Entrepreneurship Archives

You Are Not a Lottery Ticket: Don’t Rely on Luck

Is business success a matter of luck or planning? If success is just a matter of luck, why bother with planning? There is an ongoing debate in the business community about the relative importance of planning versus luck in determining the success of a venture. For example, Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates all attribute their success at least partially to luck. Peter Thiel disagrees. In the chapter titled “You are not a lottery ticket,” he emphasizes the importance of planning and shares four ways of thinking about the future. Here’s why planning should not be underestimated, according to

From Zero to One: The 7 Principles of Startup Success

How do you go from “zero to one”? How do you successfully get your startup on the road to success? According to Peter Thiel, the author of Zero to One, there are seven things you need to achieve startup success: 1) revolutionary technology, 2) unique insight, 3) monopoly status, 4) strategic timing, 5) a great team, 6) effective distribution, and 7) enduring value. He uses the clean tech crash and the rise of Tesla as case studies to illustrate his checklist. Read more to learn these seven principles for startup success.

Unconventional Leaders: Daring to Be Different

Why are many successful entrepreneurs so eccentric? What difference does their out-of-the-box thinking make? Eccentric tastes are a common trait of successful entrepreneurs, if not an outright essential one. To create something new and compelling, you need to think outside the box, and there’s a direct correlation between how well you think outside the box and how far outside the “box” of normal conventions your lifestyle and interests lie. Keep reading for a discussion about unconventional leaders.

Your Next Five Moves: Book Overview

How good are you at strategizing for long-term business success? Do you know what your next five moves should be? What do master chess players and master businesspeople have in common? Both always plan five steps ahead. Your Next Five Moves, a book by Patrick Bet-David, argues that what distinguishes exceptional business leaders from average ones is their ability to anticipate future events and plan effectively for them—ideally by thinking five steps ahead. To turn you into a master business planner, Bet-David presents five strategic steps you must start taking now: learn about yourself, improve your problem-solving skills, create a

Startup Sales Strategies From Peter Thiel

If your product sells itself, do you really need to market it? How do you know which sales method is right for your business? Peter Thiel argues that, as you develop a product, you must also develop a plan to get that product to customers. You could have the best product in the world, but your company will fail if you don’t have the right sales and distribution strategy. He discusses four sales methods and helps you know which one is the best fit for you. Keep reading for Thiel’s advice on startup sales strategies.

How to Scale a Business: 7 Parts of the Growth Process

Once your business is up and running, what should you do to keep it growing? How do you balance steady growth with aggressive growth? How can you stay alert to challenges? In his book Your Next Five Moves, Patrick Bet-David discusses seven steps in the business growth process. He explains how you should raise funds, find ways to grow both steadily and aggressively, press employees to grow along with the company, build and maintain momentum, track your growth using metrics, put your knowledge down on paper for posterity, and stay alert as you grow. Read more to learn how to

Building a Positive Workplace Culture: Why It Matters

How would you describe your company’s culture? How well do employees know—and embrace—the company’s values? Once you’ve hired the right people and incentivized them to stay, building a positive workplace culture is your next step. This is the view of Patrick Bet-David, who argues that culture is critical because employees must identify with the company and its values if they’re going to put in their best effort. Read more to learn about the importance of shaping your company’s culture.

Starting a Tech Company That Makes a Difference

What is the key to tech startup success? What are the key elements a tech startup needs to make a difference? Peter Thiel believes that startups are the way to the future. It’s these new companies that will unleash new technologies we need to progress as a society. In his book Zero to One, Thiel shares five elements that a startup business must have if it wants to make this kind of impact: revolutionary technology, strategic timing, a great team, effective distribution, and enduring value. Continue reading for Thiel’s insights on starting a tech company that makes a difference.

How to Improve Business Efficiency: Do More With Less

Do you want to make your business run more efficiently? What are some things you can do to increase the efficiency of your operations without compromising quality? In his book Profit First, Mike Michalowicz says that business owners should try to increase efficiency everywhere they can. Michalowicz recommends three mindsets to accomplish this: 1) don’t just think small, 2) solve a unique problem well, and 3) push sales after you adopt an innovation. Here’s how to improve business efficiency, according to Michalowicz.

Why Traditional Accounting Methods Don’t Work

Are you still using traditional accounting methods in your business? Why don’t these methods lead to long-term success? According to Mike Michalowicz, the author of Profit First, the traditional methods of business accounting don’t work in the long term. He says that the logic of traditional accounting clashes with the natural ways people think and make decisions. Here are the four reasons why traditional accounting doesn’t work.