Learn from the mistakes of others, without yourself (a) need to commit it, is perhaps the most painless way to mature. And we are lucky, because we tend to notice the mistakes of others much more than ours. With that in mind, we pick five lessons directly from the “old war”, especially for those who are starting a business or dream to undertake.
1. It all starts with an insight and insight comes from experience
It is a fact that virtually all the startups you know began with an insight and the passionate desire to make this insight a solution to the greatest possible number of people. But the question is, what was necessary to have this insight? In almost 100% of cases, a frustration, or, in other words, the experience of not getting what you wanted. “The source of all our knowledge are our perceptions.” It was not anyone who said this was Leonardo da Vinci. But it is not the night to the day that insight comes. Entrepreneurs need to spend time scheming to reach the best way to pass the obstacle, and it is simple enough to work for many people. And understand what meets several people besides yourself, demand a lot of empathy. So you better get rid of their prejudices before going ahead with their plans.
2. No timing, a great idea is just one more
It’s not often that you can turn an innovative idea into a large profitable business. Unfortunately. You depend on timing, that is, the context that your audience is living at the time, and also how hot is the market for the idea that you had. Startups most successful precisely born of the perception of (a) entrepreneur (a) the changes that the market was going through. This does not mean at all that you should expect that the need for people is evident. Steve Jobs used to paraphrase Henry Ford, inventor of the first automobile, to explain the origin of innovations iPod, iPad and iPhone, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
3. Only desperate buy from startups
So believes Andy Rachleff, renowned Stanford professor. And why only the desperate? He understands that the first thing an entrepreneur should do is to test the validity of your insight, identifying a segment of consumers who are truly desperate for a new solution. It will be those who will buy from you pprimeiro, even if your product or service is still not ideal. Continue until you find these people. This is the rest of the mantra. It can be difficult to settle on delivering a product perhaps unfinished, but still, you will find those who say “Yes! How do I buy? “If the idea is good. The next step is to understand what else that person waiting for your solution, and then to launch it on the market, keep continuously improving it.
4. Strategy is deciding what will not do
Startup is, by definition, a great idea, a small group with minimal resources. But as the film director Orson Welles and said, “The greatest enemy of art is the absence of limits.” It is crucial that you know to say what is not a priority for your company (we have a post on this one, here), because only then you can understand where to channel all creativity. This implies, for example, let cool features waiting for your product / service, and focus on functionality decisive for the purchase. It is not very easy to know which is which, but as Billy Bosworth, CEO of DataStax, suggests “It’s not as difficult as physics, is difficult as dieting.” It demands discipline to begin with, but then you get the hang of.
5. Organizational values matter as much market value
It’s sad to admit, but there is a certain disdain when talking about values of a company. Perhaps because values eventually became synonymous with beautiful words that the board says lip service, when in fact, are the values that guide from the most everyday attitudes of employees of a company to the more ambitious strategies. Having clear values does not mean having lots and lots of values written on a wall for show. One or two stories that everyone knows will be sufficient to express, for example, the need to treat people with respect and the importance of cooperating with each other, even if it means getting up from your desk.
6. If we add a 6th mantra to the list would be:
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