Years ago, I walked onto the set of Shark Tank thinking I had it all figured out. I'd built an ecommerce brand and website from scratch, had revenue, traction and a mission. I left without a deal — and a bruised ego.

But that moment ended up being one of the best things that ever happened to me.

Today, I've built four companies, including a fast-growing hiring software business that generates more than $2.5 million in annual recurring revenue. It's been used by over 5,000 small businesses across the country to find and hire better candidates, without needing a full-time recruiter.

The truth? Most of my biggest breakthroughs came from the mistakes I made along the way. Here are five of the hardest, most valuable lessons I've learned — and how you can apply them to grow your business faster and smarter.

Related: I Started Over 300 Companies. Here Are 4 Things I Learned About Scaling a Business.

After Shark Tank aired, our website crashed. We had thousands of visitors, emails and online orders — but I didn't have the hiring bench or systems to capitalize on the moment.

We were scrambling. I had no recruiting pipeline, no onboarding playbook and no way to scale our customer support.

Now, I recruit like my life depends on it — because it does.........

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