Extractive summaries and key takeaways from the articles curated from TOP TEN BUSINESS MAGAZINES to promote informed business decision-making | Week 307 | July 28-August 3, 2023
I Started My Business In My Mom’s Basement at the Age of 17. Here are 5 Rules I Wish I Had Known, But Had to Learn the Hard Way
By Jon Becker | Entrepreneur Magazine | July 28, 2023
Listen to the Extractive Summary of the Article
According to the author just before his 18th birthday, he decided to start a business selling mail-order rock-climbing gear. And its been now 4 decades running various businesses. Over the years, perhaps the most frequent question he receives from strangers is a variant of “What do you know now that you wish you knew when you started AARDVARK?” According to him, although there is not a single lesson learned, five lessons (learned through errors and pain) would have been very valuable when he was a budding entrepreneur.
Rule 1 — It is not about you! As a new business owner or a new leader, it is very easy to fancy yourself important. Moving up the chain in an organization or supervising others tends to make us prideful, and we begin to value ourselves a little bit too much. There is no easy way to break this to you, you are the least important person in your business! The order of importance is very simple: Your people, your clients, then you.
Rule 2 – You must have a higher purpose than making money. Making money is the reason we all start a business. But money is a very short-term and very fickle purpose. Money does not motivate the passion and dedication needed to create a successful team. By passion, we mean a true desire to help other people. It turns out that for almost all people, doing something to help other people is what they really care about and what will really motivate them.
Rule 3 — Hire people, not qualifications. Trading company culture for qualifications would be a terrible deal. Remember that you are building a team and not a resume. Culture trumps everything! Do not hire people based on their qualifications; hope it will work out. Hire people who fit your culture and also happen to be qualified. If you have to choose between culture and skills, pick culture every time! You can train people to do a job. You cannot train them to be good people.
Rule 4 – Fix the problem, not the blame. No matter what the industry is, preventing errors is done through a system. A system that trains people not to make errors, checks to ensure they are not making errors and finally uses errors or near misses as opportunities for improvement. To accomplish this, everyone must be comfortable sharing their mistakes and preventing future errors must be a group effort.
Rule 5 — Your job is to get the right answer, not supply it! Steve Jobs once reportedly said, “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” Your job as a leader is to harness all your resources to find the best solution to any problem. The feeling that you are the smartest person in the room is rooted either in ego/arrogance or insecurity and fear of being found out to be an imposter. If this feels awkward, please see Rule 1 above, “it’s not about you!”
3 key takeaways from the article
- According to the author just before his 18th birthday, he decided to start a business selling mail-order rock-climbing gear. And he has been running successful business for more than four decades.
- Over the years, perhaps the most frequent question he receives from strangers is a variant of “What do you know now that you wish you knew when you started your first business?”
- Although there is not a single lesson learned, five lessons (learned through errors and pain) would have been very valuable when he was a budding entrepreneur. Rule 1 — It is not about you! The order of importance is very simple: Your people, your clients, then you. Rule 2 – You must have a higher purpose than making money. Rule 3 — Hire people, not qualifications. Rule 4 – Fix the problem, not the blame. And Rule 5 — Your job is to get the right answer, not supply it!
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Topics: Entrepreneurship, Startups, Leadership