Author: John Hill

This is the story of how I prepared for ten years to move from employee to entrepreneur. For ten years, my most valuable possession was a small, worn notebook. Nothing fancy—just a regular notebook from the store. But inside, it held my future. I worked at a bookstore (in 2001) and later at a book printing company (in 2004). Every single day, I dreamed of having my own business. So, I made myself a student of my own life. During lunch breaks, I’d ask my boss everything about handling difficult clients and managing cash flow. He was a great teacher.…

I’ll never forget the week that almost broke us. My co-founder and I had only three books left to sell. Those three books were our only hope. We needed to sell all of them just to have enough money to print the next small batch. Days passed—no one bought a single copy. We sat there staring at those three books, the weight of our decision pressing down on us. We thought, “This is it. We can’t keep doing this. It’s just not working.” The urge to give up and return to a safe job was overwhelming. But then, something remarkable…

I’ll never forget the day my childhood friend sold his land back in 2011. He walked into our usual coffee shop beaming. “I’m rich now,” he announced, waving a bank statement at everyone. And he was. Overnight, he had become a millionaire. Within months, he had two new cars, a fancy house, and shiny new motorbikes for his kids. He joked that he only drank bottled water now, sometimes even splashing it on his face in the morning because he could. He was the “village millionaire.” Three years later, he was broke. Completely broke. That experience revealed the real difference…

The microphone was slick with sweat in my hand. The bride’s uncle was drunk and making a beeline for the stage, clearly intending to give an unscheduled speech. I had 300 restless guests, a nervous couple, and a wedding planner who was on the verge of a meltdown. My job was to hold it all together. When I was 19 or 20, I worked as a Master of Ceremonies—an intern gig to help pay my way through school. That night, I wasn’t just an MC; I was learning the single most important and most misunderstood skill in business: marketing. The…

“I hate salespeople,” the man said, crossing his arms. He leaned back in his chair, his expression a wall of pure skepticism. My heart pounded in my chest. I was new to selling books, and honestly, I hated it too. I felt like a fraud, a pushy imposter trying to talk people into spending money. Every time I had to tell someone I was a “salesman,” I felt a wave of embarrassment. Weren’t all salespeople liars? That one difficult conversation, with that one hostile customer, was the moment I almost quit. Instead, it became the most important education of my…

This isn’t advice—it’s my personal journey of rebuilding my confidence, purpose, and career after years of feeling lost. I spent more than 10 years at the same, stable job in a bookstore and print shop. Wake up. Go to work. Come home. Repeat. It was safe, but I was stuck. One evening, I sat down with my bank statement and felt my stomach drop. Another month gone. Another paycheck spent. Nothing saved. Nothing to show for all those hours. I looked around my apartment and asked myself: What do I actually have? The answer scared me. Nothing felt like mine.…

I used to think everything was about fate. For years, I waited around for my “big break.” I genuinely believed the universe would just hand me some lucky opportunity if I was patient enough. Spoiler alert: it never came. And when I finally stopped waiting and actually tried something? My first business completely flopped. This is just my story—not advice, not a how-to guide. Just what happened to me and what I figured out along the way. The Failure That Changed Everything Let me take you back to 2012. My co-founder and I opened a bookstore. We were excited, hopeful—all…

When I quit my job at the bookshop to start my first bookstore, my friends thought I was crazy. No business degree. No startup capital. Just me and my co-founder, a worn notebook, and an idea that wouldn’t let us sleep at night. But here’s what I learned: you don’t need to have everything figured out to start. You just need to start. Why We Started Wardoh Books We needed a name. The name ‘Wardoh’ came to us later when I rebuilt the company during one of those late-night brainstorming sessions. We combined “ward” (meaning to guard or protect) with…

Every morning at 6:30 AM, coffee in hand, I skip emails and social media to watch the bees in my garden. Relentless and focused, the bees move from flower to flower—but never land on dead ones. They seem to instinctively sense which blooms are fresh. Watching them this morning reminded me of the most painful and valuable lesson I ever learned in business: I was trying to get nectar from dead flowers. The Story of the Client I Was So Sure I’d Win Let me take you back to my early days in the print shop. I was proud of…

My Childhood Adventure: Climbing 20-Meter Palm Trees This is a personal story about how one childhood adventure unexpectedly shaped my mindset as an entrepreneur. It’s not business advice—just a real experience that taught me lessons I still use today. When I was a kid, I climbed palm trees almost every day. Some were near my house. Others were far away. If you didn’t grow up in the countryside like me, this might sound strange. But for us, it was normal life. Those trees were tall—really tall. Most of them reached approximately 20 meters in height. That’s like a six-story building!…