Ten years ago, IHC daddy Franki Chan was a failed comic book artist without a job or a place to call home. Today, he runs IHC and its diasporic sub-universe as his ever-expanding empire continues to influence culture and nightlife in L.A. and abroad.

Obviously, that didn’t happen overnight. His intervening years between nobody and somebody is now the subject of a recent Fast Company article that chronicles his self-reinvention and path to becoming L.A.’s undisputed nightlife based god.

An excerpt from the piece:

“Over the following years, IHEARTCOMIX has expanded in many directions: DJ tours, a weekly L.A. party called Check Yo Ponytail (which in turn became a show on PitchforkTV), marketing, PR, event production, design, and more.

“From the outside, it appears like there’s been a lot added,” Chan tells me. “If you look at doing one show, or one record, a lot of those elements are all tied into it. You have to book the talent, you have to create the artwork, you have to do the advertising campaign, you have to know the sales, and you have to create video. We were putting a lot of work into things that were small. Now, we’re taking each of those individual small things and applying them to something big.”

In other words: Don’t expand outside of your comfort zone. Build something in which you have internal expertise into an important part of your business, but don’t reach wildly in all directions.”

Check it out the rest of the article here; it’s a pretty good read, and a v. legit source for inspiration for anyone who thinks they’re too down and out to do something huge.