Lessons learned from The Art of the Start:
Doing, not learning to do, is the essence of entrepreneurship.
“Entrepreneur” is not a job title. It is the state of mind of people who want to alter the future.
The hardest thing about getting started is getting started.
You should always be selling – not strategizing about selling.
Key principles of getting going:
- Think big.
- Find a few soul mates.
- Polarize people. When you create a product or service that some people love, don’t be surprised when others hate you. Your goal is to catalyze passion – pro or anti. Don’t be offended if people take issue with what you’ve done; the only result that should offend (and scare) you is lack of interest.
- Design different.
Ferdinand Porsche said, “In the beginning I looked around and, not finding the automobile of my dreams, decided to build it myself."
Define your business model.
Tips to help you develop your business model:
- Be specific. The more precisely you can describe your customer, the better. Most successful companies started off targeting specific markets and grew to great size by addressing other segments. Few started off with grandiose goals and achieved them.
- Keep it simple.
- Copy somebody. Try to relate your business model to one that’s already successful and understood. You have plenty of other battles to fight.
Niche thyself.
When selling ask yourself, did it catch attention, hold my interest, pierce my armor? Did I talk English and make a point?
Apply the opposite Test: Do you describe your offering in a way that is opposite to that of your competition? If you do, then you’re saying something different. If you don’t, then your descriptions are impotent.
How can you tell if an entrepreneur is pitching? His lips are moving.
Ship, fix. Ship, fix. Ship, fix, instead of fix, fix, fix, ship.
Recommendations for the art of execution:
- Set and Communicate goals.
- Measure progress.
- Establish a single point of accountability. If it takes more than ten seconds to figure out who is responsible for achieving a goal, something is wrong. Good people accept accountability. Great people ask for it.
- Reward the achievers.
- Establish a culture of execution. Execution is not a one-time event. Nor is it a process where you check off goals as if your sixth-grade teacher were looking over your shoulder. Rather, execution is a culture that produces a set of organization wide habits.
Reward those whose perspective, ability, and judgment are radically different from yours. It requires uncommon humility, tolerance, and wisdom.
"The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers." – Ralph Nader
A players hire A players; B players hire C players; and C players hire D players. It doesn’t take long to get to Z players.
If there is one thing a CEO must do, it’s hire a management team that is better than he is.
It’s not enough that candidates are good and different; they must also believe that your organization can change the world. They must be infected with enthusiasm for what you do.
High achievers tend to have major weaknesses. People without major weaknesses tend to be mediocre.
The best brand never start with the intent of building a great brand. They focus on building a great- and profitable – product or service and an organization that can sustain it. – Scott Bedbury
The key elements of contagiousness:
- Cool. Cool is beautiful. Cool is hip. Cool is idiosyncratic. And cool is contagious.
- Effective. You can’t brand something that doesn’t work.
- Distinctive. A contagious product is easy to notice and advertises itself. It leaves no doubt that it is different from the competition. Does anyone confuse a Hummer with other vehicles?
- Disruptive. Contagious products are disruptive. They either upset the status quo or make them go into denial. But they do not leave people unaffected.
- Emotive. A contagious product or service exceeds expectations, and by exceeding expectations, it makes you joyful.
- Deep. A contagious product or service “has legs.” The more you use it, the more you discover it is capable of.
- Indulgent. Purchasing a contagious product or service makes you feel as if you’ve indulged yourself. It enables you to escape the mundane. The tag line for Miele, for example, is “Anything else is a compromise.”
- Supported.
An innovation, to be effective, has to be simple and it has to be focused. It should do only one thing, otherwise, it confuses. If it is not simple, it won’t work. – Peter Drucker
Everyone should carefully observe which way his heart draws him, and then choose that way with his strength. – Hasidic saying
I have never thought of writing for reputation and honor. What I have in my heart must come out; that is the reason why I compose. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Drive a stake in the heart of the status quo.
It’s alright to aim high if you have plenty of ammunition. – Hawley R. Everhart
Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.
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