THE 10 AN ENTREPRENEUR COMMANDMENTS

THE 10 AN ENTREPRENEUR COMMANDMENTS OF THE TOP 10 MOST COMMON THINGS HOLDING YOU BACK AND HOW YOU CAN DEFEAT THEM

 10 ENTREPRENEUR COMMANDMENTS

 1 No coding. No business cards. Validate first. 

2 Keep it simple. 

3 Don’t create solutions for problems that don’t exist. 

4 Find your place on the Totem Pole. 

5 Don’t be needy. 

6 Focus on the small wins and maintain momentum. 

7 Use time limitations. 

8 Do what it takes to get to that first $1. 

9 No excuses; take adversity head on. 

10 Face your fears.

 No Coding If you are smarter than me, you are likely an engineer. :) Your problem (and your solution) is that you love to build. It's so much easier to build and hope to find customers than to make sure people actually want what you are making. The BEST way I’ve seen to get through this is to start with validation and then go build a product or service. When I was at UC Berkeley, I assumed every student would want to have a Craigslist for their school. I hired a developer, designer and spent a few months building CollegeUp. Sound familiar? After a few delayed months of development we launched and... no one came. Then we proceeded to add more features assuming those would have really solved our problems. Sound familiar? If only we would have started like Craigslist could we have seen whether students wanted our service or not (and moved on to something they did want, like Facebook.)

2 Keep It Simple

  This needs to happen when you say you NEED to do an iPhone app or a specific platform. You need a business; let go of the “dead-lock” requirement (i.e. to be an iPhone app) and focus on the real thing that customers want. Sometimes it's more effective to hand-draw an app on paper vs. taking time and money to build out a full iPhone app. Use the best tool for the job regardless of platform. Keep it simple. Keep it moving.

3 What’s the Problem?

Avoid creating a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist. That can work, but it makes it much harder to be successful. This is a setback endemic to engineers who love to build but avoid talking with people (a.k.a. potential customers). Worst-case scenario is a fully-fledged product that no one wants, much less needs. Instead, look for problems before coming up with ideas and work backwards from there to solve them and find your business. I spent 6 months, hired a high-priced Vegas lawyer, and $50,000+ working on BetArcade which was going to be THE destination for fantasy sports betting. I KNEW people would love the service and pay for it in droves. But when we launched it was complete crickets. I never spent the time making sure people wanted to play online fantasy sports in that way. Expensive lesson learned.

4 Find Your Place on the Totem Pole

The Totem Pole is how important you are to your customer. A high mark on the totem pole is that the customer really needs you vs. a low mark is a 'nice-to-have.' A business exists to offer a solution to a problem. Make sure the problem you are solving is something that people wake up in the morning and think about. Or, if your business goes away, then people's lives are worse off as a result. If you aren’t solving a high totem-pole problem, your business will be much harder. When I first heard about Mint.com (free automatic finance tracking) I was blown away. In terms of totem pole, this was at the top of the charts because it: 1. Helps people manage their money without any work 2. Is totally free 3. Targets TONS of people that have this problem Compare this to Mint's competitors who focused on having people manually enter their information

5 Don’t Be Needy 

This is when you want things like business cards, LLC papers, other useless tools before you can move on. If you want the bells and whistles before you are profitable, you’re adding barriers to yourself and worrying about the wrong thing. "I need a co-founder." "I need to wait for the designer to finish." "I need funding." "I need to learn marketing." "I need to find a developer."

Do you really need any of those or can you figure another way around it?

6 Maintain Momentum

This can be the most powerful ally or foe when you are starting your business. There will be an "aha" moment when people want what you are offering and more often than not, that comes from continually doing at least one small thing each day. Think of the last time you stopped doing something; likely you had a hiccup and it was easier to just stop then keep going. Make sure to be aware of the momentum you are making and take advantage of it! When I first started at Facebook, everyone was still on MySpace. Remember those days? My mom would call me every day commenting on how MySpace was being talked about on Oprah and she's hearing reports of how popular the site is. What we did internally was just focus on daily momentum, trying to get more signups than the day before. That was EXTREMELY helpful on the days that things aren't going as well, and even better when we had insane growth days. Just keep saying to yourself, "one thing at a time." Start that momentum and then just slowly keep it going.

7 Use Time Limitations

 You will be more creative and save time and money by limiting the time you put into starting your business. Just ask economist Cyril Northcote Parkinson*. Parkinson's Law dictates that a task will swell in perceived importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion. It is the magic of the imminent deadline. If I only gave you 24 hours to complete a project, the time pressure forces you to focus on execution, and you have no choice but to do only the bare essentials. (*You can't really ask him. He is deceased.)

8 Velocity to $1  This is HUGE. I can remember when I started NinjaCard (a college discount card) and made my first $9 in profit. As I put the discount card in the envelope I recall thinking, “I’m actually running my own business”. Once you reduce all barriers and get to your first $1 that will open your eyes and create excitement to continue.

9 Handle Adversity

A true entrepreneur will figure things out. You don’t have a partner? Do it yourself. Can’t get funding? Do it for free or figure out another way. One day I woke up with calls from lawyers. They were asking if I wanted to use their service. Huh? That day my company Gambit was getting sued by our largest (and heavily funded) competitor. Then, a few weeks later our company also got banned by Facebook where 90% of our revenue was coming from. There will be a time when you will be challenged; how you persevere is what will separate you from everyone else. We ended up settling the lawsuit out of court and the company shifted towards video advertising instead of Facebook payments, and continues to run strong today.

10 Do Not Ignore 

 I went ATVing for my brother’s bachelor party and came across a deathly steep hill. I was terrified - I wanted out and to avoid the discomfort and anxiety. But I also wanted to know that I was able to overcome a fear and maybe even enjoy myself. I wasn’t going to know until I tried. I told myself that I wouldn’t leave the mountain until I went down that hill. YOLO, right? Surprise, surprise: I survived, I felt my anxiety ease up, and I was able to take on bigger and scarier challenges throughout the day. Running a business is daunting. I’m not here to tell you it won’t be tough and challenging - it will - but it’s not impossible. Take your fears head on, don’t ignore them and hope they’ll go away

Your Fears Don't forget these!

Since you'll be living by these commandments for the rest of your life, print them out and post them somewhere you'll ALWAYS see them.

часть 2
Источник: