So you want to be an entrepreneur
Are you crazy?
Seems like everyone wants to be an entrepreneur these days. First question I ask myself: “Is this person crazy?” You’d probably ask why I would say that. Because to be a successful entrepreneur, you actually have to be crazy. To be a successful entrepreneur, you need to be 3 things:
Someone who has failed before. Entrepreneurship is a lot like swimming. If I gave you a textbook on swimming and you studied it for 3 years, then i threw you in the ocean, you will sink. Swimming isn’t a theory thing, its a practice thing. So you have to do it. If you’ve failed before, you’ve proven you’ve tried something and you know whats on the other side of not succeeding, which is failure.
Second, you need to be someone who believes in yourself even when the odds are ridiculous and show that its not going to work. You have to be crazy to be an entrepreneur. You have to believe you’ll make money on month’s end (which you often don’t), you have to believe you’ll reach all your customers (which you don’t), you have to believe you can compete with big companies (which you often can’t), you have to believe you can do so cheaply and effectively AND that you can make a profit (which in the early days you probably won’t). If you don’t believe those things you can’t succeed as an entrepreneur.
Third thing is that you have to be passionate. Even when theres too much month at the end of the money.
So why stress yourself? Is it really worth it? Relaxxxxx. Get a job and the guaranteed salary. Nothing wrong with that.
Anyway, in the off chance you’re still enticed by this prospect of being an entrepreneur, is that the end of story? NOPE. Surprise surprise.
What else do investors look for in entrepreneurs?
Intelligence: you’ve got to be smart and know what you’re doing on some level. You talk to people and you get a sense of whether they have specific knowledge: do they have insight? have they thought about the problem deeply? It’s not about age but about how deeply they understand what they’re about to do.
Energy: Because being a founder is not easy. It takes a long time and the people who succeed are those who persevere.
Integrity: If you have someone who is highly intelligent, has high energy but low on integrity, all you’ve got is a hard working, smart crook. Ethics and integrity are what you do despite the money. Integrity requires longitudinal relationships.
As an investor, you’re signing up to invest in someone. You’re signing up to spend the next decade of your life having them around. So make sure you genuinely like these people. You don’t consider it work to have to answer a phone call or take a meeting or spend time with them. Its exhausting and no amount of money is worth it if they’re negative. This person has to care about what they’re putting together. An investor needs to see founders who have a clear vision of some type or some vision of true north. Founders who can reevaluate every opportunity on its own merits and who know these things are about timing. Remember how Sequoia invested in WebVan and Instacart? Pretty similar businesses but different times producing very different outcomes.
Article List—Articles I’ve read in the past 24 hours or so
A Game of Giants: I don’t think I need to say any more about why I love @waitbutwhy but this is the second post in the new series about humans and why we act the way we act.
How to Stop Slack From Taking Over Your Life: I talked about this the other day with a friend. All I see people do on Slack is chat and gossip. How much time are you taking away from your job with all these “productivity” apps? Well, according to the CEO of the Atlantic who did some internal research, it costs her company the same amount as a small Learjet (not more than 20m$) a year.
Former Lagos governor Ambode feels the wrath of the kingmaker: “Fear of Tinubu is the beginning of wisdom. I was telling a friend yesterday I’d pick power over money. Research the rise of Putin and you’d understand why. Power becomes synonymous with influence and you’d never lack.”
Upstart ‘Le Tote’ To Acquire Nearly Two Century Old Retailer Lord & Taylor: The student has become the master.
A Top Financier of Trump And McConnell Is a Driving Force Behind Amazon Deforestation: Very left title but i don’t disagree with a lot they say.
Podcast— A podcast channel listened to this morning
How I Built This: Serial Entrepreneur: Maria Kilgore. Ever started 5 businesses in a row that were all successful? Yea, most likely not. But you and Maria are not age mates. She has. Listen to her journey here.
Book—What I’m reading now or in the recent past or want to read…my book list is nearing 1000 books 🌚
Next 30 pages of AI Superpowers (only two people asked me for the PDF 👀). Is WeChat the only super-app? Because they’ve cornered a serious segment of the tech market.
Remember folks: “until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.”
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