The things I’m about to tell you are probably one of the most important things I will ever tell anyone… ever. These 8 things are my keys to being be a successful entrepreneur.
They are:
Bias towards Action
Body language is everything (take yourself seriously)
Take notes
Be vocal
Don’t work with friends
Don’t be afraid to lead or follow
Don’t assume
Pay attention to details
I will now go through each of these in more detail.
1. Bias towards Action
Having a bias towards action means that instead of sitting passively and letting people around you take control of situations you take control and actively. Although I’m normally the kind of person who immediately takes the lead, in the beginning of this course I was definitely more passive than I usually am. It would take me a lot of time before I decided to take any action. I’d often had good ideas but would never act upon them. These were wasted opportunities because even if none of my ideas ended up working out they way I thought they would I would still be getting closer to the solution. Having a bias towards action doesn’t mean you just do things without thinking; there should always be a plan involved. You have to find the balance between planning and doing. Action does not just have to be going and getting out of whatever space you are in, action is anything that involves doing. This can be getting interviews, doing research, or creating prototypes. You should never be wondering about what you can do with your time. There is always something but most likely too many things to do.
2. Body Language is EVERYTHING; show the audience your confidence.
Most Monday mornings I have to get up an hour early to go to my dad’s local Toastmasters Club where he is the president. Toastmasters is essentially a speech club for adults, they work through a manual practicing different types of speeches the emphasis different public speaking skills. I’ve been going to these meetings for the past 5 years and the thing that stood out to me the most is it doesn’t matter how many speeches you’ve given or how long you’ve been a member, body language matters. The difference between giving a good speech, or presentation in our case, and a bad one is how you present yourself. Just think about your everyday life, people are naturally drawn to a certain type of person. Often times it doesn’t really matter what the person looks like or what they are talking about, what matters is how confident they are. People are always taking queues from the people around them to see how to react in different situations. If you are confident it what you are saying, your audience will be confident in what you’re saying because if you don’t believe in yourself, how is anyone else going to do it?
3. Take Notes
Taking notes is one of the most important things you can do as an entrepreneur. Your mind is going to be going in so many different directions that it’s impossible to remember all the ideas that you are going to come up with even in a short period of 5 minutes. You never know which off these ideas could be the solution to whatever problem you are trying to solve. I suggest investing in some note pads because there are interesting things everywhere. I find that writing things down helps me remember them. Taking notes is a good skill to have an all aspects of life because when you are taking notes you are forced to pay attention to your subject.
4. Be Vocal
This fits in with having a bias towards action. Part of being active is making sure your voice is always heard in your team. Everyone has something to offer to the team, there are no stupid ideas or questions. Everything can lead to a solution. If you aren’t vocal you have no right to be upset when things go your way. I learned first hand from my team that it is very hard to be vocal especially when you are working on a team with your friends. Which leads me to my next point:
5. Don’t work with friends
I love my friends to death; they are awesome and great to hang out with and I always have a good time with them, but having to work with them for my final presentation was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. All throughout school I’ve had to work with friends on various projects but this kind of dynamic changes with the projects involves a business. It’s really hard balancing being a friend and being a leader when you have a business. There are things you are going to have to say to your partners that you wouldn’t normally say to a friend. You can never completely separate these two lives so what happens when you are working on your business affects your personal relationships. Unless you became friends through your business partnership I don’t think it’s worth risking a good friendship for a business.
6. Don’t be afraid to lead or follow
Regardless if you are the appointed team leader or not, everyone on a team is going to have to learn and be willing to step up and lead and step down and follow. At any given moment you are going to pushed into a leadership role, maybe you will have to make sure they team is writing down all their numbers, maybe you be the lead interviewer, at some point you going to have to take control. On the other side of things, you can’t always be a leader. There are times where it is ok to take a step back and let the others in the team have a chance to have a leadership position. Everyone can and should be able to contribute in both ways.
7. Don’t assume
Never assume anything. Period. There are so many things that know, don’t know, and things that you don’t know that you don’t know. This is just with you; you don’t know how these things fit in with the people around you. Assumptions make and ass out of “u” and “me”. It’s a silly saying but its true. People feel threatened when they think they don’t know something, its better to avoid this completely and don’t think that everyone has the same knowledge level as you. It’s unnecessary to use jargon aka big important sounding words in presentations. If the same ideas can be conveyed in simple terms use them, you are not impressing anyone with your knowledge of terms this is not a vocabulary test.
8. Pay attention to the details
I completely suck at paying attention to details. I am totally a big picture kind of person. I’m sure there are tons of mistakes even in this Manifesto. Unless you are already a naturally detailed oriented person this is one of the hardest things you are going to have to face. As they say, “The devil is in the details” and that goes double for a business. Details can be the difference between being professional and being sloppy. This is a skill I still definitely need to work on and it’s a skill that affects everyone for the rest of his or her lives. Everyone needs to pay attention to the details; they can make or break you.