Sokanu: The Blog

Entrepreneurship is an interesting thing.  From the media we hear stories from these brave souls that slog, day after day, in pursuit of their dreams.  They don't accept no for an answer and stop at nothing to see their vision come to fruition.  It's an amazing thing.  Entrepreneurs are truly an amazing breed of people.  And so, for young and first-time entrepreneurs, it is inspiring when we read these stories and relate their path to our own.  We buy plenty of entrepreneurship books, read a ton of online content and go to conferences to meet with other crazy entrepreneurship folk.  Working all night is a badge of honour.  No pain no gain.  Living in standards below welfare?  Part of the quest, don't you know.

With the meteoric rise of the Internet, content is pushed out every second of every day.  If we go to our Twitter feeds (through HTML5 applications, our smartphone apps or simply just through Twitter.com) we see updates from people that we are following from around the world.  I follow a lot of entrepreneurs and am constantly bombarded with links (and high quality ones at that) faster than I can open them.  And once I do open them, there is lots of great advice for entrepreneurs.  

Too much, in fact.  I believe we have reached a tipping point in the publishing of content.  There is just too many blogs, too many experts (if you want to call yourself that) and too much advice in general.  For entrepreneurs, this can become troublesome.

First of all, I am not the traditional tech entrepreneur.  I have never worked for a tech company, don't know how to code, haven't gone to university (yet) and don't have too many connections in the tech space.  My friends are into golf, hockey and particle physics, not tech and entrepreneurship.  They don't know what Foursquare is, let alone what Quora is or Techcrunch.  And that is okay.  It just means that I need to learn through the fantastic medium that is the Internet how to run a company.  And so I am.

Much like other entrepreneurs, I was introduced to the workings of Steve Blank, Eric Ries, Sean Ellis, Dan Martell, Dave McClure, and other members of the Lean Startup brigade.  And the things I learned in the couple months I studied their principles were amazing.  They have the credentials to back up their claims and I believe that their influence has helped this generation of entrepreneurs.  I bet that tech entrepreneurs in the early 2000's only wished they had access to this kind of info.

Past that though, you get into a problem.  With this revolution of information comes the revolution of opinions.  Everyone and their brother, thanks to free blogs and publishing platforms, has access to publish their thoughts quickly and without consequence.  This post that I am writing is done from a laptop in a small town in Southern Ontario, using a free blogging platform (Posterous) and it will be pushed out (by a free autopost feature ) to the social mediasphere within seconds.  You may be reading this as a result of a link you found on Twitter, Facebook, Hacker News or LinkedIn.  Do I have a degree in journalism?  Not even close.  Would this post be accepted by a professional publishing outlet?  No way. (I've started sentences with "and", I'm sure the structure isn't perfect and the segues could be better)  Yet thanks to the Internet, I am able to publish my thoughts and opinions.

And so, you now have a revolution of everyone publishing their opinions on everything.  And it is getting to be a bit much in the technology space.  What you have is a funnel effect.  Techcrunch, Mashable or Venturebeat will publish an article relating to X company raising X dollars in venture capital.  An entrepreneur will say "I want to be just like them!  How did they do it?" and they then research who the founders are and their story. (believe me, I've done this many a time).  They then look at what the company is doing and how it happened to get X dollars in VC money.  And shockingly, they will all fall into one of three categories:

1. Real Time Data (Twitter, Quora)
2. Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn)
3. Flash Marketing (Guilt Groupe, Groupon)

The entrepreneur, armed with their knowledge from the Lean Startup revolution, will take a look at their own startup.  Are they doing any of those three things?  No?  Well, time to pivot. And pivot they do.  And then they will write a story about their pivot and the trials and tribulations of their pivot.  This story will then be promoted to Hacker News, Reddit, Digg, etc... and may catch on.  Entrepreneurs reading that story will then take that information and apply it to their own startup.  And on, and on.  Paul Graham (founder of Y-Combinator and Hacker News) just wrote a post about our addiction to the Internet that is very applicable to the problems that we have.

But why do entrepreneurs feel the need to read, learn and connect as much as they do?  Because they feel alone.  Entrepreneurship is tough, especially with limited connections and a poor location.  That is why so many people take the flight down to Silicon Valley and set up shop there.  It certainly helps solve the loneliness issue.  

Another way to solve the loneliness issue?  Read about people that are in similar situations to yourself.  And so that is what we do, day in and day out.  We are constantly consuming content in order to make ourselves smarter and to "plug us into" the technology space.  Who wants to talk to an advisor, mentor or investor and not have an answer to something?  We try so hard to make sure that we don't say "I don't know" because we think that makes us sound stupid.  

News flash: It's okay no say "I don't know".  If you begin to truly understand the enormity of the content available in the world, we all don't know.  Human beings simply aren't alive long enough to know everything there is to know, even if they only focus on one area.  Add to this the fact of the tipping point of information we have reached and you get a carrot on the end of the stick theory. We can't catch up to the speed and plethora of information coming our way.  And so, we must observe what truly successful entrepreneurs do in order to cope with this problem.

Successful entrepreneurs will all have one common characteristic; to ignore the noise and listen to the mission.  They are presented with the same information as everyone else, yet they have the uncanny ability to ignore most of it.  And that is because most information is just noise. Just like most news is noise and doesn't really apply to you, most content is noise as well.  And very often, if we don't learn this valuable tactic, we will ignore the most important factor of our company: the mission.

The mission of the company, also called the "why" or purpose, is by far the most crucial asset that you have in your company. There is an age-old debate in the tech community as to what is more important, the idea or the execution.  And of course, most people will immediately assume the execution is the most important thing.  After all, ideas are a dime a dozen, right?  Yes, that may be true, but there are very few missions on the planet.  To know what I am talking about, I encourage you to go and read Start With Why by Simon Sinek.  He explains that having a "why" behind your company is the most important thing that you can do.

In short, with this mass amount of information that is available online, we must become better and better at filtering it to just get the relevant content to your company or position in life.  And the easiest way to filter the content is to ask: does this content apply to my mission?  If it doesn't, get rid of it.  There are far too many opinions from people that you don't know that can influence you in a negative way.  Ignore the noise, listen to the mission.

HOW 

• To determine who to hire.  For example, does the person fit in with the company's vision?  It does not matter if that potential employee is the most talented person in the world, if they do not believe in the same WHY, the company can never be great.
• What investors to consider.  Many companies feel that money is money, no matter what the investor believes in.  This is false in any great company.  The investors must be aligned with the integrity and morals of the company.  There is more to an investor than just money.
• Partnerships & Sponsorships.  Are you sitting at dinner ready to sign a deal with a huge partner but your intuition says no?  This is your gut telling you that the potential partner is not aligned with your WHY.  Once again, not all money is good money.  Terrible partnerships can ruin a company in the long-run.

Well, let's take a look again at the Golden Circle.

• The process throughout high school.  Jenny, with her goal, is able to easily make decisions on what courses to take during her four years of high school.  While her classmates are worried whether or not to take Grade 11 Biology or Physics, Jenny has already predetermined the necessary classes she needs to take.  This is HOW she goes through high school.
• The application process to university.  She knows that there are only two schools, Princeton University and Boston University, that offer the level of quality that meets the "standard" for her WHY. (more on standards in later blog posts).  Therefore, she writes her SAT's with these two schools in mind, flies down to visit the campuses early on in the year and is already emailing back and forth with the marine biology professor.  Jenny is extremely focused on getting into these two schools, and so HOW she goes about applying is very orderly.
• Majoring in university and finding a job.  Jenny flies through university, acing her courses because of her focus and passion for the subject.  She graduates with a degree in marine biology at the top of her class, even though she admits she is just an average-minded student.  Her love for marine biology allows her to excel in a school setting.  When it comes time to find a job, she has already mapped out the possible employer candidates and has been in constant contact with them.  Due to their recognition of her WHY,  Jenny receives multiple offers for jobs.  HOW she approaches her studies and job application ultimately leads to her success in finding a job.

• Lifestyle Choices.  With Jenny so focused on being the best in the world, she refuses to do anything to harm it.  This means that drugs, smoking and alcohol are not part of her HOW.  Jenny knows that these activities will only hinder herself from achieving her goals.  HOW she lives her life directly affects her WHY.
• Personal Relationships.  Jenny realizes that she can only really associate with people that also have a WHY.  While she can still have casual friendships, her real friends are those that understand what she is going through.  HOW she selects her friends and mates are based on their WHY in life.