The Easiest Way To Succeed As an Entrepreneur

[JEdwards]

Interesting Story..

The Easiest Way to Succeed as an Entrepreneur Altucher Confidential

 

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[Rickson9]

I love Altucher! Although I don't agree with everything he says, a lot of what he says is spot on! He is dead on in this article on so many things:

Get a customer first! Entrepreneurship is hard enough, don't make it any harder without customers!

99% of financial news is garbage if not outright lies!

Listen. You’ve been hypnotized. You’ve been told you need a corporate job. You need a college degree!

Best regards.

 

[Graves]

Quality article, thanks Jack Edwards ! +rep

In about twenty minutes I’m going to go to the local café here, The Foundry, and bring a pad, order a coffee and muffin, and write down ideas for businesses. Then I’ll probably throw the piece of paper out. Because ideas are useless. They are just practice to keep your idea muscle in shape.

FAKE RULE: People say, “Execution is important”. That’s not really true either. Execution is useless. It’s a commodity. The only thing that’s important is money. You get money by having a customer.

Also,

There’s $15 trillion dollars in our economy, recession or no recession. It's falling like snow.Reach out with your tongue and taste it.

 

[Rickson9]

"When I started my fund of hedge funds I didn’t put one dime into the expense of setting it up until I had the first $20 million commitment. $20 million with a 1.5% management fee meant an instant $300 thousand in revenues, plus extra money for legal fees, etc. Enough to pay a salary or two. It took a year of cultivating my network before I had that commitment, but it worked."

So much for needing a wack of degrees and related experience!

Best regards.

 

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[sharky]

Interesting article JackEdwards…I have to agree that having a customer first is a huge advantage, however I strongly DISAGREE with his FAKE RULE that execution is useless, a commodity. Execution is the key to a successful business. How are you finding customers? You are executing on your marketing & sales efforts. How do you bring your ideas to fruition? By executing on building your product or service. How do you grow your business? By executing on marketing, sales, delivery, customer service, expense control, and on and on. Execution is what separates the winners from the losers.

I would hate to see people get the wrong impression that execution is useless. Even if you have a built-in customer based on your idea, you still have to execute and build your business so that you can deliver on that idea...success will not magically materialize out of thin air.

 

[Rickson9]

With regards to "execution being a 'fake rule'", I took James to mean that, unless an entrepreneur succeeds on executing to get customers (in some cases, at least ONE customer), the rest doesn't matter. Speaking for myself, I agree.

"When I started my fund of hedge funds I didn’t put one dime into the expense of setting it up until I had the first $20 million commitment. $20 million with a 1.5% management fee meant an instant $300 thousand in revenues, plus extra money for legal fees, etc. Enough to pay a salary or two. It took a year of cultivating my network before I had that commitment, but it worked."

I liked this idea a lot. Even though James has an unrelated degree in computer science, I think his approach on starting his fund is brilliant.

Best regards.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

What an awesome article!

FAKE RULE: People say, “Execution is important”. That’s not really true either. Execution is useless. It’s a commodity. The only thing that’s important is money. You get money by having a customer.

But how do you get a customer? You execute. Money is a by-product of having a customer which is a byproduct of execution. (Pick up the phone, do deals, network, etc.)

While we all agree that the AIR we breathe is everything, without lungs, the air don't matter much now don't it?

 

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[FxInvestor]

Fantastic Article! Its good to know that I have learned something new and insightful.

I think as you read the various books, articles and blogs from successful entrepreneurs, you just realize that there is more than one way to skin the cat.

It can be bit confusing and at the same time a bit encouraging. Bottom line is that you need to find a "need", fill that need well and repeat it.

Great article.

 

[winner]

Thanks for sharing! I especially liked:

Listen. You’ve been hypnotized. You’ve been told you need a corporate job. You need a college degree. You need stability. You need the white picket fence. You need the IRA and the health insurance. Snap your fingers in front of your face.

I do believe that our society/culture believes this because it's all we've ever been taught growing up, it's all we've heard. Entrepreneurs change this mentality which is very much needed.

 

[Graves]

Yeah, I think out-of-the-box thinking usually is the way to win a game.
When the middle-class wants something, the rich make profits by providing it to them.

 

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[andviv]

The more I read the article, the more I like it. Thanks for posting it.

 

[djs13]

- Ask. In the meetings ask the question, “what one product can I build for you that you will definitely buy?” Remember, execution is a commodity. Because of globalization you can build anything for cheap. I built the first working version of Stockpickr.com for $3000 in Bangalore. Throw in another $150 from a design made in Siberia. You need zero skillset for that. Just a good idea muscle, an ability to sell, and modest ability to manage a project.

Although I've never tried it, I think this is an extremely simple yet effective strategy. Alot of people talk about how its difficult to find a need in an area that they also have passion in. But what if someone were to write/contact all the businesses in their favorite industries and ask "what one product can I build for you that you will definitely buy?" That would solve both problems.

 

[DeletedUser2]

Go around being an Economic Doctor, A Market Medic, a Needs Nurse.

"does that hurt? where does it hurt? is that painfull? would you like a bandaid?

do that, and your customers will materialize before you even have a business.

suddenly!
A customer,

whoo hoo. now go create a business around that. done that a couple times. always works like a charm

 

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[GlobalWealth]

Altucher is one of the very few blogs I read every week. He is definitely out of the box.

He challenges the status quo. Very thought provoking.

 

[CEBenz]

I read that post a week or so ago after following a link from this site to his, and then promptly got lost in his blog. For those that haven't, go. Through and read the rest of his blog. There are some wonderful thoughts there, though I do believe the article that Jack so graciously linked to is probably the highlight.