Summary:
Guy Kawasaki gives a list of five things he learned from being an entrepreneur: focus on cash flow; make a little progress every day; try stuff; ignore the schmexperts; never ask anyone to do something that you wouldn't do. (Published: 18/08/08)
Notes:
- Focus on cash flow
- cash is what keeps the doors open and pays the bills
- paper profits on an accrual accounting basis is of no more than secondary or tertiary importance for a startup
- Make a little progress every day
- wrong: big-bang theory of marketing
- fantastic launch that creates such inertia that you flow to "infinity and beyond"
- press writes about "overnight successes" because they seldom happen, not because that's how all businesses work
- correct: make a little progress every day
- making product slightly better, increasing your skill in one small way, closing one more customer, ...
- Try stuff
- wrong: better to be smart than lucky, because if you're smart, you can out-think the competition
- correct: luck is a big part of many successes
- don't be too bummed out when you see a bozo succeed
- luck favours the people who try stuff, not simply think and analyze
- Ignore schmexperts
- i.e. the bad combination of schmucks who are experts, or experts who are schmucks
- when you first launch a product, they'll tell you it isn't necessary, can't really work, faces too much competition, ...
- Never ask anyone to do something that you wouldn't do
- goes for customers to employees
- e.g. "fill out these 25 fields of personal information to get an account for our website"
- e.g. "fly coach to Mumbai, meet all day, and fly back that night"
- if you follow this principle, you'll almost always have a good customer service reputation and happy employees.
