Editor’s note: This article was first published in August 2015, and its recently refers to a survey published in January 2014; the people’s companies and roles are as of then.
The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) recently contacted leading business people to ask them one question: “Knowing what you know now, what lesson would you teach your younger self about entrepreneurship and business, so that new entrepreneurs can learn from business owners with a proven track record?”
The Brazen website has gathered some of this advice that can help any entrepreneur improve their path in business. Here are the best lessons:
1. Avoid analysis paralysis
Making decisions recklessly isn’t a good thing, so we take it for granted that we should study and analyse the viability of our business idea, our market and so on. But sometimes entrepreneurs fall victim to what’s known as analysis paralysis: we end up analysing so much that in the end we do nothing, or we no longer do anything because someone else has done it while we were still mulling over the idea.
“Decision and action are always better than indecision. This is particularly important for early success in business. Execution moves things forward, and you don’t have time to dwell on small decisions. Sometimes even a great deal of analysis won’t give you the answer, and you’ll have to do what you think will work best.”
Jesse Pujji, Ampush
2. Embrace change
“When I started out, I thought success meant everything working the way it had been planned. But that’s not really how entrepreneurship worked. Some things work out much better than I imagined, some things don’t happen, and other things look like epic failures but are really just part of a learning process. Embracing change and enjoying the adventure is a big part of the fun.”
Elizabeth Saunders, Real Life E
3. Surround yourself with the right people
“There are lots of important principles of good business: best practices, winning strategies and so on. But none of them is universal. You can run your company at your own pace. You can do things your own way and make it work. But the people you choose to surround yourself with can make or break you. When I have ambitious workers, motivating peers and mentors I can learn from, like-minded people, I progress quickly. When I don’t have those people around me, I stagnate. You need a strong support network around you.”
Cody McKibben, Digital Nomad Academy
(See: 16 things you should know about life, success and happiness)
4. Test before you invest
“Entrepreneurs have ideas every day. The sooner these ideas are tested against reality to see whether they’re viable, the faster we’ll get to the idea that works. For example, I once had an idea for an iPhone app. I made the wireframes. I went to a developer. I paid the developer about 20 per cent of my savings. And I lost all that money because I had an app that nobody wanted. If I had tested the app idea with my potential customers without any investment, I would quickly have found out that my idea wasn’t good. Get out of the building and test before you invest.”
Brett Farmiloe, Internet Marketing Company
5. Start with your strengths
“Research shows that the best leaders do one thing differently: they know their strengths and work on them nearly all the time. This sounds simple, but what I didn’t realise was that our society isn’t set up that way. From our first days at school, we’re taught to focus on improving our weak points; that never leads to greatness. Instead, first discover the things that make you unique. Second, find a big problem that the world is rightly outraged about. Third, use your strengths to solve that problem.”
Josh Allan Dykstra, Strengths Doctors
(Read: Don’t focus on fixing your weaknesses; focus on building your strengths)
6. Accept that some mistakes are good
“You have to accept that getting 80% of things right is fine. Being a perfectionist and an entrepreneur can often cause a number of problems, among them micromanagement, which drives you crazy. Accept that mistakes will happen and that they are, in fact, part of building a great business and a great team.”
Ilya Pozin, Open Me
7. Talk to your customers
“As a younger entrepreneur, I always wanted to build or start something I wanted. Part of what makes entrepreneurs great is that they’re often so passionate about a solution to a problem because they have that problem themselves. But the reality is that just because you have a problem isn’t enough to start a company around it. So talk to your customers… a lot. After realising how much you learn from customers, we built that feedback loop between customers and our employees.”
Eric Koester, DCI
8. Generate sustainable revenue
“You need to focus on generating sustainable revenue. Entrepreneurs thrive on ideas and opportunities. Some ideas take longer to turn into a profitable business, and in some cases the opportunity takes longer to materialise. Whatever the idea or the opportunity, I would focus on smaller increments that can start generating revenue sooner rather than later. This is a critical success factor for tech start-ups, because I can easily end up being more of a thinker than a revenue generator. It also helps you see what works and scale it, instead of going with the big-bang theory.”
Raheel Retiwalla, Fuzed
9. Don’t get distracted
“As an entrepreneur, shiny new ideas and new ventures grab your attention day after day, but focusing on a single mission can make the difference between success and failure. As the saying goes, ‘If you chase two rabbits, both will escape.’ Sometimes focus and a relentless attitude can beat the brilliance of the idea itself.”
Richard Lorenzen, Fifth Avenue Brands
10. Understand that there’s more than one way
“I came into entrepreneurship shyly, and for years I even felt uncomfortable saying I was a real entrepreneur. What I didn’t understand when I started was that entrepreneurship is less about how many investors you have, your job title or how many companies you’ve sold. What entrepreneurship is really about is freedom, and using your power of choice to do business and serve others in ways that empower, liberate and do good in the world. There’s no single way to do it; the journey is what we make of it.”
Dave Ursillo, The Literati Writers
