This is the 'hardest thing' about being your own boss, says CEO whose company brought in $2.5 million in 2024

CNBC

16-05-2025

In 2016, just a year after its launch, MySwimPro earned Apple's App of the Year designation in the watch category. Fares Ksebati, the app's co-founder and CEO, says that while there was no monetary price for that honor, "it gave us a lot of momentum."
Nearly a decade later, things are going swimmingly for Ksebati and the company: MySwimPro brought in over $2.5 million in revenue in 2024 and counts over 15,000 active paid subscribers as of March 2025.
Running the company has been an opportunity for Ksebati to share his passion for swimming with thousands of athletes around the world while taking home a salary of $240,000 plus bonuses and profit sharing in 2025.
The Detroit native says being an entrepreneur has taught him a lot about himself and "what's possible in the world." If he worked a regular 9 to 5, he thinks he'd feel stifled creatively and would miss out on opportunities to build something that has a tangible impact on people's lives.
The freedom of being his own boss has come with one drawback, however: "The hardest thing in entrepreneurship is focus," Ksebati says. "This is something that I've struggled with in the past because I have so many ideas of things that I want to pursue."
Here's his best advice for other budding entrepreneurs.
Despite the urge to build another business, Ksebati acknowledges that the continued success of MySwimPro relies on him remaining dedicated to the company, rather than trying to start a new venture.
"If you want to make progress, you have to stay focused on one thing," he says. "I do want to create another company and move on and do other things. But for right now I'm really happy."
His outlook is similar to advice career experts and business icons like Warren Buffett have given about finding success. At the 2025 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Meeting, Buffett told the audience that focusing on your passions and interests will bring you more success than pouring effort into pastimes that don't excite you.
"If my ambition had been to become a ventriloquist or whatever it might have been, it wouldn't have worked," Buffett said. "I just spent hours and hours and hours on investing."
Ksebati does dedicate time to his side hustles, though. He has written several books and continues creating videos for his personal YouTube channel along with MySwimPro's channel, which give him a creative outlet that isn't as time-intensive as running a whole other business.
Confidence is also a key factor in building a successful business, Ksebati says. Back in 2014, he was training a triathlete who wanted a personalized swim workout to take with her on a work trip. That gave him the idea for what would become MySwimPro, and he didn't hesitate to go out and build it.
These days Ksebati often receives pitches from aspiring entrepreneurs. But he says many of those folks are "looking for reassurance or confidence" from him, when they should try to be more proactive.
"If you have an idea, you need to take action," he says. "The reality is you are in control, and you need to go out and talk to [prospective] customers, validate your idea and actually make something happen. The first step is the hardest step."
Even if you're worried you're not equipped with every last skill you'll need to run a successful business, you're better off getting things moving and acting on your idea than waiting around until things are perfect, Ksebati says.
"I think as you build something, as you create and [become] an entrepreneur, you are building these tools and skills and confidence to bring your vision to reality."