You can get legal advice, accounting services, marketing consulting and more. But sometimes the key to entrepreneurial success is just stick-to-it-iveness. Where do you turn when the whole process of running your own business (or getting one off the ground) is just overwhelming? One place is a book.
Tuesday, Tina Seelig spoke at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco about her new book “What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20“, and her words can be a great reminder of how fun (and important) being an entrepreneur is, if your motivation or energy ever diminishes.
Seelig’s first point is that problems are opportunities; bigger problems are bigger opportunities. Playing a video clip of Vinod Khosla saying something to the effect of, “No one is going to pay you to solve a small problem.” So, if you’re overwhelmed, it could be a good sign. You may have taken on a very worthwhile opportunity.
You can see other videos of speakers at the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, which Seelig heads at ecorner.Stanford.edu. A free Stanford education!
Another point made by Seelig is that limitations spur creativity. If you are feeling constrained by a difficult lending environment, slowing sales or other issues, you might be on the verge of a stunning moment of innovation. Seelig demonstrated this point by describing the “assignments” she gives to her students and which are now part of the Kauffman Foundation-sponsored Global Innovation Tournament, an international competition with teams creating as much value as possible in one week using simple objects such as Post-it notes and rubber bands. You will be amazed if you view videos of past competitions via links in this post or by reading “What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20″. The Tournament is now part of a Global Entrepreneurship Week, which occurs again this November. If you want to get your motivation and adreline up again, take part!
And, if you are anywhere near Stanford, consider participating in Entrepreneurship Week, aka Eweek, a creative innovation competition and series of events for entrepreneurs. The next one is in February 2010; it’s free and open to the public. See Eweek.Stanford.edu.
It’s hard to choose from all of the good tips Seelig gives, but I called on one the next day after her Commonwealth talk in a conversation with a discouraged friend, so I’ll end with that: “Fail fast and frequently”. Seelig says that failures are part of the process and that “the ratio of our successes and our failures are pretty constant”. To have more successes you have to have more failures.
Learn more by reading sections from the book on the Harper Collins website.
I’m reminded of the saying, “If it was easy, someone else would have already done it.” That sums up the essence of being an entrepreneur, as doing the easy stuff is not going to get you very far, and as the article says, a great deal of success is the ability to stay focused on the problems and look at them as opportunities to do great things.
I agree that the ability to think on your feet and course-correct are key to entrepreneurial success. It is one reason investors like to bet their money on serial entrepreneurs–because the entrepreneur has a record of problem-solving.
Leah, thanks for this post – I found it very informative and will definitely check the book out!