The third class is over. Me and my group have made good progress with our idea which may soon become a startup. We are technically situated somewhere before the start. Maybe we could compare it to pregnancy. If so I'd say that we have just finished the sonar which tells us what we are expecting, more about that later. To early to tell (but actually not based on what I have learned) :).
The main things I took from the lecture was the meaning of the word"instinct" and how to deal with it, or more precisely the counter intuitive things we need to be aware off. Instinct is our biggest enemy in order to become a entrepreneur. Our mind is very counter intuitive. You basically always have some inner demon or inner angel telling you something is not right, which you usually follow in life, but should not when starting a startup, at least regarding process... it's like skiing. Your instinct might tell you lay back to slow speed but it actually makes things worse, you go faster.
It's best to be inexperienced when it comes to process, it may help having some mentors on the side line but only if they have some experience of startups... don't waste time in unexperienced lawyers(meaning lawyers who do not have startup experience)... do not think that you need some experience at all other than your brain(it's not exactly what Bala said, but what he was saying the same in about 30 sentences) and it actually makes a lot sense. Think of Bill Gates? Did he have some experienced people to seek advice, did he rely on anything other than he's blank paper where he was drawing his vision of the future? Same story about Mark Zuckenberg and more. They were entrepreneurs not because they made a better version of other peoples ideas, they made the ideas nobody had figured they would need so much in the future.
Now over to some other impressive thought... Bala said Icelandic investors think that picking winners is about playing chess... what he was meaning was that they are always working with some analytics on how the market is likely to respond next... and once again I tell my self yes, he is actually maybe right about that one, even though it sounded like nonsense at first. But when I come to think of it Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and more entrepreneurs did not really have any chance of predicting what the next move would be from the consumers. And the solution might actually be what Bala is so obsessed with which is the "fanbase". The most perfect signal for an investor choosing a startup to invest in to see how many people are excited about this thing coming alive. For the investor to know that you have shared your vision with people and there are tons of people who are counting down the days for your vision to come true, that's promising for sure! Take for example Henry Ford. He knew that people were urging for a faster horse in order to get faster from A to B. He solved that problem but not with a faster horse but a equipment which would take you from A to B faster and would soon become one of the things almost everybody feels need of owning for decades to come.
And now ... could the world then may be more productive? I'm 100% sure! If everybody would just start sharing their ideas more in hope of getting as many "likes" on Facebook they would probably get noticed by investors or other useful people who might wanna support your idea coming alive. The previous lectures also pointed at this. It really matters do go out there with a demo of the product, even though it does not work and see if people like your thinking. And that's why me and my group are gonna reveal our secret idea before we've finished making the idea come true.
And finally how should my mindset be if I want to become a entrepreneur? Your mindset should be on a new vision of the future, not the past or a better version of the past. The future is on those who can see a way to make something that people will absolutely love and can't live without. The next Mark Zuckenberg will certainly not make as much history if he only makes a better facebook. The next Mark Zuckenberg will be the one who finds a totally different view of social media(or what ever it will be called) that people will absolutely love and won't be able to live without.
No comments:
Post a Comment