10 tips from the best entrepreneurs for success Whether or not they are billionaires today, recognized internationally or in France, they dared to take the plunge, clung to their dreams despite the failures and ended up creating value. What are their tips today for budding entrepreneurs? A small dose of inspiration for the day, to consume without moderation!
1- Do it with passion or don't do it
The greatest entrepreneurs here are all unanimous: you will never do things as well as when there is passion and pleasure.
For Jeff Bezos (Amazon), you have to do something that you have a lot of passion for “even if it is not in the current trend”. Steve Jobs adds that it is so difficult to be successful when starting a business that “if you don't have passion and you are sane, you will stop”. Similarly, Biz Stone (Twitter) claims that “failure is almost guaranteed” if there is no “emotional engagement” in your step. What about money, a sufficient engine to succeed? Michael Dell believes that “people who are looking for ideas for making money are not as successful as those who are doing what they love”.
2- Find a solution to a problem
We have repeated it to you, hammered home, but we can never tell you enough: nobody wants a solution to a problem that does not exist. For Paul Graham (Y Combinator), if the majority of startups fail, it is “because they created something that people did not want to buy”. Aaron Vidas (Strategybox) also advises you to “be the solution to a problem, not a solution in search of a problem to be solved”. Very concretely, “pay attention to people's needs and what hasn't been done” (Russell Simmons, Def Jam Records).
3- Having an idea is good, executing it is essential
Anyone can have an idea. But there is a gap between ideation and action, which is sometimes difficult to cross in the entrepreneurial adventure. Walt Disney (himself) once said that “the way to start is to stop talking and start acting”. Similarly, Jack Dorsey (Twitter) confirms that “the hardest part is to start”. For Sarah Azan and Hannah Oiknine (Babbler), “it is not enough to have a good idea and a little bit of money”, the success of a project depends on its execution.
“Your winning advantage is not an idea that you hold dear, but the ability to check if this idea works, to find the right team, to get in motion” (Reid Hoffman, Linkedin)
In entrepreneurship as in life, you have to be constantly on the move. To avoid getting stuck, make decisions every day (even small), take a step forward every day (even small). As Serge Kampf (Capgemini) says: “You have to be constantly on your toes. If we sleep, we are dead ”.
4- Surround yourself ... and the best!
Palmer Luckey (Oculus Rift) warns the founders: “You don't have to know how to do everything, and even if you can, you shouldn't”. Reid Hoffmann (Linkedin) adds: “If you play solo, you will always lose against a team”. Yet, did you know that a bad team is one of the main causes behind startup failure? Renaud Visage (Eventbrite) advises entrepreneurs to “pay particular attention to first recruitments”. For Warren Buffet, you have to “rub shoulders with people better than you”. According to Beth Hurley (Covanta Energy), you also have to “find experts in the areas where you are not the strongest and not feel threatened by them”. Even more concretely, Naval Ravikant (Angelist) states that “you have to find an associate who has these three characteristics:
5- Take care of your corporate culture
Once you've assembled the dream team, how do you keep it and work together? For Florian Douetteau (Dataiku), it is necessary “above all to recruit people who know how to talk to each other”. Then Tony Hsieh (Zappos) advises to “pay attention to the corporate culture”. Also capital for Jessy Bernal (Doctolib), he recommends developing it as soon as possible: “ When the team is on the fingers of one hand, having a“ culture ”meeting is embarrassing. The exercise then seems artificial and there are so many other emergencies to deal with. But nevertheless, this spinal column is capital: it is on it that the structure will grow to stand up and move forward with great strides. Defining your values means formalizing them, sharing them and offering collective moments to your employees. ”
6- Tell a (beautiful) story
Simon Sinek declared that “very few organizations really know what their reason for existence is, their cause, their positive belief”. It is essential to define the values to which the company adheres, not only for the internal cohesion of the team but also vis-Ã -vis the outside. Seth Godin (Tribes) says he is not interested in the numbers but in the message that companies are sending. “What is the story you are telling?” . So take care of your storytelling: even before your product or service, your customers or investors will pay attention to your story.
7- speak up and accept criticism
Are you afraid that someone will poke your idea? As we said before, everyone has ideas but few people really put them into action. So according to Benoît Feron (Modizy.com), “an idea is worth nothing”, so you have to talk about it and not be afraid to do it. Hélène Quaniaux (MeetmyJob.fr) recommends not to hesitate to seek advice from those around you. Everyone is more or less expert in a field, and however far it is from yours, each opinion can shed new light on you: “Great leaders ask the opinion of everyone they meet” (Chris Sacca, Lowercase Capital).
Then, as Elon Musk (Tesla) puts it, “continually seek criticism because criticism of what you do is worth gold”. Marc Pincus (Zynga), on the other hand, advises you to choose “the five to six smartest friends in the room” and ask them to gauge your idea.
8- But only constructive criticism!
Mark Svenson once said: “Know when to listen to others and when to listen only to yourself”. Learn to distinguish constructive criticism that will move you forward and criticism that, just negative, only discourages you unnecessarily. Dennis Crowley (Foursquare) cautions: “Don't be sidetracked by people who don't like your idea. There are always people who won't like it or who think it will never work. ” For Mark Twain, only mediocre people will always try to belittle your ambitions while "big guys make you feel that you, too, can become big."
9- “Try, Fail, Fix”
Even if it is starting to spread in France, the “culture of failure” is much more integrated in the United States. We will tell you: it does not matter to fail, it is even highly recommended…! Mark Zuckerberg said it himself: “A lot of times I get asked what mistakes to avoid, I usually say don't even try to avoid making mistakes because you're going to make tons of them anyway. ” So take failure as the opportunity to build resilience. For Céline Lazorthes (Leetchi), pugnacity is the main quality of an entrepreneur, you must “never take no for an answer”. Alexandra Malsch (Melty), for his part, warns of “desert crossings” to come and of the obligation to “continue to believe in it”. Try, fail; repair and then start again. As Eric Ries (The Lean Startup) says:
10- don't raise too much money at the start
Another of the most common mistakes entrepreneurs make is trying to raise a lot of money right away. For Renaud Visage (Eventbrite), it is better not to raise too much money from the start because “the valuation is difficult to justify afterwards”. Jean-David Chamboredon (Isai) advises him to be realistic and credible in the eyes of investors: “It is easier to say that we want to raise 300,000 euros and finally get 500,000 because investors are motivated rather than doing less than what was initially announced ”.
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