Archive for the ‘Tips & Advice’ Category
What Is The Best Business Advice You’ve Ever Received?
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | April 21, 2009 – 9:18 am |
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I thought it was about time to do another crowd-sourced post experiment where I throw a question out there on social networks, try to gather different people’s feedback and bits and pieces of their shared wisdom, and then share it with everyone here.
The question I asked this time was: What is the best business advice you’ve ever received?
And the replies I got were very interesting ones, both on Twitter and Facebook.
From Twitter (in reply to this):
- Do what you want to do, complete your goals and don’t compare yourself to the others. (Saud Al-Hawawi)
- Never get into the gold rush business, get into the business of servicing the gold rush business. (Bin Mugahid)
- Don’t shit where you eat. (Kay)
- Partnership due diligence. Be very selective with who you partner with. (Mohamed)
- If you are selling something people don’t need, you are invisible - Seth Godin (Osama A. Dwairi)
- Always be prepared to leave. (Tareq Abedrabbo)
- Give more than half your business to somebody else. (Bin Mugahid)
- Nobody really cares about your grades in school. This is ain’t school boy. (Bin Mugahid)
- Business is connections; the more you have the more your business will be successful. (Rami Khader)
- If u have your full time job, look for branding, marketshare & influence of your project & don’t look for money (Tarek Kassar)
- Do one thing at a time. Focus, Focus, Focus (Tariq Al Asiri)
- In life, you should never wait to receive blows to deal some. (Mehdi Lamloum)
- Learn to delegate. (Houeida Anouar)
- Be an innovator and a leader. (Mehdi Ladjemi)
- A freelancer should know that the brand is the product, the product is the company and the company is him. (Aniss Bouraba)
- If you have no work to show, find a charity that needs your service, or do free work for friends or family. (Aniss Bouraba)
- Listen. (Khalil)
What You Need To Develop Some Grand New Thing
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | December 27, 2008 – 9:57 pm | Comments
The Man Who Thinks He Can
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | November 22, 2008 – 10:44 pm | Comments
I came across a little poem called “Thinking”, also known as “The Man Who Thinks He Can”, by Walter D. Wintle, that I thought I’d share, and that I think embodies the spirit an entrepreneur needs to have to succeed.
If you think you’re beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you’d like to win, but think you can’t,
It’s almost a cinch you won’t.
If you think you’ll lose, you’ve lost;
For out in the world we find
Success being with a fellow’s will;
It’s all in the state of mind.
If you think you’re outclassed, you are;
You’ve got to think high to rise.
You’ve got to be sure of yourself
Before you can ever win a prize.
Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man;
But soon or late, the one who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.
— Walter D. Wintle
Think Different, Change The Rules, Be A Revolutionary
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | October 4, 2008 – 10:23 pm | Comments
Just Get On The Bike…
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | September 6, 2008 – 7:05 pm | Comments
The Nine Deadly Startup Diseases
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | August 23, 2008 – 3:39 pm | Comments
Building a successful startup is no easy feat; There are a number of problems that founders can face and that can hurt their startups, even fatally.
A really interesting article was published on Sitepoint recently about the nine deadly startup diseases and how they can be cured; I thought I’d share the nine points here in my own words.
The list of deadly diseases goes as follows:
1. The Imaginary User Syndrome: Having no idea who your target audience are will only lead to a lack of direction for your startup, many problems marketing it, and even possible failure. A core target audience has to be defined and reached out to.
2. The Frenetic Distraction Pox: Where time and effort is invested in the early days of a startup is very important; the obvious choice is on building the product, attracting users, reaching objectives; other non-essential tasks can wait for later.
3. The Wrong Hire Infection: Hiring the wrong people at the initial stages of a startup could prove very problematic and even fatal for it; a certain caliber of employees, commitment, skills and passion are really important.
4. The Implicit Promise Fever: Basing your startup on implicit agreements and assumptions with the co-founders and members without anything written down to clarify things like share percentages, voting rights, what do if there is a disagreement or if things don’t work out too well, can only lead to a bunch of problems that could haunt the startup.
5. The Stealth Product Delusion: Waiting as long as possible before starting to show the product to people for feedback under the pretext that it should be perfect is a mistake; the earlier people start giving feedback on the product, the earlier and easier you can factor their ideas into the product and know if you’re on the right track.
6. The Wrong Platform Fracture: Choosing the wrong platform (language, framework, technology) to build your product could come at a very costly price if at a later stage it turns out that it doesn’t fulfill all your needs, isn’t able to scale or isn’t flexible enough; so the decision should be a very well researched one before taking the leap into development.
7. The Other Interest Disorder: Working on other different projects or startups in parallel could prove fatal for a startup, especially in its initial phases of its life, when it needs all the time and effort it can get and more. Focus and dedication are of utmost importance.
8. The Perfection Hallucination: Perfectionism could hurt a startup more than it helps; it has to be balanced with a good deal of pragmatism to know just when the right point is to put the product or new feature out there for users and continue tweaking, enhancing and factoring in feedback later on.
9. The Marketing Blind Spot: The idea of ‘Build it, and they will come’, as enticing as it is, doesn’t always hold true; relying solely on word of mouth marketing could cost the startup its life; every startup needs a certain specific combination of marketing techniques to get through to people and builds its user base; all those techniques and options have to be explored.
You can read the full article with more details here: Nine Deadly Startup Diseases - and How to Cure Them.
Design What You Would Like To Use
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | August 16, 2008 – 11:50 am | Comments
Ideas Need Immediate Action
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | August 2, 2008 – 10:57 am | Comments
The True Entrepreneur Is A Doer Not A Dreamer
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | July 12, 2008 – 4:13 pm | Comments
Conserve The Possibility To Try Again
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | July 4, 2008 – 4:53 pm | Comments
