Entrepreneurship, Technology, HealthCare and Software Testing
Entrepreneurship
7 Leadership Lessons from World Cup
Jul 13th
FIFA World Cup 2010 has just concluded and if you have been following the games, I am sure you have learned a lesson or two. My favorite team has been Spain since the beginning seeing their performance in the last 2-3 years. Most of my friends laughed at me and just wrote me down. Spain lost their first match and opinions became stronger. Well, I was confident of Spain since the day one and it actually became stronger after they lost their first game.
As I followed the games, I understood that this time it is going to be a different one. As expected, all “favorites” were out in either the league or Super 16′s. One team which has stood out was the Spain and there are definitely lessons to be learned from them. Here are the top 6 Leadership Lessons I learned:
Persistent – Even though they lost their first match, it is their Determination to win what mattered. The only thing which they concentrated was the game. Who ever the opponent is, the game came from the heart.
This is exactly what is needed from a Leader. No matter what the situation is, who the opponent is and what the game is, you need to have the determination to handle the game. Winning and Loosing are two sides of the game and there is nothing like he/she is stronger than me, more educated than me, have more experience than me.. These are all reasons we give ourselves. The fear of loss in us becomes the strength to the opponent and this is what takes the game away. You need to be confident of yourself and play it with your heart and no matter what, success is yours.
Consistent – Consistency comes from the mind. The Determination to always excel is what makes you a winner. Failure is the stepping stone to success, and if you close your mind thinking that the game is over, it is long over. Consistency is a must quality in each of us to make the difference and this does not come in a day, it is a constant practice. Also, when you are being consistent, you do not change the rules of the game, but you change the way you play. Just imagine if Gandhiji stopped his ‘Non-Violence’ strategy because he is not able to move forward? Would we have got Independence? He kept to the rules of the game, but kept on sharpening his playing skills which ultimately achieved what has to be achieved. From the beginning the Spanish kept to their cool side and only concentrated on being the wall to the opponent. They used every opportunity to hit a goal.
n FAILURE = 1 SUCCESS – It does not matter how many times you loose, but it matters if you have won the crucial game or not. In real life, no one wins everyday, but just because of that, if you stop practicing being consistent and determined and kept on changing your strategy, you will NEVER win. Only when you fail many times will you know how to be successful. Do you think it was any different with the Spain matches?
Goal! – You should DEFINE and quantify what you want to achieve and this is the key to success. But, this does not mean you bend the rules to reach your goal. In movies, we see always the Villan bends rules to become the winner, but the Hero always plays the game following the rules, and who wins? Even though movies are fictitious, the fiction comes from real life. The Spanish always got their goals (remember, they hold a record this year for scoring the least number of goals and still winning what matters) when they wanted to. They has to work hard for it, but when you are just determined to get it, you know you would get it.
TEAM WORK – Last but not the least, its all in the Team. Team should stick to their roles and live up to play the best of their capacity all the time. If one starts thinking that I am superior than the other, that’s it, the game is all over. Each one in the Spanish team came from different parts of the country but played together for one club until they achieved what they want. It’s all in the TEAM and there is never an Individual Winner, also will never be.
Play the way, the Game needs to be Played – You are playing a very truthful and committed game, but opponents are not always the same. You do not run away from a mosquito, but you do run when you see a Tiger. Why? In the last two games which mattered, the Spanish played the way the opponent was playing. With Germany, there were no fouls at all, but with the Dutch, the match holds a record for the maximum number of cards. However, one key aspect here one needs to remember, this should not deviate from the way the game needs to be played. You mend your game and not the rules!
Stay Cool – ALWAYS: If you noticed the games played, Coach played an important role and the one thing you notice is that he has always been cool. No game can be played in tension and no game can be won with a disturbed mind.
The most important aspect of Leadership is keeping yourself Cool and Lite, else every decision you take turns out to be a disaster.
Creating a Market for your Startup
May 7th
Days have changed and so has Entrepreneurship. Until very recently, if you have an amazing/cool idea (as per your rating), you write your thoughts on paper, share it with family and potential investors and look for some angel funding or formal Investment to give shape to your idea. In cases where you do your homework well, you go around doing the ground work asking people of their views on your idea, make modifications and re-design your Innovation.
Today, we have the new parameters of Entrepreneurship shaping up. Innovations are shaping the future. People are not only expecting better solutions for problems, but smarter ones. The future of Entrepreneurship and Innovation lies in creating the market and just not bringing out new solutions.
What is Creating New Market?
Let me start with an Illustration – Today, in developing countries, HealthCare is one of the primary focus for building a healthier future. However, with no strong HealthCare framework for meeting the demands of hungry consumers, HealthCare organizations (Hospitals and Medical Schools) design and operate very independently. What misses is the “integrator” for providing Quality HealthCare. Each organization has its own way of handling medical records and the system. Instead, “single-point” solutions is the need of the day. This is not the problem in India, but across the world.
The next aspect of Innovating for the future demands “Education”. Educating the customer gives better mileage to the Innovation rather than creating something and leaving it for the customer to read and understand.
One of the most recent advertisements (advertisements are the closest to Customer Education) I saw and loved its thoughtfulness is the Volkswagen Polo Ground Clearance advertisement. VW came to India just few Years ago and they have been really bombarding commercials (which make sense to Indian Customer) of their brand and in just a very short period of time have become a very common name. Mercedes, Honda, Toyota have been in India for long enough but still not many people cannot identify the car (at least few models). What i am referring to here is the time to market and customer education (awareness).
Any Innovation does not make sense unless it reaches its target customer and also creates a sizeable customer base.
How to Create your Market?
- Create a prototype of your idea (can be as simple and stupid as you want, but which gives a near picture of what the final Innovation would look like).
- Associate your Innovation to a cost.
- Educate your potential buyer on how it can ease out their effort in addressing the problem you are solving (Provide the USP)
- Sell!
- Ask them to try and give you feedback.
- Will they buy your Innovation at the price you have fixed or do they think twice and bargain??
After you win confidence of your potential customers, try it with outsiders (colleagues, acquaintances etc) and see what their reaction would be. Will they buy and use?
The last aspect what you need to consider is the longevity of your Innovation. How long will it take your customer to come back? If your customer has to come back regularly, what is that which makes them come back to you and not your competitors? How long can you sustain your customers before loosing them? Will they come back?
If your Innovation is a one time solution, how effective it is and what is the your Business Model to add enhancements and keep your market going?
…This chain goes on.
Remember to always Educate your customer on what particular problem your Innovation will solve, which makes meaning and this will help you see a new world of opportunities opening up.
Idea Valuation
Apr 11th
Yesterday (10 April 2010), I had a opportunity to speak at the Start-up Saturday Bangalore on Idea Valuation. I was playing the devil’s advocate role for few of my friends Start-up idea’s and that is how I got interested in Business Model Testing. After speaking to good number of people around me on this topic, I felt I could do something and help people by giving a third eye perspective of their ideas. Accidentally, I ran into a book Will it fly? The Idea Tester by Carla Langhrost. This little piece of work really inspired me. There is someone else in this world who is thinking like me 
Took few key aspects which match with my thought process and put together few slides as a framework for my talk.
Here is the link to my slides Idea Valuation
Idea Valuation
View more presentations from Dazasya.
Ground Rule: All topics of discussion in this talk are practically applicable in your daily life too and just not Entrepreneur Ideas.
I started my talk with the definition of an Idea. What is an Idea?
The transcript, image, or picture of a visible object, that is formed by the mind; also, a similar image of any object whatever, whether sensible or spiritual.
Any idea, if it cannot be visualized in your mind is not worth taking forward. What you visualize need not be precise, but at least a skeleton image is not showing up in your mind, you need to re-think on your Idea. For instance, you are wanting to buy a car, but you have not decided the brand and make yet. However, when you think of buying a car, a skeleton model is up in your mind. The end result might not be exactly what you visualized, but without that skeleton picture, it might be practically impossible to get what you really want.
Components of Idea
Every idea has four basic components – Uniqueness, Meaningful, Acceptance and Future.
- What is the Uniqueness in your idea? You are doing your job or your are driving the car of your choice only because your organization found some uniqueness in your skill set and you are driving that car because it has few unique features which match you requirement.
- Meaningful – Your idea has to be meaningful. To dry yourself after a shower, you need not only have a towel, you can use a dryer or stand below a fan.
- Acceptance – One of the best examples is the “Free Hugs”. Fee Hugs was initially not accepted by many countries, it was even banned in few places due to various reasons, but the persistence of Juan Mann and his visualization of the happiness in one’s heart after the hug is what makes the movement a very successful one.
Testing Parameters
Three basic parameters to test your idea – Idea Preposition, Start-up Preposition and Self Preposition.
Idea Preposition
- Need – What need are you addressing?
- Idea – How viable is your idea and how much of the problem can it solve? (Note that not all ideas solve 100% of problems)
- Uniqueness – How different is your idea from your nearest competitor?
- Test – Finally, ensure that you give sufficient time for your idea to settle and test the viability of your idea.
If you notice the graph, Uniqueness occupies the biggest pie. During your Idea Preposition days, the more you concentrate on your uniqueness, the more better is your end result.
Start-up Preposition
- Start-up Cost
- Profit Margin
- Breakeven Point
- Test
While testing your Start-up Preposition, Start-up costs become the most important factor. When you are buying a car, the initial investment you make on your is more important that the maintenance costs. Even if you can afford maintaining (paying service bills) a high-end luxury car, but you are unable to raise funds for the cost of the vehicle, it really does not make any meaning.
Ensuring that your Start-up costs are completely in your control is the one key factor for your idea to become a reality.
Self Preposition
- Self Analysis
- Salary
- Work-life Balance
- Passion
- Test
When ever we take up new task, we always tend not to look at the viability of implementing it. When you are having a 12 hour work-day everyday, it really does not make sense to start another new task taking more time away from your resting time. This results in failure than success even if the idea is one of the best. Work-life Balance is the key is Self Preposition. Ensuring enough time for rest will help in thoughts settling which ensures better results.
Business Model Test Approach
Traditionally, there are two well accepted ways of testing your idea – Data Driven and Model Based.
- When you are starting something new, it is the Data Driven Model which you would choose. You need to do your ground work really well to ensure you have the right ingredients in place for building your Start-up. “Data” is the only answer and it will substantiate your idea to make it practical and implementable.
- When you are starting something similar to an existing business (Ex. Software Services or a Retail Chain or a Restaurant Chain), you may test your idea comparing with various business models in the space. Already businesses are existing and you are starting something similar. There is no harm in understanding, valuating and identifying gaps in your competitors business model to ensure you incorporate them in your business model.
Each of the above can be practically applied to any component of your Business Plan and Remember to TEST your Plan thoroughly before beginning your journey, because – In God we Trust and Everything Else we Test!
Here are the Video’s of my talk…
Idea Valuation – Part 1
Idea Valuation – Part 2
Idea Valuation – Part 3
Idea Valuation – Part 4
I thank Viswa for all his efforts in creating this video.
Entrepreneurship 2.0
Oct 28th
Yesterday, I was at the NASSCOM Product Conclave 2009. This is the first time I am attending the NASSCOM Conclave and the prime reason for this is the Key Note by Guy Kawasaki. This is the first time Guy is in Bangalore and I did not want to miss a chance to hear him in person. Thanks to Kesava for getting me a pass J
He started his speech at around 9:20 AM and concluded around 10:10 AM. It was not a packed hall, but there were 1000+ delegates.
Guy shared his 10 point view of “Entrepreneurship 2.0”. Slides used in the presentation can be found here.
Here is a brief summary of his speech.
Being an Apple Fellow, Guy took on Microsoft for the laughter part and concentrated on sharing his experiences at Apple.
1. BUILD What you Want to Use
With an example of ICE, Guy demonstrated that Entrepreneurs should build what they want to use and not what others want to use.
During the early days, If anyone wanted clean ice, they would harvest Ice in a clean place and use it. Over the period of time, came the ice factory and the Ice Man. The Ice factory would make Ice and an Ice man delivers it to your home. Things changed and this was very much needed for everyone. It was a success. In the next stage came the fridge where you could make ice at home itself. This is building what you want to use. Ice was required by the person who made the fridge and also by others. Put yourself in the shoes of the customer and you can build what you want to use.
2. Pay Rs.0 for Tools
Today, most of the tools required to build software are available for free. Gone are those days when you make a great PowerPoint presentation and ask for money from friends/family or Investors. If you cannot use the free tools available and build a working prototype, forget your Innovation. It will just not work. In fact, today, there is nothing you cannot build with the free tools available.
3. Pay Rs.0 for Marketing
Use online tools like Twitter/Facebook/MySpace for all your marketing needs. Let people reach you and you reach people.
4. SUCK Down/Across
I cannot recollect exactly what he showcased here..but will my best shot
You usually suck up to get your work done. You need to follow the upper hierarchy to get your product to the end user. Now, you need not concentrate on Sucking up, but you need to work on sucking down and across to get more innovations to your solutions. Speak to customers, take their feedback, and build them into the system. This is what people want.
5. Use Twitter (and TWEETMEME)
Use Twitter extensively to market or seek guidance from your followers and people whom you follow. TWEETMEME is an excellent tool for you to post your tweet and request people to re-tweet with just hit of a button. This creates a cascading effect of your message and it reaches more number of people than you can traditionally reach across the globe and also you can track for yourself.
6. Pay Rs.0 for People
This is controversial and Guy explicitly mentioned that he is not speaking about “out-sourcing” or completely using open source. Use as many Interns as possible for your project. You can get excellent work done and also Interns gain a lot of experience.
7. Put everything on the Cloud
“If you come to me with a Business Plan and have a 6 digit figure for software and infrastructure before evaluating your business plan, there are 99% chances that I will not fund”. Cloud computing helps in many ways by helping you to put your infrastructure requirements at a low and use the many tools available. Use Cloud’s as much as you can.
8. SHIP then TEST
“Don’t ship crappy code, but when your development is controlled, ship the software and then TEST it”. In this way, you can also have your customer beta test it. Reduces your headcount and helps you build stable software.
9. FORGET Venture Capital
If you going to a VC with a PowerPoint presentation without evaluating your idea in the market using any of the above tools, forget funding. VC’s do admit that they are looking for ideas which have been tested. Also, if you use the tools above, chances are that you will never go to a VC, instead, will make money yourself.
10. Niche Thyself
And there was a bonus
11. Don’t Let the Bozos Grind you Down
There is an opportunity everywhere, do not let someone’s thoughts grind you down.
Best Social Enterprises of 2009
Jun 26th
Check out the best social enterprises of 2009 http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/131/eureka-social-enterprises-of-the-year.html
Innovation Series #9: Business Model Testing
Mar 22nd
Recently, I was in a converstion with Kallol, a good friend and Director of HeadStart Network Foundation and we were discussing various aspects of Entrepreneurship. One interesting aspect of the discussion was about Business Model Testing. I was inquisitive to learn more about this when he mentioned the term. Over the course of the discussion I understood that this is what I was trying to do with various people I speak with too.
What is Business Model Testing?
Well, the first thing which comes to my mind when someone has an new business idea is How will it fit? Three years back, I too had a great, facinating and passionate idea. My friend and I came out with a business plan and a colourful presentation to show it to investors Well, we were successful to a certain extent. We presented at the first TiE-EAP Program and got an 8 ranking (1 being the least and 10 being the highest) for the idea we had. As expected, we got a 2 in Financial Model. We were techies and thought that our product will be accepted and definitely we will be able to hit the target customer base in the next five years. Well, that was a bit of over-confidence. How many of you are in the same boat?
The key aspect we forgot is the business viability and the research. We did not go to any potential customer and ask if he/she would be interested in a service like what we wanted to provide. We ASSUMED that they would accept. This is the first step to failure.
I wrote about Business Model Innovation in one of my previous posts. What I am emphasizing here is the importance of Testing your Business Model. Here are few aspects of the framework which you might want to consider:
- Identify your Idea and WRITE it down.
- Evaluate your idea yourself, as if you are the customer.
- Take it to your family and friends and ask for their feedback. Remember, you need to accept the feedback as it comes. Do not JUSTIFY your idea at any point of time. JUSTIFICATION RUINS!
- You would have surely got feedback and suggestions. Make the modification and take it back to the same set of people. REPEAT this step until you have the buy in of at least 95% of your first customers
- Now, work on the prototype. Prototyping is very important. You need not have money to prototype, use the various open source tools available on the net to build your prototype.
- Take the prototype back to your potential customers Take feedback and build on it.
- Ask your potential customers if they are willing to buy your Innovation and how much are they willing to buy it for. Take a buy-in (don’t hesitate to take it in writing too) from all your potential customers that they would be willing to buy your innovation once it is out in the market.
- Work on the economics of costing. Build your financial model along the lines of the cost which your potential customers promised. This becomes your FINANCIAL MODEL.
- Make decent and practical projections of potential sales.
You might not be a gauranteed success story, but am sure, you would have definitely averted loads of unpredictable risks if you followed the above process.
Also, you may seek guidance or suggestions from any one who is willing to listen to you too.
On these lines, if you are interested in getting a productive critic for your Innovation, feel free to write to me at harinath {at} dazasya {dot} org {dot} in. Well, I don’t charge anything though
Angel Investors in India
Mar 2nd
If you are an entrepreneur and looking for some Angel Funding, the below is a list of Angel Investors in India:
Indian Angel Network
Accel Partners
Ojas Ventures
SeedFund
Axon Ventures
Mercatus Capital
Epiphany Ventures
Garage Again
Is Recession Real?
Feb 26th
Well, many people asked this question and many people responded with what they thought. I am not a financial expert nor an Economist who can answer this question. But, I have been in the Industry for close to 10 Years now and have friends who have been in the Industry for longer than me and also many of my close friends have their own startup’s. This post comes with my interactions with them and also what I have been seeing in the Industry I work.
During 2001-2003, we saw the Internet bubble burst. There were many people who sacrificed their lives, given up their line of work and moved to the IT field to make their name and fame. There were many organizations born, but eventually, most of them faded away. Let us also not forget, that organizations which had their fundamentals correct, grew up to be giants in their own fields.
So, are we seeing the same phenomenon here today? The only similarity I see from my eyes in the two recessions is that they are man made. We have been hungry for more in a shorter span of time and this has really effected us. If this is human’s thought process, we should never forget that the nature also has its own ways of sustaining itself. This is a natural cycle and if the 2001-2003 recession helped in streamlining the speed at which we travelled in making a new world, this recession is setting expectations for us to ensure we have our fundamentals correct for a better future.
Fortunately, most of my very good friends organizations have not been disastrously hit by this current situation and also quite a few of reputed organizations are also not hit. Organizations which have been disturbed are the one’s which missed out one or two of the key elements of ensuring the life of the organization works the way it should.
What are the fundamentals which I am talking about?
The fundamentals I am speaking apply to both individual and also the organization. The fundamentals which each of us should be aware of. The precautions we take to ensure we have a healthy living (not money, but health). Eat good food, have healthy habits, keep your mind calm and peaceful and ensure that you perform your responsibilities well. The same applies to even organizations. They have life too.
I once received a forwarded email about Recession and it made a lot of sense to me. I just wanted to summarize the story here as an illustration of the concept.
There was a poor man, who made eateries on the roadside. He worked very hard, to ensure he maintained cleanliness around the place he ran his business, he had few chairs for his customers to sit, clean drinking water and his USP was that he always ensured that he was presentable and welcomed his customers with a big smile. He did this for all the last 15 years since he started his small outlet. He was contended with his earning, and ensured that his customers left with a smile.
This businessman had a son and ensured he provided the best of the education to him, with what he could earn. His son went on to study well and acquired a very decent and dignified job for himself. One day, his son stopped over at their eatery and was explaining the current situation to his father. How people are loosing jobs, how banks are going bankrupt and how access to money was getting difficult day-by-day. With this, the poor father began to think. Over the period of time, he reduced his expenses. He was getting the place cleaned once in two days instead of every day. He stopped buying fresh water every time, but instead managed by mixing tap water to the water he bought. With various thoughts and tensions in his mind, his smile went away, he cared less about his presentability.
Over the period of time, his customers stopped coming and his business went gloomy. He told his son that he was absolutely correct and the economy is really very bad. Their business has come down heavily and tomorrow does not look bright.
What is the morale of the story? It is actually not a story, but REALITY. The reality is that we are more worried and hence our productivity is reducing. What would have happened if his son never studied and helped his father? I am sure their business would be the same and their lives would have definitely been the same. At times, too much of thought also hits our overall productivity.
Let us stop worrying about recession and concentrate on our work. Organizations should do what they need to do and individuals need to do what they need to do. I am sure, our tomorrow is more bright.
In my next post, I would share about my experiences with the industry and entrepreneur friends who are definitely working at the same pace and ensuring they get their business
HeadStart – Compute 2009
Dec 14th
HeadStart has been our annual event for showcasing Startup Talents in the country. We started organizing the annual event since 2008, along with ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) Bangalore Chapter.
Why HeadStart and ACM?
HeadStart is a community of Entrepreneurs, Investors, Industry Professionals and Evangelists. We came together to contribute back to the community which has brought us to this level and given us lives.
ACM is a focused group which concentrates on future of technology and how it fits into today’s world.
As an Entrepreneur, it is very important for us to understand the Business Model, writing the Business Plan, speaking to Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors, bringing the product/service to the end user, legalities in building your organization, employee management and last but not the least – the future of your innovation.
You have a cutting edge idea and you are excited about it. You speak to various stakeholders and lo! you idea has hit everyone. What next? You are starting up your baby. That’s great news. One important and key aspect you need to consider is what is the future? Today, we see many Insurance companies advertising -For your retirement solutions and your child educational / child future plans, do contact us. In the same way, you need to understand the future of technology to ensure safety and security to your baby (your enterprise) and yourself. We feel safe when we have life insurance and few plans for our children, but we ignore our tomorrow.
Yesterday, I met an aspiring entrepreneur and he invited me to be his Devil’s advocate (I am not going into details of his idea or our conversation with due respects to him). He shared his idea with me and I honestly did not see a tomorrow in that. I did not see a strong bonding of the idea with the stakeholders. But he is passionate. Passionate about the idea and his tomorrow. I am sure he would succeed in what he is doing, but definitely few of my questions have kept his bells ringing.
During HeadStart – Compute 2008, we had two eminent personalities from GE to speak on the future of Database. The two scientists shared their research information on how the future of Database would change. This is what is needed for an Entrepreneur.
A classic example of not looking into the future is the Y2K. Many organizations realized and started working on this issue a bit late in the 90′s. What if these organizations had the guidance to think about this earlier during their startup stage? Things would have been different. If everyone took the necessary precaution, I am sure there would not have been many people who would have got job’s in the west during late 90′s.
HeadStart and Compute are dedicated to create the perfect ecosystem for Entrepreneurs. If you recollect the Project Triangle, then it is very easy to relate to what we do. We do exactly the same – Ensuring for a healthy startup focusing on the key parameters – Technology, Capital and Eco-System.
Be there on the January 09-10, 2009 and participate to help create the ecosystem for Startup’s.
Innovation Series #5 – What is Entrepreneurship?
Jul 8th
The spirit of Entrepreneurship – the notion of human progress, development, achievement and change – motivates and energizes the people and organizations that improve our lives.
5 out of 10 people today want to be entrepreneurs. Why? Is the term fascinating or gives a social status? Is entrepreneurship new? No. It did exist since the beginning of human race. This post concentrates on speaking about what is Entrepreneurship all about, a basic definition and its dimensions.
There are by far many definitions of entrepreneurship, however, let us look at one of the best definitions which I ever read…
Entrepreneurship is the creation of an innovative economic organization for the purpose of gain or growth under conditions of risk and uncertainty.
Let us understand the underlined words above more in detail.
Creation means founding or starting or origin. So, this clearly means that if you are buying out an organization or if you are hereditarily taking over, you are clearly not an entrepreneur, you are simply a business person. However, there is one factor which can determine if you are an entrepreneur or not – the degree of change in the organization you are taking over.
If you would want to be an entrepreneur, you will need to create an opportunity. What kind of opportunity? If you are offering a new product or service or creating a new line of business. All these factors attribute to determine if you are an entrepreneur or not.
Economic organization means that you are creating an organization whose purpose is to allocate scare resources to bring out a new line of operation. What this means is that you might be creating a new business venture, a new line of operation in existing organization or even starting a not-for-profit organization.
Risk and Uncertainty are the conditions in which you begin your venture. They co-exist in any organization and go hand-in-hand. Risk refers to the variability of outcome. If there no risk in the organization, then the organization is operating in a risk-free environment and the organization is bound to grow over the period of time. Without risk, is there entrepreneurship? No. However, making calculated risks is what is recommended. If you are writing your business plan and you have not identified your risks and potential measures to overcome them, then the chances of you getting investments is very less. However, the more the number of risks you identify and device a contingency plan, the better is your execution.
Uncertainty is the confidence the entrepreneur has in his/her estimate in how the world accepts their offering. If there is no uncertainty, then it would be an everlasting profit making organization J Uncertainty is how markets works and this is what makes entrepreneurship exciting. The better you estimate your customers and how the world operates, the better are prospects of your organization profit making.
Where does Entrepreneurship exist?
Entrepreneurship clearly exists in countries which have higher economic freedom. Hong Kong, for example is the most economically free country, which clearly encourages entrepreneurs. Singapore, Bahrain, New Zealand, Switzerland, USA, UK, Taiwan, Bahamas and Netherlands appear in the top 10 countries in the world which provide the most economical independence.
On the flip side, North Korea is one of the most orthodox countries in terms of economic freedom. Angola, Azerbaijan, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Vietnam, Iraq, Cuba and Laos add to the list of most strict countries in terms of providing economic independence.
Sam Walton’s 10 Best Rules
Before I end this post, let me list down the 10 best rules Mr.Sam Walton has mentioned for his success.
Rule 1: Commit to your business and believe in it.
Rule 2: Share your profits with your partners (employees)
Rule 3: Motivate your partners, challenge them and keep score.
Rule 4: Communicate everything
Rule 5: Appreciate your associates with well-chosen words.
Rule 6: Celebrate your success.
Rule 7: Listen to everyone and get them talking.
Rule 8: Exceed your customers expectation.
Rule 9: Control your expenses.
Rule 10: BREAK ALL THE SULES. Swim upstream and go up way.
To put it in Mr. Sam’s words, the above rules might not apply to everyone, and also might not be the success factor for every entrepreneur. However, these were his success tips…
