What drives the human spirit? What keeps us going when everything is against us, from our self-doubt to the odds stacked against us by society and those around us?
Extraordinary Entrepreneurs have their own unique set of core beliefs. They believe in a higher power that has led them through every battle they’ve faced. Their past experiences shape who they are today and help guide them on this journey into entrepreneurship.
What qualities do you need to be a successful entrepreneur? You know, an entrepreneur who has an idea for a company, gathers backing to construct it, and then builds it into one of the world’s most inventive businesses… So what does it take to be a successful entrepreneur? Although I am young, I have been an entrepreneur for more than ten years. My first SEO consulting job was when I was still in high school when I founded and operated a profitable firm. I went on to co-found a couple of software firms after that. I was lucky enough to grow up in a family of entrepreneurs, so I’ve been exposed to a wealth of knowledge on what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.
Critical principles of successful businesses:
Belief 1: Make a choice and take action.
When I initially began my company, this was one of the first things. It took a long time for me to become accustomed to making a choice and then acting on that decision. I was terrified of making a mistake! I’ve since learned that making a mistake isn’t always negative. You gain knowledge from your failures, allowing you to make better judgments in the future. You’ll have trouble recruiting and firing employees, managing project budgets, finding office space, and coming up with advertising ideas. When you initially start in the company, answering these questions might take days or even weeks. When I lost a million-dollar customer, this underlying concept returned to me. They were satisfied with my service, but they wanted to know what more I could do to help them grow their company. I had a few ideas, but I couldn’t decide which one I wanted to pursue. To cut a long tale short, I waited too long to make a choice, and as a result, I lost a $1.2 million customer.
Belief 2: Passion is more important than perfection.
It’s far simpler to work on a project in secret for years until it’s flawless, then ship it, but that won’t cut it these days. When I speak with young entrepreneurs who are “working” on a product behind closed doors, I often discover that they are hesitant to ship for fear of being mocked. I constantly remind them that what people want is a passionate person behind the endeavor, not a polished result. People will come on board if you can demonstrate your commitment to creating an excellent product by releasing it, receiving feedback, and iterating… mainly if the product answers an issue in the actual world. Don’t strive to perfect anything since you’ll wind up squandering money if you perfect something that no one wants to use. For example, we produced two previous versions of our product at KISSmetrics that are no longer available. Instead of simply putting our product out there, we spent over $500,000 attempting to perfect the initial edition. As a result, we haven’t used the product since then. We could have saved that money by utilizing the “minimum viable product” strategy instead of producing an ideal solution.
Belief 3: Stay away from the “ugly baby” stereotype.
Entrepreneurs tend to fall in love with their concept, even if it is a lousy one. This is similar to parents falling in love with their new kid, although everyone knows newborns are unattractive. You must be objective regarding your company, strategy, and product. If you want to achieve, you must argue everything on the table. Seek out mentors to assist you and seek their opinions regularly. Please pay attention to what they’re saying. Pay attention to what your partner and, more crucially, your consumers are saying. This does not imply you must abandon all of your ideas, but you may need to make significant modifications at times. Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, relates a tale about bringing in Jim Sinegal, the creator of Costco, for help. “You know, I don’t want to offend you, but this is absolutely the wrong thing to do,” Jim remarked. Schultz listened and concluded Sinegal was correct. Thus, the company’s approach was changed. One method to avoid falling in love with your concept is to teach yourself to fall in love with addressing other people’s issues. It doesn’t matter what you come up with to answer their issues; as long as you do it in a straightforward, straightforward, and hopefully cheap manner, you’ll be ok.
Belief 4: Identify the sweet spot and then scale it up.
Once you’ve found your product’s market fit, you’ll need to work out how to grow it. You’ll ruin your brand if you scale your goods before consumers fall in love with it. What I mean is that if customers are unhappy with your product, they will speak negatively about it. This will result in churn, a drop in revenue, and a tarnished brand that will be difficult to repair. Even if you improve your product, it’s challenging to alter people’s minds if they have bad feelings about it. We spent thousands of dollars on marketing before launching Crazy Egg when I initially began it. We experienced a lot of churn at first since we had a lot of product difficulties when we first debuted. The marketing budget had a negative return on investment, and if I had to start again, I would expand the firm after fixing the critical product flaws.
Belief 5: Don’t hesitate to take a risk.
There is no such thing as a perfect moment to start a business when it comes to perfection. Being young and without a family is unquestionably preferable to being older and with family obligations. However, once you’ve taken the plunge, you’re in it for the long haul. First, you must resign from your current position and start your own company. That’s a tremendous risk, to be sure, but what’s to keep a partner or investor from taking a chance on you if you don’t? This dedication must permeate all you do. Another piece of advice is to never think in terms of minimums. Never believe that you need four customers per month to succeed or that you only need to make 200 phone calls to start making money. That is never the case. Your predictions will almost certainly fail. This means you’ll need a mantra that claims there’s no such thing as failure…only crazy success! So, don’t waste any more time and take the plunge. People asking whether I would invest in their company concept are among the most frequent emails I get. When I ask how far they’ve progressed, most individuals say they’re still at the concept stage and don’t have the time to pursue it further since they work full-time. Investors will not support you if you are unwilling to leave your job and go into entrepreneurship, demonstrating that you do not believe in what you do.
Belief 6: Business isn’t a fight; it’s about solving issues and making money.
Some entrepreneurs approach business as if it were a battle in which they must defeat and eliminate their rivals. Even if you can do this and become the market leader, you will still fail if you are not making a profit. For example, even if our competitors replicate our features and steal our designs, we at KISSmetrics don’t concentrate on murdering them. Instead, we focus on resolving customer issues and increasing income. The reality is that if you can discover a method to set yourself apart from your competitors in a significant manner, your profits will rise. Plus, if you’re in a large enough new market, it doesn’t matter what your competitors are up to since there’s enough area for both of you.
Belief 7: Hire slowly and dismiss quickly.
The most important aspect of operating a successful company is hiring the proper people…and quickly firing those who aren’t. Many individuals spend a lot of time and effort trying to find the perfect person based on their previous performance. Still, I’ve discovered that what you learn in an interview with someone doesn’t always equate to solid performance later on. I like seeing individuals get their hands dirty and adapt to challenging conditions. When I interview candidates, I seldom discuss their previous work experience or even look at their CVs. Instead, I ask them questions about what they would do for my business and how they would do the task promptly. If you recruit a few terrible individuals, keeping them on board will harm your company. Mark Zuckerburg is well-known for firing employees who were devoted to him but couldn’t manage the company’s rapid development. Zappos even compensated workers to quit the firm if things weren’t working out to make the transition easier.
Belief 8: Use your first to learn, earn with your second, and give back with your third.
Suppose you are a serial entrepreneur or start your first company but believe you have two or three more in you. In that case, you will most certainly gain a lot of experience, business expertise, and riches from your endeavors. It will take years to get there, but you will succeed sooner or later if you stick with it. It’s a good thing that your first company will be full of blunders and lessons learned. Those skills may be used in your second company, where you should succeed if you do it right the first time. Then you may contribute back to your third business. You may donate money to other companies, but you can also donate your time and expertise by assisting other entrepreneurs or volunteering for charitable organizations. Never expect anything in return; instead, give back to your mentors as they did to you.
Conclusion
Now, you’re going to be unique as an entrepreneur if you have all of these fundamental principles in place from the start. No, that is not the case. Starting and running a company has the benefit of allowing you to grow as a person, and that is one of the most valuable forms of education for an entrepreneur! So, re-read the basic principles I provided above, print them off, and go to work on being the next Bill Gates or Larry Page.