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Reid Hoffman’s (Owner of Linked-In) 10 Rules for Entrepreneurial Success
1. Be disruptive. Ask yourself: “Is this massive and different? It’s got to be ten-times different. It’s got to be something that changes an industry.” Hoffman uses Skype as an example, calling it a disruptive company because, “it removes these very expensive cross barrier phone charges.”
2. Aim big. You’ll probably wind up plowing the same amount of time into a small business as you will a big one. So, don’t be intimidated by your own big ideas, as there are multiple ways of realizing them.
3. Grow your network. Your network includes investors, advisers, employees and customers. With a broad network, you have the ability to make important, global-sized changes.
4. Plan for better or worse. Part of planning is that you might come across something you weren’t expecting and you pivot. And if something doesn’t work, you must ask yourself: “What is my Plan B?”
5. Maintain flexible persistence. On one hand, the goal is to have a vision and be persistent. On the other hand, flexibility and being able to change based on what your customers want is paramount. “The art is knowing when to be persistent and when to be flexible and how to blend them.”
6. Launch early. “Unless you’re Steve Jobs, you’re most likely partially wrong about what your theory was.” So launch early and often. Launching early attracts customer engagement, and it’s the customer who’s going to tell you what’s wrong so you can correct it.
7. Seek honesty. You need friends who will tell you that you have an ugly baby. Keep your aspirations high, but don’t drink your own Kool-Aid — all the while leveraging the advice of your friends.
8. Be everywhere. It’s important to have a great idea for a product, but it’s downright vital to have a wide distribution of it. “You can have a kickass product, but if it doesn’t get to millions of people, it’s irrelevant.”
9. Culture is key. You must get hiring right the first time. While experience is impressive, you’ll need people who can adapt and thrive amid volatility — especially in the beginning.
10. Break these rules. The rules of entrepreneurship are not laws of nature. You can break them. What’s more, don’t listen to all of the rules all of the time.
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Sticks & Stones WILL break your bones…
Words are powerful.
Did you know that your behavior is a direct result of your thoughts and feelings?
Thoughts = Feelings = Action(s)
Everything can be traced back to your thoughts. How you manage your thoughts determines how successful you are. The majority of your thoughts come from self-talk.
What are you saying to yourself?
Confidence is sensed through observation. It’s in the way you walk. The way you talk. It’s even in your body language. Why is that? It’s because your behaviors link directly to your thoughts. Sure there are exceptions. For example, a narcissist overcompensates for his insecurity. Yet in most cases what your hear influences how you act.
If you are told at work, you are lazy, you’ll probably act lazy.
If you’re praised for working hard, most likely you’ll continue to work hard.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur, worker or student, what you fill your brain with will eventually ooze out in your behavior. Studies show that it takes a 5 to 1 positive to negative comment ratio to view yourself in a favorable light. Sounds like you better start caring about work environment and who you surround yourself with!
Today, make the choice to focus on your strengths.
Better yet, positively affirm someone else.
How to Perform at Your Highest Level, FREE Event in Santa Monica
Guest Post on Branding Yourself by Josh Allan Dykstra
In order to craft our personal brand and begin designing a successful and fulfilling life we start with three things:
STRENGTHS
We need to discover our strengths. To do this, use the Strengths Triangle. Our area for strength is where our Life Experience (stuff we’ve learned and stuff we’ve lived) intersects with our Passions (things that make us jump out of bed in the morning) and our Talents (innate abilities that can be done almost perfectly every time). For most of us, talents are hard to figure out through reflection so I recommend an assessment like the Clifton StrengthsFinder.
SPACE
Having the time to discover our strengths doesn’t come easy, however. We need to carve out enough space so we can conduct a search into ourselves. Unfortunately, no one in our lives is good at giving us this space — our jobs don’t give it, most bosses don’t give it, and life in general makes it tough to find. It’s something we have to carve out for ourselves. Furthermore, there’s the challenge of money; we can’t focus on learning about what fulfills us if we’re worrying about where the rent check is going to come from. Unless we’re independently wealthy, we must find a way to manage our money and live as lean as possible during the process of discovery.
SENSEI
No one ever becomes successful on their own. To truly thrive we need to find a sensei. “Sensei” is a Japanese word made from two characters meaning “born before” and “one who teaches based on wisdom from age and experience” — much like our concept of “mentor.” The greatest leaders in the world all do this: they are mentored by someone and they mentor someone. We need a sensei to help us see our selves clearly–we can’t do this accurately alone.
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Why Chemistry Trumps Competence
Let’s start with 3 traits of great people: character, chemistry and competence. There’s no doubt character is the most important, but which one comes next: chemistry or competence?
We live in a world that glorifies talent: athletes, celebrities, musicians, etc. But take a deeper look at winning teams. Sure, there’s always a great player or two, yet it’s the chemistry of all, not the competence of a few that makes the difference.
As a business owner, I experienced this recently: my wife and I interviewed candidates for a marketing intern position [for my company]. Resumes don’t mean much to me, interviews do. Confidence, communication skills and authenticity are all nonverbal cues revealed in a conversation. Sure, I was looking for certain answers, but “how” the message was delivered was more important.
Experience can be overrated. Why do you need 10 years of experience in the same field to be successful? All that says is you stayed in the same job for 10 years. Instead, look for a diverse amount of experience in different fields so others know you’ve tried a variety of skill sets and worked with a vast amount of personalities.
Chemistry trumps competence because I’ve met a lot of talented people who are jerks.
Chemistry trumps competence because I want to work with someone I actually like.
Chemistry trumps competence because “fit” is more important than skills.
Sure, competence matters, but if you’re the most talented person at your company, yet no one wants to work with you – you’re on an island that no one wants to visit. Skills can be taught. Humility comes with the package. Your attitude is what counts. It’s more important that you want to learn, rather than think you know it all.
Personally, I’d take the less talented person over the high performer if I know they play well with others and are hungry to learn. That’s my opinion, what do you think?
3/1 Career Synergy: Branding Yourself is in 1 week!
What Brand are You?
When you hear the word branding, you automatically think of a product. The funny thing is everyone has a brand. No matter if you are an entrepreneur, worker or student you’re known for something.
Your brand isn’t what you choose, but what others label you as. Huh? That means you don’t determine your brand, others do. Can you be intentional about how you form your brand? Yes. The best brands in the business make a concerted effort to almost brainwash people into thinking of their product/service in a certain way. Why do you think marketing exists?
What do you want to be known for? If you had to choose one word to describe yourself, what would it be? Tough question. Clarity is power and when you’re able to illustrate what you do in one word, people can make a choice whether to “buy” you or not.
Think of yourself as a business. How do you want to be seen? What feeling or emotion do you want to emit? Branding is a very simple, yet complex concept to master. The mind can really only remember one thing when it thinks of someone. The question is, what is that one thing people will know you for?
Want to know more about how to BRAND yourself? Come join us at Career Synergy on 3/1 where Josh Allan Dykstra will show you how to determine your BRAND!
Growing Forward 