I went out another day and joined a meetup party with some entrepreneurial fellows there. I have had a few conversations about entrepreneurship and the worldview about it. That went surprisingly well, so well that some of the ideas intrigued me to change my perspective on the subject. I gave it some thoughts and here is the note.
There is only one world!? If someone ever says to you ” That would never work in the real world”, please don’t believe them. That world may be real for them but hang on, it does not mean that you have to live in it.
Failure is a prerequisite for success, is it? WRONG! A Harvard Business School study have revealed that entrepreneurs whose companies failed the first time had almost the same follow rate as people starting a company for the first time: just 23 percent. So don’t take it hard when people advise “fail early and fail often” or that failure builds stepping stone, it is true just not that glamorous. There you have it, so then whenever you fail, it is not necessarily that you are one step closer to success, it is just that something have gone wrong and you better fix it.
Hiring and growing, the more the better? Not necessary, any business could be started from the garage and yours is too. I believe that you should not hire anyone until you feel hurt and have to. Hiring is to reduce the pain from the tasks not to increase the pleasure. While premature hiring is a serious mistake that have failed may promising start-ups, it is suggested to grow slow and see what feels right.
Work longer or smarter? some say smarter, I would say both. You could figure out a faster way to work but it doesn’t mean that you can leave the office at five. Workaholics are smart workers too and they are working longer than the others, now who would you hire and who would you be?
Why are you doing this? Profit alone is not strong enough and should not be used as a sole motivation (though a business without profit is just a hobby). You need more than that. Not only you are building your business, you have to breath your business and live your business. You need to feel that you are making a difference, that it is important that you keep doing what you are doing or if you stop, people will notice. Great business has a point of view, not just product or services. You need to believe in what you are doing, you need to have a backbone, also need to know that you are willing to make it happen, then show it to the world.
Good or perfect? In some cases, good should be enough. Since problems can often be solved with simple solutions, get the job done and move on is more important than showing off the skills or perform glamorous work. You wont be able to get some “wow”out of it but it is way better than wasting resources or doing nothing because you are not able to afford the complex solutions. So good is enough. If it is not so you can always make it great later.
Competitors, should we be friends? Grow together is not a bad idea but do you know that people choose side and they do it all the time? So picking a fight with your rival is not a bad idea itself. Whenever you think they suck, say so. When you do that you will find that people who share the same viewpoint will be siding with you. And talking a stand will always stand out, people get stoked by conflict. They take sides. Passions are ignited and that is how you get people to take notice.
That will be all for now, I will update this whenever something come across my mind.
Tan's World 