I first saw this video in the summer of 2008 and was blown away at how much sense David made. This is an excellent, inspirational talk that puts businesses in perspective. He covers eyeballs vs revenue, million dollar vs billion dollar businesses, and how the level of happiness doesn’t change once your reach a certain amount of wealth.
Although this is a great talk for start-ups, it is relevant for any size business. For example, if you are part of a large company working on a product, focusing on gaining 2000 customers for a product niche and gaining $1,000,000 additional revenue for your company will never be frowned upon.
A interview posted on CNN.com today with the writer of “Creating Success from the Inside Out”, Ephren Taylor, discussing his start up experience at such a young age. The basic premise is to start a business when you’re young since youth is typically more risky and has less responsibilities. He lists 5 tips for young entrepreneurs:
1. Turn your disadvantage into your advantage
2. Persistence pays
3. Read
4. Don’t over analyze the opportunity
5. Recession = opportunity (if he’s a computer programmer, shouldn’t this be “==”)
This is good advice, but I worry that people reading this won’t take a step back and see the big picture and weigh the negative as well. You can only be persistent for so long. At what point do you realize that you do not have a good idea, or that your product will not sell? If you wait too long, especially right out of college, you could miss an opportunity to gain valuable experience. Its a huge gamble and leads to a paradox, because if your company is a success, you instantly become a credible expert on your industry but likely don’t need to look for work again. However, if your company is not a success, you could be labeled as lacking experience which hinders your job search, which is now necessary to keep up with responsibilities.
People like Mr. Taylor, who are widely successful at such a young age, tend to be over-optimistic about risk and attempt to lead people down their path. I believe people that were successful later in life, and have gone through failure before obtaining wealth, can offer much better advice since they tend to see both sides of risk.