Editor’s note: This article was first published in June 2018. The statements that Kevin O’Leary has written three bestsellers and that everyone seems to have a startup these days reflect 2018.
Every entrepreneur has drawn their own lessons for business success. This time, Kevin O’Leary has some invaluable advice for entrepreneurs and for success in general. The Canadian-born businessman shot to fame after selling his software company to Mattel for $3.65 billion in 1999, just before the dot-com bubble burst.
He has written three bestsellers about life, money and the entrepreneurial spirit in business. Here we’ve picked out some of his advice on what it takes to succeed in business.
10 lessons for business success
1. Don’t chase bad ideas
Entrepreneurs come up with bad business ideas all the time. Some know how to turn them down, while others carry on with them, blinded by passion.
Look for honest opinions about your business idea outside your inner circle. Family and friends tend to be poor advisers when it comes to being impartial. Sometimes they’ll back you in any crazy plan. Other times they won’t want to hurt you by giving you their sincere opinion. When it comes to going all in on a business, look for the harshest critic, not the most accommodating one.
2. Your dollars are your soldiers
Although good businesses are ones that do much more than just make money, the truth is that money is the lifeblood of business. In fact, no matter how much you help people through your company or how many problems you solve, if your business runs out of money, the business is over and you’ll no longer be able to help anyone. Money does matter in the business world.
While these days we sell the idea that the pursuit of money shouldn’t be the most important thing, Kevin disagrees on this point. He compares your company’s finances to soldiers on a battlefield.
He thinks of his money as soldiers: he sends them off to war every day, and he wants them to take prisoners and come home, so that he ends up with more soldiers (more money). If some of his soldiers die, that’s bad. If all of them die, it means he’s bankrupt, and there’s nothing left.
3. Whatever you pay most attention to is what grows most
We’re not talking about self-help here, although it’s true that if you pay attention to your problems, you’ll make them bigger. If you pay attention to the things you’re grateful for, your gratitude will grow and your mood will improve.
Well, business works the same way. Your company needs your full attention. Give it that attention, and your company will grow. Someone can be full of great ideas, but they won’t get anywhere if they chase too many things or fail to focus all their attention on a single one. If you’re not focused on one thing, that thing won’t get the attention it needs to grow.
4. Sales are everything
Very good business ideas have failed because they don’t make sales. Sales are everything. You can have the best idea in the world, the best product and a potential market, but if you can’t get that potential market to decide to buy the product, you really have nothing.
As we’ve said countless times, every entrepreneur should learn the basics of selling, because from the moment they decide to start their business, they’ve set out on a path in the world of sales. When the time comes, whether the business works or not will be decided by sales ability and skills. Here are 14 secrets and truths about selling.
Remember that a terrible product can be sold by a good sales team, while an excellent product can be rejected if the sales team is terrible.
See also: 9 facts every salesperson and company should know
5. Nobody has a monopoly on good ideas
Anyone can have a good business idea. Experience, success, net worth and connections have nothing to do with it. People who really want to do something will end up doing it one way or another. On the other hand, you’ll often hear entrepreneurs say, “I had that idea, but I didn’t have the means to make it happen.” Then they end up watching someone else turn that idea into reality, someone who probably had the same limited resources.
See also: The business lessons these entrepreneurs would give their younger selves
The only thing standing between good ideas and business success is excuses. If at some point you find that someone has already turned your idea into reality, don’t stress about it; think of another one. There will never be a shortage of brilliant ideas.
See also: 22 business ideas with a good risk/return balance
6. The power of numbers
Numbers never lie. Investing in a business is exactly like investing in the stock market. What are your sales? How much debt do you have? What was your initial investment? What are your production costs, and what do you sell for? It’s true that companies tend to ride a roller coaster of numbers. Sometimes your business is growing and other times it’s declining. But the current figures can be key to determining its valuation and its chances of success.
7. Take calculated risks
No risk, no reward, but taking risks blindly is foolish. For example, however much faith you have in your business idea and however much passion you put into it, if you’re thinking of quitting your job tomorrow to bet on yourself and your idea and work on your company full time, you need to make sure it’s a calculated risk.
At the very least, you should have some cushion that will cover several months of expenses in case you get off to a bumpy start.
Bear in mind that sales almost always take longer to arrive than you expected, and expenses end up higher than you calculated. If you take a risk without financial planning, you’ve very likely taken a suicidal one. In fact, even a good idea will most likely end up failing if you haven’t calculated anything beyond your level of passion.
8. Business is war
An entrepreneur should be in business to win and crush the competition. Kevin is clear about this. Business is war, and you have to play to win. Don’t let feelings get in your way. In the end, the market will decide who survives and who doesn’t. So go all in. Don’t be afraid of losing, and don’t hold back from letting others lose either.
In his words, roughly: business is war; he goes out to win, he wants to wipe out his competitors, make their lives miserable and steal their market share; he wants them to fear him, and he wants everyone on his team to believe they’re going to win.
9. Be fully prepared
It seems everyone has a startup these days, which means investors and members of the media are bombarded with pitches from every direction. Whatever you’re pitching for, whether it’s investment or coverage for your launch, make sure you’re fully prepared before you go looking.
You may get only five minutes for a once-in-a-lifetime pitch, and you’ll only be in pre-launch, media-seeking mode once. Never assume you’ll get a second chance.
10. Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want
You can sit there thinking about what you want, or you can go ahead and ask for it. It’s that simple, and if you don’t ask, someone else will.
Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want. What’s the worst that can happen? If you’re turned down, get back up and ask again. If you’re afraid of rejection, you’re going to have trouble. You need to be able to bounce right back after being knocked to the ground.
This article is part of our business lessons series, where we collect advice from the most brilliant business people.
Featured image: Randstad Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
