I don’t believe in luck in a mystical sense, where through some
random ritual or psychic forecast you can ensure yourself a little
easier going. That’s because mysticism puts fate out of your control, I
think. And I have always wanted to keep my fate in my own hands.
Nevertheless, I do most definitely believe that luck exists; I just
think it’s a little more purposeful, and controllable, than most might
think. I also think it’s often the simple result of being in the right
place at the right time. And sometimes that’s all you need for your life
to change forever.
So how does any of this relate to your business? Simple: you can
create luck for yourself and your company by finding ways to put
yourself in that right place at that right time. And sometimes that’s
all you need to take your company to new heights. Happens all the time.
How? By seizing opportunities to constantly improve yourself, your
leadership skills and your company.
…full disclosure: I’m no Dr. Peter Venkman or Emmet Brown, so I have
no parapsychological or metaphysical evidence to back up anything that
I’m saying. I’m just a guy who runs a tech business and who thinks life
is way too fragile and short to not make it amazing. I also want to be
in control of where I take it. Maybe you do too.
Creating your own luck begins with learning where to find opportunity…
As an entrepreneur, you’re doing yourself an injustice when you don’t
push yourself beyond your comfort zone to capitalize on a new
opportunity, and opportunities abound when you run a startup. That’s
especially the case when your business is in the early stages because
you don’t just have to wear many hats, you’ve often got to wear every hat,
and there’s all kinds of opportunities, several of which you may have
absolutely zero qualifications for or experience handling. But forget
that. Be versatile. Be hungry to become an expert in new areas. Be
obsessed, in fact.
As a former soldier, I’ll use a military example: you’ve got to be
the general, the grunt and the medic, all at the same time, and you’re
always advancing on enemy lines, and you’re always taking casualties.
Learning your role(s) allows you to capitalize. And capitalizing allows
you to keep moving forward. I like to tell new people on my team to
think of it like this: Welcome to Viet Nam. You just graduated from
high school. You were a Private. But you just got promoted to
Lieutenant. The fate of 40 other soldiers now lies squarely in your
hands. It is no longer relevant what you were comfortable doing – just figure it out.
I think you’ve really got to commit yourself to a career of constant
self-education to learn where to look for the best opportunities. Read
books and blogs on project management or technology if that’s your
field. Get to know online help communities like Meetup or Quora
where you can go to network and get guidance or even hire people. Start
tapping into your personal and professional network to seek out
individuals who may want to join or help you raise funding. These are
avenues that will help you acclimate to your newfound executive role and
seek out the most valuable opportunities.
At my company, especially in the beginning, I did everything from
site architecture and design to customer service, finance and sales, in
addition to strategy and fundraising…most of these things I had no prior
experience with. At all. But I love what I do, and I pushed myself to
learn and figure things out. As you grow your business, it won’t always
be feasible to enjoy such deep involvement, but understanding your
resources and constantly educating yourself prepares you for the wartime
promotion that will take you out of your element.
It’s inexcusable to fail because of inaction…
Of the innumerable ways startups often fail, the very last should be
inaction. And I think it usually is the result of being either lazy,
overwhelmed or, more often, afraid. These sentiments can pervade an
entire organization, but it’s most important for you as a founder not to
be paralyzed by anything. Whether it’s a fear like that of public
speaking (pitching to investors, selling to clients for the first time,
giving a pep talk, etc.) or simply a matter of spending time to go to
the extra mile (attending a networking event or meeting a customer in
person as opposed to over the phone), seize the opportunity. Get the
Nike mentality and just do it, whatever it is.
I’ll give you a more civilian and personal example this time: writing
this very column. I’m ecstatic to have this opportunity to share my
experiences with other entrepreneurs in a forum like Forbes. But I could
have just as easily decided not to take on the new challenge because I
simply don’t have time for yet another responsibility. In a startup time
is your best friend, your most valuable asset. If I’m 100% with you,
though, my hesitation was more aptly due to a little bit of fear. You
write for a periodical like Forbes for example, and you’re exposing your
ideas and opinions to the criticism of thousands, and sometimes
millions of people. As a writer, you voluntarily subject yourself to
that criticism. As a business owner, the fear is that you’re indirectly
subjecting your entire company to that criticism.
I think we all, to a different extent, have a fear of taking on new
challenges because uncertain outcomes make us uneasy; but you get no
value from not challenging yourself. Way I see it, the alternatives are
simple with challenges like this. You either stay in your foxhole,
afraid to get hit and accomplish nothing, or you take a risk
and potentially end up with a major achievement under your belt. I
decided that being able to simultaneously share my experiences with
other entrepreneurs, record my thoughts, and, yes, get a little bit of
press exposure was well worth the risk of criticism and offered more
value than the alternative: nothing.
Condition yourself to be in a state of constant preparedness…
Along the same lines of fear, you must forget about the preoccupation
with making a mistake…which is not to say be careless. But I do mean
that if you are going to make a mistake, then make it out of ambition
and courage, not out of laziness or fear. Sometimes you will be wrong.
Sometimes people will disagree with you. But be fearless and make a
move. Be bold, be tireless, and be resilient because that mentality
needs to be the essence of your entire organization. Get something out
there, generate traction and iterate based on feedback and what you
learn. Jump in head first and train yourself to be impenetrable to your
fear and confident that even when you do make a mistake, you’ll be
resilient enough to bounce back and adjust for the next iteration or
improvement.
Try getting yourself into a mentality of fearless ambition. If it
only comes in bursts, try training yourself to make those bursts last
longer. It’s all a state of mind, and it can be conditioned.
Intentionally do things that make you uncomfortable. Get up and sing
during a karaoke party. Ask a random girl or guy on a date. Turn off the
TV and do some research on your competitors if you’re feeling lazy.
Train yourself to always be looking for the next opportunity, your next
challenge for growth, because that mindset is exactly what allows us to
create our own luck.
Opportunism and serendipity are behind some of the biggest business successes…
Opportunism and serendipity are behind some of the biggest business successes…
A friend of mine started a company that eventually got very close to
going bankrupt. They were clearing out their office and found several
perfectly good textbooks lying around. They started sending these
textbooks out to students free of charge to get rid of them. The funny
thing is that for some reason, students started sending those textbooks
back to the company. With few other options remaining, they thought, why not run with this? There could be a new opportunity here.
They made one last pivot with their business model and started renting
textbooks…today that company has raised almost $200M in funding, has
brought on some of the most talented executive management in the world
and is rumored to be eyeing an IPO. They were incredibly intelligent
founders, but sometimes in a startup – in fact, this is the case at some
of the biggest companies in the world – what you really need is a
little bit of serendipity. And they created that serendipity by being
opportunistic. Don’t you want to be able to do the same?
Creating good karma is just like creating good luck, and it will inspire loyalty and better results…
What else helps you create luck? Being a good person. Not to sound corny here, but kind gestures and loyalty do come back around. How can you apply this to your business?
Talk to your customers firsthand for one. During the first few months
of my company’s existence, I answered every single customer service call
– not just because we couldn’t afford a staff, but more importantly
because I wanted to understand exactly what the customer wanted and
exactly what she wasn’t getting, and I’d make sure to personally see to
it that she walked away happy.
I run a fashion website and blog (for independent fashion brands,
music merchandise, custom products, etc.) that doesn’t manage its own
distribution or shipping, which normally makes customer satisfaction
very difficult to achieve at scale. Nevertheless, our commitment to
connecting with our customers has helped us achieve an order return and
cancellation rate of well under 10%, with the majority of order
cancellations due to items simply being out of stock. Several customers
in fact have written in to us telling us they had the best customer
service in their lives with us.
Apply this mindset to your team and strategic partners as well. Show
loyalty to your people – prove to your employees that you genuinely care
about their best interest. Spend time personally with them. And treat
every client like they are the most important client. Create a personal
connection. I’ll give you another example of how this has worked for me:
I met a Japanese street artist in New York City four or five years ago.
I liked his art so I struck up a conversation with the dude, took his
number and commissioned him to make me a custom piece. He invited me to a
party later that weekend where I met the president of their company. I
kept in touch with their president, and we went out from time to time.
Now, years later, maintaining that friendship, which started on an
unparticular New York City street, has directly resulted in my current
business securing several new clients, gaining valuable business
contacts in Japan, and, coming up in October 2012, will result in a
major event that my company will throw in NYC to generate more exposure
and sales for both his and my company together.
As an entrepreneur, valuing the human element of your business
doesn’t simply help you create goodwill, luck or whatever else you want
to call it. It is crucial to your survival because when you have
little-to-no capital to pay employees, and when you have no track record
to demonstrate value to new clients, your loyalty and thoughtfulness
will be the deciding factors in who sticks by your side when the chips
are down.
Strike a balance between opportunism and focus…
Don’t confuse ambition and opportunism with an attempt to be
everywhere at once because you drown as a business when you lack focus.
But do challenge yourself to keep a resourceful confidence. Hone in on
your core competencies as a business, and then commit yourself to taking
risks and challenging yourself, but only in those areas that are
relevant to your objectives.
Create your own fate…
I’m also not saying to remove all the elements of surprise and
excitement from your life by having a plan for absolutely everything.
Rather, think of creating your own luck as a framework for embarking on a
path where your surprises are the types that build more powerful
personal and professional relationships, help you become mentally
stronger as a leader, and which take your company to new heights.
Accomplish these things by learning how to identify new opportunities,
by taking action when you find them – and learning how to condition
yourself to love taking action – and by inspiring loyalty with everyone
you work with.
And think of your next decision this way: is saving a little bit of
time or not confronting a little bit of fear worth more than a shot at
putting your company in the right place at the right time?
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/shanerobinson/2012/08/02/how-to-create-your-own-luck