from some of these experts, you get to choose what success looks like for you, and you get to do something about it. Ask yourself what does success look like to me and what am I willing to do about it?”
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