[Music]
you you have to have a lot of passion
for what you’re doing and it’s totally
true and the reason is is because it’s
so hard that if you don’t any rational
person would give up it’s really hard
and you have to do it over a sustained
period of time so if you don’t love it
if you’re not having fun doing it you
don’t really love it you’re gonna give
up and that’s what happens to most
people actually if you really look at
that the ones that ended up you know
being successful unquote the eyes of
society and the ones that didn’t
oftentimes it’s the ones that are
successful loved what they did so they
could persevere well you know when it
got really tough and and the ones that
didn’t love it quit because they’re
saying right who would want to put up
with this stuff if you don’t love it so
it’s a lot of hard work and and it’s a
lot of worrying constantly and if you
don’t love it you’re gonna fail so you
got to love it you got to have passion
[Music]
when you grow up you tend to get told
that the world is the way it is and your
your life is just to live your life
inside the world try not to bash into
the walls too much try to have a nice
family life have fun save a little money
but life that’s a very limited life life
can be much broader once you discover
one simple fact and that is everything
around you that you call life was made
up by people that were no smarter than
you and you can change it you can
influence it you can you can build your
own things that other people can use and
the minute that you understand that you
can poke life and actually something
will you know if you push in something
will pop out the other side that you can
you can change it you can mold it that’s
maybe the most important thing is to
shake off this that this erroneous
notion that life is is there and you’re
just gonna live in it versus embrace it
change it improve it make your mark upon
it I I think that’s very important and
however you learn that once you learn it
you’ll want to change life and make it
better because it’s kind of messed up in
a lot of ways once you learn that you’ll
never be the same again
it’s very interesting I was worth about
over a million dollars when I was 23 and
over ten million dollars from I was 24
and over a hundred million dollars when
I was 25 and it wasn’t that important
because I never did it for the money I I
think money is wonderful thing because
it enables you to do things it enables
you to invest in ideas that don’t have a
short-term payback and things like that
but especially at that point in my life
it was it was not the most important
thing the most important thing was the
company the people the products we were
making what we were gonna enable people
to do with these products so I didn’t
think about it a great deal you know I
never sold any stock just really
believed that the company would would do
very well over the long term
now is the time to take risk you don’t
have kids as you get older your
obligations increase so your and once
you have a family you start taking risk
not just for yourself but for your
family as well it gets much harder to do
things that might not work out so now is
the time to do that before you before
you have those obligations so I would
encourage you to take risks now to do
something bold you won’t regret it
really liking what you do what whatever
area that you get into given that you
know even if you if you’re the best the
best there’s always a chance of failure
so I think it’s important that you
really like whatever you’re doing if you
don’t like it life is too short if you
like what you’re doing you think about
it even when you’re not working I mean
it’ll just it’s something that your mind
is drawn to and and if you don’t like it
you just really can’t make a work I
think
[Music]
we focus on on signal over noise a lot
of companies get confused that they
spend money on things that don’t
actually make the product better for
example at Tesla with we’ve never spent
any money on advertising we put all of
the money into R&D and manufacturing and
design to try to make the car as good as
possible and I think that’s that’s
that’s the way to go before for any
given company just keep thinking about
are these efforts that people are
expending are they resulting in a better
product or service and if they’re not
stopped there’s effort
[Music]
you know personally I think every time
is a perfect time to start a business
there’s no bad times if you do the work
if you do the preparation you’ll know
when it’s time and it doesn’t mean that
it won’t be a little bit scary but you
know it’s you know and you don’t have to
quit the daytime job if you don’t feel
that all that comfortable and you can
give it a run at night but whatever
works for you now with the internet
you’ve got all the choices in the world
and you can just go out there and do
your own thing and and you know set up a
business part-time passion I’ve always
had for business and being an
entrepreneur the trend that transfers
into the mavs I’ve always been
passionate some people thought you know
it’s a it’s more OCD than anything else
which i think is a great trait for an
entrepreneur when I you know I mentioned
the stamp business I would stay up till
3:00 4:00 in the morning even though I
had to get up and go to school and read
Lin stamp news and Scots stamp journals
and have them all memorized and and use
that to give myself an edge even when I
was in college I’d be in live in the
library reading business books and just
looking for business biographies and
just reading all I could about business
when I had Micro solutions and you know
I started with no money
you know I pull all-nighters in in front
of borrowed computers teaching myself
software and and how to program
they come up with an idea
they’ll google it and if they don’t see
it in the first two pages they think
it’s original you’ve got to go back
right because over the past 15 years
there’s so many different businesses
that have tried and failed you have to
go back and find those and learn from
those so you’ve got to understand all
the implications and you have to learn
from history and so the best advice I
can give you on a video before talking
to you or emailing with you is that
you’ve got to find out the history of
people who have tried your idea because
there’s a 99.99999% chance that your
ideas could try before that’s not a good
reason not to start it because you might
be able to outperform them but you
better learn from the history of your
idea because you know what they say
about people who don’t learn from
history
the most important thing about running a
company is to remember all the time what
a company is a company is simply a group
of people and as a leader of people you
have to be a great listener you have to
be a great motivator you have to be very
good at praising and looking for the
best in people you know people are no
different from from flowers if you water
flowers they flourish if you praise
people they flourish and and that’s a
critical attribute of a leader I’ve
never actually thought I was you know
starting a company as such and I just
saw situations as I traveled in life
where I felt I could improve on the way
things have been done by other people so
you know so one way favorite phrases is
screw it let’s do it and I’ve used that
phrase a lot of times and we and and we
you know we just love going in and
trying to shake up industries and doing
it better than it’s been done before the
New York Times did a review and they did
some market research and they said you
know first of all with a name like
virgin it’s not going to go the whole
way but secondly that they did market
research which said only 7% of people
would fly on an airline called virgin
and and we put our hands up and said 7%
would be just fine so so we carried on
with it but there were a lot of there
are a lot of skeptics out there and
there always will be lots of skeptics
when when you want to start something
new everybody will tell you why it’s a
bad idea why you shouldn’t do it why
you’ll you don’t lose everything you’ve
got and in the end you just got to get
out and try to prove them wrong
good luck
when I didn’t graduate from universities
and before you know for three years I
tried fill-in to universities so I apply
jobs or 30 times don’t reject it
I went for a police if you know you’re
not good I went to you know even the KFC
when KFC came to China come to I say gee
24 people went for the job 23 people
accepted I was the only one guy and we
went for please five people all of them
accepted I was the only guy than
aristocracy villain so to me being
turned down rejected out by the way I
told you that I would I apply for
Harvard for 10 times rejected we believe
I cook on very different from the Wall
Street we believe custom number one in
pride number to share another customer
one employee to share memory yeah are we
again this is my religion you know if
you it’s the custom that pays the money
it’s the employees that drive the
innovation it’s the shareholding sheriff
hood always say you know I remember the
day before we IPO and a lot of people
Sage cannot keep up the shares we were
long-term shareholders but when the
crisis came these guys long assumed it
you know they ran away run away by the
people who stayed custom stay
[Music]
most people complain where the
opportunities people start complaining
some people complain some stuff people’s
have to change themselves changing
others
[Music]
you know people really if you really
think about it people want to do
business with people they like I mean
every now and then you’ll do a deal with
the devil but you don’t really like the
devil but you have do it sometimes but
you really much rather do business with
somebody you like somebody who shares
your value somebody who you know is
committed to the same objectives you are
somebody’s willing to work as hard as
you are and when you find those people
those are the people you want to bring
under your tent to be part of your
business objective and you’ve got to do
that by you know sort of presenting
yourself in a way that people clearly
understand that you are committed to
creating values business people want to
create value it doesn’t mean they don’t
want to have fun doesn’t mean that they
don’t want to be involved in other kinds
of things but if you can say go to
someone and convince them that I can
help you create value and by your
ability to articulate that and to
communicate it and to give people the
impression that you will work as hard as
they will to create that value you’re
gonna find people wanting to come to you
if you don’t believe in yourself if you
don’t believe that you can overcome
obstacles if you don’t believe you have
the work ethic if you don’t believe you
have the inner confidence to project to
other people it’ll never happen because
part of starting a business is not
having not only having the vision of an
idea you’ve got to build around you a
team of stakeholders who believe in you
people follow leaders people invest in
leaders people support people who have a
vision and are willing to and are able
to articulate it and not just stability
you know a lot of people are good I got
a good gift for gab it’s the ability to
convince people that you’re gonna be
part of something that’s going to be
successful you’re going to share in the
success it’s going to be beneficial to
you and your family in the long run
you’re going to be respected for what
you contribute and you’re going to have
an opportunity to fulfill your own
dreams consistent with the dream of the
person you’re working with if you can
convey that sense of confidence in that
consent that sense of leadership and
focus on giving people an opportunity to
grow and be successful with you you’re
gonna have people enemy really smart
imagine a group of people go to a
restaurant and they started well they
don’t have enough money to pay the bill
so when the waiter comes with the bill
they don’t want to pay it they don’t
make the sacrifice okay so they keep
ordering and that’s what we’re doing we
just keep piling on debt and keep piling
on cost because we don’t want to make
the hard choices
[Music]
you find your passion I was very very
lucky to find it you know when I was
seven or eight years old and you know
and fortunately my children have found
their passion might you know one son
loves farming like nothing else one son
loves music like everything else then
and all three of them love philanthropy
and what they get to do you’re lucky in
life when you find it and you can’t
guarantee you’re gonna find it your
first job out but I always told college
students that come on I said take the
job that you would take if you were
independently wealthy
you know that’s you’re gonna do well at
it if you think you’re going to be a lot
happier if you’ve got to X instead of X
you’re probably making a mistake I mean
it yeah you oughta you ought to find
something you like that’s that works
with that and it and you’ll get in
trouble if if you think that making 10 X
or 20 X is the answer to everything in
life because then you will do things
like borrow money when you should endure
or maybe cut corners on things that your
employer wants you to cut corners on ER
it just doesn’t make any sense you won’t
like it when you look back on it half it
never bothered me if people disagreed
with what I thought as long as I thought
I knew the facts I mean there’s a whole
bunch of things I don’t know think about
I just stay away from those so I stay
within what I call my circle of
competence you know that Tom Watson said
it best he said you know he said he said
I’m no genius but I’m smart in spots and
I stay around those spots well I try and
stay around those spots and I I just
don’t have a problem if somebody says
you know you’re wrong on something I
just go back and look at the facts and I
think that I think that really is much
more important frankly than having a few
points of IQ or or having an extra
course or two in school or anything of
the sort
you need emotional stability
even today is big as Nike is with over
60,000 employees the key key thing is
people so when you’re starting out
obviously you’re getting the right
people is that’s life and death and and
then not only the right people by
getting them work together and work for
a common purpose I’ve always said to 9s
working together will be to tens working
apart any day how do you do that well
people’s from number one and then giving
them the environment and maybe a little
bit of leadership that allows them to
keep doing that important thing is you
have to there’s two sides is really sort
of the intellectual or mental side you
have to pick a business that has a niche
you have to have a reason to succeed you
have to be something like we were doing
say Japan can beat Germany in
manufacturing at this type of a product
that was the niche really and then on
that you just have to have a total and
complete passion because there’s gonna
be so many dark moments you know I think
that the dark moments are true for any
entrepreneur any startup company I’m
sure that you talked to Steve Jobs and
Apple you can see many many dark dark
moments ours happened to last a little
longer than most of them but you really
emotionally have to be prepared for
those dark moments
[Music]
having my travels occasionally met
promising young people insist they are
not going to ask for help along the way
they want to figure it out themselves
mine was the opposite approach it is
hard enough out there get all the help
you can
getting help really just a part of a
lifelong search for wisdom
[Music]
one of the things I see in new
businesses is they’re often looking for
perfection and I think this is a really
big mistake I think I think you ought to
be looking for experiments and and you
know quick experiments and it’s okay to
have little failures and what you want
to do is learn as much as you can very
quickly and try things and you know
certainly when we were a small business
you know we’d go out and try all sorts
of things to find what would work and
then we found something work we’ll do
that 100 more times a thousand more
times we still to do it today as a large
company
one of the things that people do
instinctually when there are tough times
is they kind of do nothing and you know
they they don’t they don’t
it kind of hunker down this is frozen
rabbits on the head like yeah you know
it’s kind of just just complete stunned
into inaction and I think that’s
actually the worst thing to do I think
times when everyone is confused and kind
of stunned present you know the most
enormous opportunity because nobody’s
really doing anything so you know I
think this is a time where the the seeds
of really successful new businesses will
be created in fact if you look at in our
industry which I’m most familiar with
you know the greatest companies kind of
came out of and were formed in some of
the most difficult times in the industry
when no one was really looking and
everyone thought the whole thing was
gonna go south all of a sudden and whole
new breed of companies you know merge so
for example if you look at the you know
the when Dell was formed in the early
1980s 1984 this was a pretty dark time
in the US economy the personal computer
industry had just gone through a big
down cycle and the prevailing wisdom was
that all electronics would be dominated
by the Japanese you know and and that we
had this big boogeyman called the the
you know Japan Inc and that no one could
compete with Japan a
and in especially in something like
computers but turned out to be
completely wrong and there you know was
enormous opportunity and huge waves of
productivity were unleashed with the
computer industry in a flourishing
if you really don’t know you know what
what it means to be an entrepreneur you
know maybe art one you know so I think
there’s a bit of kind of self initiative
self-starter you know that that is
incredibly important part of
entrepreneurship no one can sort of tell
you how to do it you have to sort of
have an instinctual feeling or idea
about about something and you gotta be
passionate about it and I think people
that look for great ideas to make money
you know aren’t nearly as successful as
those who say okay what I really love to
do what am I excited about what I know
something about
[Music]
you
you you have to have a lot of passion
for what you’re doing and it’s totally
true and the reason is is because it’s
so hard that if you don’t any rational
person would give up it’s really hard
and you have to do it over a sustained
period of time so if you don’t love it
if you’re not having fun doing it you
don’t really love it you’re gonna give
up and that’s what happens to most
people actually if you really look at
that the ones that ended up you know
being successful unquote the eyes of
society and the ones that didn’t
oftentimes it’s the ones that are
successful loved what they did so they
could persevere well you know when it
got really tough and and the ones that
didn’t love it quit because they’re
saying right who would want to put up
with this stuff if you don’t love it so
it’s a lot of hard work and and it’s a
lot of worrying constantly and if you
don’t love it you’re gonna fail so you
got to love it you got to have passion
[Music]
when you grow up you tend to get told
that the world is the way it is and your
your life is just to live your life
inside the world try not to bash into
the walls too much try to have a nice
family life have fun save a little money
but life that’s a very limited life life
can be much broader once you discover
one simple fact and that is everything
around you that you call life was made
up by people that were no smarter than
you and you can change it you can
influence it you can you can build your
own things that other people can use and
the minute that you understand that you
can poke life and actually something
will you know if you push in something
will pop out the other side that you can
you can change it you can mold it that’s
maybe the most important thing is to
shake off this that this erroneous
notion that life is is there and you’re
just gonna live in it versus embrace it
change it improve it make your mark upon
it I I think that’s very important and
however you learn that once you learn it
you’ll want to change life and make it
better because it’s kind of messed up in
a lot of ways once you learn that you’ll
never be the same again
it’s very interesting I was worth about
over a million dollars when I was 23 and
over ten million dollars from I was 24
and over a hundred million dollars when
I was 25 and it wasn’t that important
because I never did it for the money I I
think money is wonderful thing because
it enables you to do things it enables
you to invest in ideas that don’t have a
short-term payback and things like that
but especially at that point in my life
it was it was not the most important
thing the most important thing was the
company the people the products we were
making what we were gonna enable people
to do with these products so I didn’t
think about it a great deal you know I
never sold any stock just really
believed that the company would would do
very well over the long term
now is the time to take risk you don’t
have kids as you get older your
obligations increase so your and once
you have a family you start taking risk
not just for yourself but for your
family as well it gets much harder to do
things that might not work out so now is
the time to do that before you before
you have those obligations so I would
encourage you to take risks now to do
something bold you won’t regret it
really liking what you do what whatever
area that you get into given that you
know even if you if you’re the best the
best there’s always a chance of failure
so I think it’s important that you
really like whatever you’re doing if you
don’t like it life is too short if you
like what you’re doing you think about
it even when you’re not working I mean
it’ll just it’s something that your mind
is drawn to and and if you don’t like it
you just really can’t make a work I
think
[Music]
we focus on on signal over noise a lot
of companies get confused that they
spend money on things that don’t
actually make the product better for
example at Tesla with we’ve never spent
any money on advertising we put all of
the money into R&D and manufacturing and
design to try to make the car as good as
possible and I think that’s that’s
that’s the way to go before for any
given company just keep thinking about
are these efforts that people are
expending are they resulting in a better
product or service and if they’re not
stopped there’s effort
[Music]
you know personally I think every time
is a perfect time to start a business
there’s no bad times if you do the work
if you do the preparation you’ll know
when it’s time and it doesn’t mean that
it won’t be a little bit scary but you
know it’s you know and you don’t have to
quit the daytime job if you don’t feel
that all that comfortable and you can
give it a run at night but whatever
works for you now with the internet
you’ve got all the choices in the world
and you can just go out there and do
your own thing and and you know set up a
business part-time passion I’ve always
had for business and being an
entrepreneur the trend that transfers
into the mavs I’ve always been
passionate some people thought you know
it’s a it’s more OCD than anything else
which i think is a great trait for an
entrepreneur when I you know I mentioned
the stamp business I would stay up till
3:00 4:00 in the morning even though I
had to get up and go to school and read
Lin stamp news and Scots stamp journals
and have them all memorized and and use
that to give myself an edge even when I
was in college I’d be in live in the
library reading business books and just
looking for business biographies and
just reading all I could about business
when I had Micro solutions and you know
I started with no money
you know I pull all-nighters in in front
of borrowed computers teaching myself
software and and how to program
they come up with an idea
they’ll google it and if they don’t see
it in the first two pages they think
it’s original you’ve got to go back
right because over the past 15 years
there’s so many different businesses
that have tried and failed you have to
go back and find those and learn from
those so you’ve got to understand all
the implications and you have to learn
from history and so the best advice I
can give you on a video before talking
to you or emailing with you is that
you’ve got to find out the history of
people who have tried your idea because
there’s a 99.99999% chance that your
ideas could try before that’s not a good
reason not to start it because you might
be able to outperform them but you
better learn from the history of your
idea because you know what they say
about people who don’t learn from
history
the most important thing about running a
company is to remember all the time what
a company is a company is simply a group
of people and as a leader of people you
have to be a great listener you have to
be a great motivator you have to be very
good at praising and looking for the
best in people you know people are no
different from from flowers if you water
flowers they flourish if you praise
people they flourish and and that’s a
critical attribute of a leader I’ve
never actually thought I was you know
starting a company as such and I just
saw situations as I traveled in life
where I felt I could improve on the way
things have been done by other people so
you know so one way favorite phrases is
screw it let’s do it and I’ve used that
phrase a lot of times and we and and we
you know we just love going in and
trying to shake up industries and doing
it better than it’s been done before the
New York Times did a review and they did
some market research and they said you
know first of all with a name like
virgin it’s not going to go the whole
way but secondly that they did market
research which said only 7% of people
would fly on an airline called virgin
and and we put our hands up and said 7%
would be just fine so so we carried on
with it but there were a lot of there
are a lot of skeptics out there and
there always will be lots of skeptics
when when you want to start something
new everybody will tell you why it’s a
bad idea why you shouldn’t do it why
you’ll you don’t lose everything you’ve
got and in the end you just got to get
out and try to prove them wrong
good luck
when I didn’t graduate from universities
and before you know for three years I
tried fill-in to universities so I apply
jobs or 30 times don’t reject it
I went for a police if you know you’re
not good I went to you know even the KFC
when KFC came to China come to I say gee
24 people went for the job 23 people
accepted I was the only one guy and we
went for please five people all of them
accepted I was the only guy than
aristocracy villain so to me being
turned down rejected out by the way I
told you that I would I apply for
Harvard for 10 times rejected we believe
I cook on very different from the Wall
Street we believe custom number one in
pride number to share another customer
one employee to share memory yeah are we
again this is my religion you know if
you it’s the custom that pays the money
it’s the employees that drive the
innovation it’s the shareholding sheriff
hood always say you know I remember the
day before we IPO and a lot of people
Sage cannot keep up the shares we were
long-term shareholders but when the
crisis came these guys long assumed it
you know they ran away run away by the
people who stayed custom stay
[Music]
most people complain where the
opportunities people start complaining
some people complain some stuff people’s
have to change themselves changing
others
[Music]
you know people really if you really
think about it people want to do
business with people they like I mean
every now and then you’ll do a deal with
the devil but you don’t really like the
devil but you have do it sometimes but
you really much rather do business with
somebody you like somebody who shares
your value somebody who you know is
committed to the same objectives you are
somebody’s willing to work as hard as
you are and when you find those people
those are the people you want to bring
under your tent to be part of your
business objective and you’ve got to do
that by you know sort of presenting
yourself in a way that people clearly
understand that you are committed to
creating values business people want to
create value it doesn’t mean they don’t
want to have fun doesn’t mean that they
don’t want to be involved in other kinds
of things but if you can say go to
someone and convince them that I can
help you create value and by your
ability to articulate that and to
communicate it and to give people the
impression that you will work as hard as
they will to create that value you’re
gonna find people wanting to come to you
if you don’t believe in yourself if you
don’t believe that you can overcome
obstacles if you don’t believe you have
the work ethic if you don’t believe you
have the inner confidence to project to
other people it’ll never happen because
part of starting a business is not
having not only having the vision of an
idea you’ve got to build around you a
team of stakeholders who believe in you
people follow leaders people invest in
leaders people support people who have a
vision and are willing to and are able
to articulate it and not just stability
you know a lot of people are good I got
a good gift for gab it’s the ability to
convince people that you’re gonna be
part of something that’s going to be
successful you’re going to share in the
success it’s going to be beneficial to
you and your family in the long run
you’re going to be respected for what
you contribute and you’re going to have
an opportunity to fulfill your own
dreams consistent with the dream of the
person you’re working with if you can
convey that sense of confidence in that
consent that sense of leadership and
focus on giving people an opportunity to
grow and be successful with you you’re
gonna have people enemy really smart
imagine a group of people go to a
restaurant and they started well they
don’t have enough money to pay the bill
so when the waiter comes with the bill
they don’t want to pay it they don’t
make the sacrifice okay so they keep
ordering and that’s what we’re doing we
just keep piling on debt and keep piling
on cost because we don’t want to make
the hard choices
[Music]
you find your passion I was very very
lucky to find it you know when I was
seven or eight years old and you know
and fortunately my children have found
their passion might you know one son
loves farming like nothing else one son
loves music like everything else then
and all three of them love philanthropy
and what they get to do you’re lucky in
life when you find it and you can’t
guarantee you’re gonna find it your
first job out but I always told college
students that come on I said take the
job that you would take if you were
independently wealthy
you know that’s you’re gonna do well at
it if you think you’re going to be a lot
happier if you’ve got to X instead of X
you’re probably making a mistake I mean
it yeah you oughta you ought to find
something you like that’s that works
with that and it and you’ll get in
trouble if if you think that making 10 X
or 20 X is the answer to everything in
life because then you will do things
like borrow money when you should endure
or maybe cut corners on things that your
employer wants you to cut corners on ER
it just doesn’t make any sense you won’t
like it when you look back on it half it
never bothered me if people disagreed
with what I thought as long as I thought
I knew the facts I mean there’s a whole
bunch of things I don’t know think about
I just stay away from those so I stay
within what I call my circle of
competence you know that Tom Watson said
it best he said you know he said he said
I’m no genius but I’m smart in spots and
I stay around those spots well I try and
stay around those spots and I I just
don’t have a problem if somebody says
you know you’re wrong on something I
just go back and look at the facts and I
think that I think that really is much
more important frankly than having a few
points of IQ or or having an extra
course or two in school or anything of
the sort
you need emotional stability
even today is big as Nike is with over
60,000 employees the key key thing is
people so when you’re starting out
obviously you’re getting the right
people is that’s life and death and and
then not only the right people by
getting them work together and work for
a common purpose I’ve always said to 9s
working together will be to tens working
apart any day how do you do that well
people’s from number one and then giving
them the environment and maybe a little
bit of leadership that allows them to
keep doing that important thing is you
have to there’s two sides is really sort
of the intellectual or mental side you
have to pick a business that has a niche
you have to have a reason to succeed you
have to be something like we were doing
say Japan can beat Germany in
manufacturing at this type of a product
that was the niche really and then on
that you just have to have a total and
complete passion because there’s gonna
be so many dark moments you know I think
that the dark moments are true for any
entrepreneur any startup company I’m
sure that you talked to Steve Jobs and
Apple you can see many many dark dark
moments ours happened to last a little
longer than most of them but you really
emotionally have to be prepared for
those dark moments
[Music]
having my travels occasionally met
promising young people insist they are
not going to ask for help along the way
they want to figure it out themselves
mine was the opposite approach it is
hard enough out there get all the help
you can
getting help really just a part of a
lifelong search for wisdom
[Music]
one of the things I see in new
businesses is they’re often looking for
perfection and I think this is a really
big mistake I think I think you ought to
be looking for experiments and and you
know quick experiments and it’s okay to
have little failures and what you want
to do is learn as much as you can very
quickly and try things and you know
certainly when we were a small business
you know we’d go out and try all sorts
of things to find what would work and
then we found something work we’ll do
that 100 more times a thousand more
times we still to do it today as a large
company
one of the things that people do
instinctually when there are tough times
is they kind of do nothing and you know
they they don’t they don’t
it kind of hunker down this is frozen
rabbits on the head like yeah you know
it’s kind of just just complete stunned
into inaction and I think that’s
actually the worst thing to do I think
times when everyone is confused and kind
of stunned present you know the most
enormous opportunity because nobody’s
really doing anything so you know I
think this is a time where the the seeds
of really successful new businesses will
be created in fact if you look at in our
industry which I’m most familiar with
you know the greatest companies kind of
came out of and were formed in some of
the most difficult times in the industry
when no one was really looking and
everyone thought the whole thing was
gonna go south all of a sudden and whole
new breed of companies you know merge so
for example if you look at the you know
the when Dell was formed in the early
1980s 1984 this was a pretty dark time
in the US economy the personal computer
industry had just gone through a big
down cycle and the prevailing wisdom was
that all electronics would be dominated
by the Japanese you know and and that we
had this big boogeyman called the the
you know Japan Inc and that no one could
compete with Japan a
and in especially in something like
computers but turned out to be
completely wrong and there you know was
enormous opportunity and huge waves of
productivity were unleashed with the
computer industry in a flourishing
if you really don’t know you know what
what it means to be an entrepreneur you
know maybe art one you know so I think
there’s a bit of kind of self initiative
self-starter you know that that is
incredibly important part of
entrepreneurship no one can sort of tell
you how to do it you have to sort of
have an instinctual feeling or idea
about about something and you gotta be
passionate about it and I think people
that look for great ideas to make money
you know aren’t nearly as successful as
those who say okay what I really love to
do what am I excited about what I know
something about
[Music]
you
Please follow and like us: