I got a message from someone I know, who joined a startup. The HR there told about a CEO we both know. She said that his firm hasn’t been doing too well and name in the market is pretty bad at the moment.
Though I was hearing it for the first time, I wasn’t surprised.
I have met that CEO on a number of occasions. He used to be a working professional for years before taking the plunge. While I regard him for that, once he told me something which probably indicates his downfall.
He said that running a business is like watching a theatrical show. Just put money and enjoy the entertainment.
That’s where he lagged behind.
He set up an IT company without knowing the proper skills himself. He expected that he would bring in people who knew things and paying money alone would be sufficient. He didn’t have a vision on what differentiated his company from the rest. As a result his company lacked direction, people whom he trusted manipulated him, and the company failed to grow beyond a point.
At the same time I saw two of his rivals who were from lesser educational background and quite small when they started. What they had was a vision and the focus to achieve their vision. One of them used to work as an employee with a decently sized company. He did his work very well for years, and when he was assured of delivering craft then he became independent. He started alone with one more guy and was hands on in his approach. His customers knew he was skilled enough to deliver what they were getting done from previous company, at a lesser cost. He hired team members only when he had so much of work that he couldn’t handle himself. It didn’t take him long to surpass the guy I talked before. In terms of revenues and team size. Yet he remains a hands-on person who knows what’s actually going inside his firm, which enables him to deliver better at all times.
I know one more such guy. He quickly get dissatisfied with every company he worked at. He wanted to work on latest technologies and deliver quality solutions which no one else in his city was doing. He took the risk, self-taught himself the required skills via Internet, and later taught the same to others. He went to great depth, where he could optimise Amazon AWS to cost much less than a VPS server for the same data usage. Then he made sure to spread the word on all this. His clients knew that by working with him they’ll get a technically superior product. As a result he kept getting a lot of good work, even during COVID crises.
As things stand, the guy with better education and bank balance didn’t succeed. Whereas self-taught people with lesser formal education and little financial resources did well.
So what do we learn from above? We can interpret that:
1. You can’t expect to become successful just by hiring people and paying money. If that was the case then every VC would have got a good return from every investment of theirs.
2. You have to be clear in your company’s vision, that is, what makes it stand out among the rest? Can you answer in 30 seconds, why must someone give work to you?
3. Those who have a hands-down approach to work, do better than those who know nothing yet act bossy. Such hardworking people cannot be easily taken for ride by their competent team.
4. If you’re in a job and clients realise you’re highly dependable, then you have a good chance to succeed when you go independent. Value of a skilled person who knows the subject is quite immense.
5. Perseverance. This separates successful ones from others. You won’t always be successful in the first instance itself. However, as long as you’re delivering value to your customers and making sure you are better today than you were yesterday, then nothing can ever stop you.
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What do you think separates a successful entrepreneur from others? If possible, kindly share your views in the comments box below.
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