Entrepreneur Myths (9 page)

(Q1)
After you failed, did you try again? How did you finance your next venture?

(Q2)
When you failed, how did you address the failure with your spouse, friends, family and business associates? Were they supportive? Did they provide any assistance?

(Q3)
When you failed, how did you address failure to yourself? Consciously? Subconsciously?

(Q4)
When you failed, did you seek advice from other entrepreneurs who failed?

(Q5)
How many times did Henry Ford fail before he started the Ford Motor Company? Do you know? I do. Let’s just say it was more than once. Find out on your own.

(Q6)
What other great entrepreneurs failed then came back with a new venture and hit it big?

(Q7)
What did you do after the failure? Did you take time off, get another job or start another venture?

Entrepreneur
Myth 13
| The journey is the reward

If you’re an entrepreneur pitching me for money, please don’t tell me the journey is the reward or I will kick your ass. ROI is the reward. I don’t want to hear about your feelings or how you want to (1) change the world for the better, (2) save humanity from ill doings, (3) feel better about yourself because you had a bad childhood, and/or (4) express yourself to the world for whatever personal reasons.

Life is a journey. Entrepreneurship is ROI.

The ROI has to happen for you, your family, your employees and your investors. I admit when I was younger I said stupid shit like, “The journey is the reward.” You’ll never hear me say that again. I’m in it for the fucking money. And you should be too.

Do you think I wrote this book just to express myself? Let me make it clear. I wrote the book to educate entrepreneurs and make money. I hope you like it enough to tell every entrepreneur and investor you know to buy it. Perhaps you will save them the time and money they’d spend going to business school.

Successful entrepreneurs focus 100% on ROI, not on changing the world. It is difficult to do both at the same time and be successful. Change the world only after you’ve made a shit-load of money.

Bill Gates was criticized for not donating enough money. He was busy building Microsoft. But after he married Melinda, they focused on a substantial amount of non-profit activities. Now he’s found his passion. He is funding scientists to create a waterless toilet that will convert human waste into energy and potable water. Go Gates.

Ted Turner is one of my heroes. He is one of the great entrepreneurs of the last hundred years.  He had a huge impact and influence on the world by starting CNN.  He was changing the world
before
he was even a billionaire by forming the first 24-hour news television network. Only after selling CNN did he focus on donating a substantial amount of money to charities.

Mark Cuban is a busy billionaire. He hasn’t tried to save the world. I don’t know if he actually plans to conduct world-saving efforts, and I don’t give a fuck. Mark did change the basketball landscape for Dallas when his Mavericks basketball team won the 2011 NBA Finals, and that’s good enough for me.

Warren Buffet is a billionaire. He has not yet transformed the charity world with all his influence and money, but he made a lot of investors rich.

If you want to be a billionaire so you can change the world, don’t tell me about it when pitching me for money. I might just kick your ass out of my office.

I funded a guy who had all kinds of visions of changing the world, and making it a better place for everyone — you know, like helping the hungry and saving the Mexican walking fish. Shit, I wished he’d just focused on getting me my ROI. He was so busy being cool and trying to revolutionize the world, he forgot to keep his eyes on his own business. Now his business is gone and he has no money to change the world.

When you start your venture, make sure your goal to create an ROI for all parties involved. If you’re looking for “the experience” then find another mother-fucker-sucker to invest in your venture. Please don’t call me. I don’t want to hear about your Zen-like feelings on becoming “whole” while making the entrepreneur journey — on my dime.

My advice: If you pitch me for money, refrain from telling me the journey is the reward. Donate to non-profit organizations instead. Let the Red Cross do their job in saving lives, otherwise join the Peace Corps.

ROI
is
the journey. Don’t ever fucking forget it.

Brain Candy: questions to consider and ponder

(Q1)
Why did you start your venture? Are you in it for the money or to change the world?

(Q2)
Are you stupid enough to tell investors the journey is the reward when they are considering putting millions of dollars in the deal?

(Q2)
Why is the journey the reward? Isn’t the journey to your bank a better reward?

Entrepreneur
Myth 14
| Ideas are a dime a dozen

Investors love telling entrepreneurs ideas are a dime a dozen. My thought is, “You fucking bitch, if it’s so easy, why are you talking to me?”

It’s not easy coming up with good ideas — great ideas are even harder

If you’re an entrepreneur who has come up with a good idea, protect it like it’s your child.  Don’t let some motherfucker steal it from you. I’m flabbergasted when I see entrepreneurs share their precious ideas with strangers or potential investors. It’s as if they’ve got thousands of other good ideas in their cranium for backup. Share your ideas with others cautiously.

When I look at investing into ventures, I’m respectful of the concept of idea generation because it’s not as easy as some investors claim. In the past, when investors told me ideas are a dime a dozen, I had to restrain myself from punching them in the nose. Some investors downplay an entrepreneur’s idea in order to gain leverage by acting disinterested. It’s part of the investor game of keeping company valuations lower. My attitude to investors: If it’s so easy to come up with good ideas, then you fucking think of them.

It’s easy to play devil’s advocate when it comes to the evaluation of ideas. I had a partner in a high-tech enterprise software startup who was fantastic at playing this role. They thought they were doing me a favor thinking up every possible reason why my ideas wouldn’t work. “It's too narrow.” “It's too ahead of its time.” “The product is too expensive to produce.” This partner never came up with any ideas of their own. I don’t mind someone providing feedback on my idea, but please don’t just knock it down. Try to improve it or provide some solid advice. I got tired of coming up with all the ideas, and that partnership, luckily for me, ended.

Don’t downplay the power of idea generation. The process of coming up with a great idea is fuzzy, unpredictable, chaotic and at times difficult. Your mind is a complex, adaptive, non-linear system. There are days when my mind flows freely with so many ideas that I have difficulty writing them all down. But on some days I have to get into the “idea zone.” Read Myth 17 to find out how you can do it also. Inspire your mind, and guard it carefully.

Treat your ideas with the utmost respect. Ideation is an unpredictable process. It’s hard to predict when you’ll come up with that “big idea.” I enjoy thinking of big ideas, and I hope that you enjoy the process too. But ideas are only the beginning of an entrepreneur’s journey. You might have to add, modify or edit your idea to make it workable in the marketplace.

Beware of idea wolves

I funded one entrepreneur who was keen on sharing his ideas with everyone. I had to remind him to be careful about sharing his ideas with people outside his company. You never know who might be an idea wolf. When you share your ideas, you risk having them stolen from you.

Don’t let social media bamboozle you either. You see share buttons everywhere on the internet because social media companies encourage people to share their thoughts, advice and ideas. My advice: don’t be so social when it comes to sharing your ideas before they’re hatched. When you’re well-funded and out in the marketplace — share your idea to the utmost.

Guard your idea like a top military secret

Silicon Valley does a good job of keeping ideas below the radar until it’s time to build the market hype. You see this with startups and established companies. Nobody does it better than Apple. Apple guards its product ideas like the gold at Fort Knox (except for the time one of their employees left the iPhone 4 prototype at a bar). You should too.

Brain Candy: questions to consider and ponder

(Q1)
Do you think ideas are a dime a dozen?

(Q2)
Is it easy for you to come up with a lot of ideas?

(Q3)
How do you put yourself into the idea generation mode? Do you do it alone, or do you generate ideas with your friends, partners or employees?

(Q4)
Have investors or your partners told you that ideas are a dime a dozen? How did you react? Did you punch them in the nose, or just smile and ignore them? Did you tell them to fuck off?

(Q5)
When you came up with your big idea, do you remember how you did it? Where were you lying, sitting, standing or running? How were you feeling at the time? Did you see the vision of the big idea play out like a movie or was it more like a snapshot?

(Q6)
Do you have the confidence to repeat the ideation process over and over again?

Entrepreneur
Myth 15
| All you need is a great idea in order to succeed