John Osher is a “serial entrepreneur” who has developed literally hundreds of consumer products, from energy saving devices to baby products, toys and candy, and household appliances. He has built and sold several successful businesses to major companies and is most popularly known as the guy who brought the “five dollar […]
I thought I’d try a fun little experiment and throw out the following question on Twitter:
“If you were to choose one golden rule for startups and entrepreneurs, what would it be?”
and then see what everyone’s feedback would be and share it over here with you all.
Here are the first seven replies I got:
Always have fun […]
“When you reach an obstacle, turn it into an opportunity. You have the choice. You can overcome and be a winner, or you can allow it to overcome you and be a loser. The choice is yours and yours alone. Refuse to throw in the towel. Go that extra mile that failures refuse to travel. […]
“Studying and listening to people’s reactions to the product, to how it’s packaged and how it’s priced, can make the difference between a thriving business and a warehouse of inert inventory. A product isn’t for everyone, it’s for someone.
— Seth Godin ; ‘The Big Moo‘
“Consumers will only be drawn to the smaller, less functional product if they perceive it to be more valuable than a bigger version of the product with more features. Thus the perception of quality becomes a critical factor when making the choice of less over more.
— John Maeda ; ‘The Laws of Simplicity‘
David Feinleib from venture capital firm Mohr Davidow Ventures recently published a great post about why some startups fail. He answers that they fail because they run out of money.
But then he develops it a bit further, listing a number of points that get them there. In this post, I’ll be quickly listing them here […]
“The traditional path will get you only traditional results. And traditional results means performing the same as everyone else—being satisfied with mediocre or average levels.
— Mark Hughes ; ‘Buzzmarketing‘
“Tremendous power exists in the fact of continued improvement and the delivery of results. Point to tangible accomplishments—however incremental at first—and show how these steps fit into the context of an overall concept that will work. When you do this in such a way that people see and feel the buildup of momentum, they will […]
“I like to find (a) simple solutions (b) to overlooked problems (c) that actually need to be solved, and (d) deliver them as informally as possible, (e) starting with a very crude version 1, then (f) iterating rapidly.
— Paul Graham, Y Combinator ; ‘Six Principles for making new things‘
Jason Fried, from 37signals, wrote a great post last week on Signal vs. Noise, titled Start a business, not a startup, in which he talks about the importance of handling a startup as the business it is supposed to be, and the obvious rule that any business needs to generate revenue to live on and […]
Subscribe to the StartUpArabia feed to keep yourself updated via a newsreader or feed aggregator.
