Well, you should have some superpowers. It's generally speaking useful to be a good product person. It's useful to have good skills in leadership, bringing networks in, persuading people, and it's useful to be able to -and this is kind of fundamental- recognize whether you are on track or not. Generally speaking, you have to have some things that are a unique edge to you, some things that are unique to the problem you are trying to solve, and some things that will help you get an edge. Because competitive differentiation and competitive edge are super important.

How to be a great founder

It's usually best to have two or three people you trust on a team rather than being a solo founder. It's not to say that solo founders don't actually play out successfully. But most often, two or three people are much better.If you have two or three founders, you have different skills you can compensate. In the diversity of problems you encounter as a founder, you can actually attack them.

The founding team

Great founders seek the networks that will be essential to their task. And they realize it's not just about, "I am superman, I can do this anywhere". In order to be successful, you have to go to where the strongest networks are for the particular kind of thing that I am doing.The reason why Silicon Valley startups are so successful is because of all of the great people you meet there.

The choice of location

It's very conventional to say you're a contrarian these days. So it's actually pretty easy to become contrarian. It's hard to be contrarian and right. When you think about being contrarian, you have to think about how is it that smart people disagree with you, from a position of intelligence. And that there is something that you know that they don't know that will actually play out to be true.

Being a contrarian

As a founder, should you be doing the work? Or should you be recruiting people and delegating the work? The answer to this is, actually, you need to do both. In fact, not only you need to do both, but you need to sometimes do one at 100% and sometimes the other at 100%.  And so what you will see, when you start thinking about what makes you a great founder, is you navigate these apparent paradoxes.

Delegating vs. doing the work

And the reason for this is that entrepreneurs are frequently given the advice to have a vision and stay firm against their adversity.<ul><li> Realize that you have this vision that is contrarian to what people think and just stay on track. Get through the difficult times and get there. </li><li>The other piece of advice given with each equal vigor is to listen to data and listen to customers. Pivot, be flexible.</li></ul>Part of what being a great founder means is being both able to think about what it is you want to be doing, and also being smart enough that you are listening to criticism.

Be both flexible and persistent

Founders are thought of as being risk takers. Where everyone else cowers in fear, they boldly go out. You have to be a risk taker, you have to be thinking about how you make a really coherent risk because in fact the only really big opportunities happen to be ones that have more risks associated with them. On the other hand, when you are beginning to apply how you think about risks as an entrepreneur, you have to also think about how you essentially take this risk in an intelligent way that doesn't just go, "oh yeah, risk to the wind, who cares."

The risk takers

You should jump between them. You should always have a long-term vision in mind. But if you are not focused on solving the problem that's immediately in front of you, you're screwed. So part of the question about how to put these things together is you say, "okay short term- what's the thing I need to be doing today? Have I made progress today? have I made progress this week? But is it largely on path?"

Long-term vision vs solving a local near-term problem

It's a constantly changing problem to face when you are trying to found a company. There is not one skill set, there is an ability to learn and adapt. And an ability to constantly have a vision that's driving you, but also to be taking input from all sources and then to be creating networks all around you. And that's essentially what makes a great founder.

How do you gather networks around you?

People frequently think product strategy is fundamental to startups- I have a product idea, that's a thing, I'm a founder. Actually, the next level down on strategy is usually product distribution, because no matter how good your product is, if it doesn't get the customers, you’re hosed.

Product distribution

That is actually pretty important in being able to judge a founder. Because if you don't have that level of clarity, you are not going to be able to assemble the network behind you. You are not going to be able to get investors, you are not going to be able to get employees. You have to be able to articulate a very clear mission about what you are doing.

The ability to say coherently what you are targeting

How to Start a Business: A Startup Guide for Entrepreneurs

startup

Startups

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

business

Business

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

moneyandinvestments

Money & Investments

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

The Startup Masterclass

Lecture Transcript: http://www.genius.com/Reid-hoffman-lecture-13-how-to-be-a-great-founder-annotated So you've learned how to get started, how to raise money, how to build products, and how to grow. Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn and Partner at Greylock Ventures, addresses many of the questions and confusions that might be cropping up - How to be a Great Founder. See the slides and readings at http://www.startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec13 Discuss this lecture: http://www.startupclass.co/courses/how-to-start-a-startup/lectures/64042

videos

Videos

Lecture Transcript: http://www.genius.com/Reid-hoffman-lecture-13-how-to-be-a-great-founder-annotated

So you've learned how to get started, how to raise money, how to build products, and how to grow. Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn and Partner at Greylock Ventures, addresses many of the questions and confusions that might be cropping up - How to be a Great Founder.

See the slides and readings at http://www.startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec13

Discuss this lecture: http://www.startupclass.co/courses/how-to-start-a-startup/lectures/64042

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We invest $500,000 in every startup and work intensively with the founders for three months. For the life of their company, founders have access to the most powerful community in the world, essential advice, later-stage funding and programs, recruiting resources, and exclusive deals. 

Visit https://ycombinator.com/why to learn more.



Y Combinator

How to Be a Great Founder with Reid Hoffman (How to Start a Startup 2014: Lecture 13)

How to Be a Great Founder with Reid Hoffman (How to Start a Startup)

Startup ideas are rarely lightbulb moments. It's more like having an idea of something you could do that nobody else has done before, and it's probably a bad idea. Or, the idea seems way implausible, but you want to see what happens, for example, the beginning of Facebook.

Seeing ideas in retrospect

Good ideas are often not quite intuitive. The outcomes of startups are hard to predict. There's a tremendous amount of luck involved. An idea might have something to it, but it's not obvious.

The indeterminacy of ideas

Find someone you trust, and then find someone they trust. In other words, take recommendations from people. When you hire via the web, don't hire too fast. Paul Graham picked Robert Morris as a cofounder because he was his co-conspirator. Robert was an exceptional programmer. He could program as fast as he could type. When they needed more programmers, they recruited the smartest person Robert knew.

How to pick co-founders

Advise for startups are often counintuitive and not obvious. For example:<ul><li>Don't do things that scale at first. Don't try to do too much in the beginning. You should do things that don't scale, meaning in a sort of handmade artisanal way so you can learn a lot from it.</li><li>Do things very manually for your early customers. If you think you know the solution and build lots of stuff for it, you might be wrong because you don't know yet. Once you know what you should be building, then focus on scaling.</li><li>As long as you have a constant growth rate, it means exponential growth.</li></ul>

Startups are very counterintuitive

The hardest part of being a sole founder is morale.  When you start out, there are a million reasons why what you're doing isn't going to work. When you're a sole founder, there's no one to keep you going when things are going badly and no one to cheer you up.

Why being a sole founder is difficult

<ul><li>Most of the time, startup companies fail because of poor execution by the founders. </li><li>Startups seldom fail because of competition. </li><li>Startups are more likely to succeed if they start with a good founding team that knows one another well, can work together and can stand stress together.</li><li>Founders are not just smart people. More importantly, they have to be determined to succeed.</li><li>You don't have to be that creative if you care enough about users. You can just follow what makes users happy.</li></ul>

What makes startup companies succeed or fail

The risk of launching early is not so great as the risk of launching late. <ul><li>Launch as soon as you have a quantum of utility, which means as soon as there are ten people who are glad that you launched because now they can do something that they couldn't do.</li><li>If you're not embarrassed with what you launched, you launched too late.</li></ul>

When to launch

<ul><li>Figure out not just what users think is wrong but what's actually wrong. What's missing in their life?</li><li>Ask them "What would you like to do that you can't?" They'll tend to give you an answer that's like a subset. </li><li>Try to find out what they really mean. Ask them, "What if you could do such-and-such?"</li></ul>

Best tips for a great user interview

If you don't pay attention to users, you will make up some idea in your head that you will call your vision, and then you will spend time thinking about your vision by yourself and build some elaborate thing without talking to users. You are better off finding someone with a problem that they will pay you to fix and then see if you can find more people like that.

The importance of paying attention to users

Geoff Ralston interviews YC founder Paul Graham and draws out startup wisdom. Startup School is YC's free online program for founders. Sign up to access the full curriculum and over $100k in deals! https://www.startupschool.org/

A Conversation with Paul Graham - Moderated by Geoff Ralston

A question that lingers in the minds of many working professionals, either experienced or freshers, is whether they should build their own startup or not.A study by Harvard has shown that there are three primary reasons people venture into startups:<ul><li>Many times, it's driven by a zest to really solve a problem that is faced by the future founder itself.</li><li>Sometimes, a major gap is discovered in an industry/sector that the future founder feels he can cover and make money.</li><li>The third reason is love for a particular industry/sector and motivation to grow aggressively..</li></ul>

Building One's Own Startup

Starting up due to Love for a particular industry is often the outcome of creative thinkers, who start their own firm, with the key investment being their creativity.Startup founders are divided into two buckets: Billionaires 1 & 2.

The Two Buckets Of Founders

These are the ones who experiment right from their college days. Most of the time, they connect to the third reason for building a startup- creativity. They love a specific industry and really want to make their mark on it. The biggest advantage college students have is that of low liabilities and tons of resources.A downside is that it's often the first time that they are building anything, and as such, they often make a lot of mistakes, which might hamper the growth or development of their service/product.

Billionaires 1

These are folks who have worked in a particular industry for at least 3-4 years and have identified a gap, which forms the genesis of their startup vision. The gap can be something small, like optimization of a particular sales/marketing/manufacturing process, or building an entirely different operating and business model for the same industry.These folks are quite well suited for a startup, having prior professional experience, knowledge of how things work, soft skills, team building, management, etc.

Billionaires 2

Across all the three reasons and two buckets, a thing that's common is the endpoint. The startup works or it doesn’t. In either case, the founder benefits a lot. For he is someone who has learned real-life lessons, has donned multiple hats, has built a team, a product, a business stream, managed the branding, marketing, etc. These are all the things the founding team is actually expected to do and with this experience, any founder becomes a valuable asset to the organization.

The Endpoint

The question, should you start up, is highly qualitative in nature. Is the problem statement you identified big enough? Do you have any liabilities? Would you be the one who can wear multiple hats for at least 1 year of the startup? Do you have co-founders who are with you on your vision? Do you have enough money in the bank that can sustain you for at least 6months? Do you have industry knowledge of the problem you are solving? A founder needs to be honest about the above questions and gauge independently the feasibility.

The Main Question

We have met folks who are in their 40s and 50s who regret not working on a startup in their 20s. There are folks in their 20s who think they should build a startup once their life is settled off, probably in their late 30s or 40s. And then there are 19-year-olds who think they should start up after some experience. There is no right or wrong age, it's just a moment and the scenarios that help in making the decision.

The Bottom Line

myPluto helps small teams, young entrepreneurs and ,aspiring product managers to navigate the development of their first product in a structured manner.

Why Should You Startup?

Introversion and a poor ability to recognize people make networking an absolute minefield for introverts. You’re going to have a somewhat painful conversation with someone you don’t know, groping for some sort of common ground, or you’re going to have an even more awkward conversation with someone you’ve already talked to.

Networking doesn't work well for introverts

When famous, You lose the ability to filter out who you want to talk to, but at least everyone starts the conversation with some context; you’re outsourcing the extroversion to them.Fame is hard, and it has other costs. But there’s a second alternative: be micro-famous. Microfame is the best kind of fame because it combines an easier task (be famous to fewer people) with a better outcome (be famous to the right people).

Micro-Famous > Famous

Focus on the micro, not the fame. Micro-fame just means your friends-of-friends have a nonzero chance of knowing who you are and striking up a conversation with you about something mutually interesting.To an introvert, this is nirvana:<ul><li>You don’t have to introduce yourself to anyone.</li><li>You don’t have to conversationally grope around for something to talk about.</li><li>Your conversational partners are pre-selected for having shared obscure interests.</li></ul>

How to be micro-famous ?

There are a couple of problems with this, one of which is that plenty of normal people do this, too, just for broader interests: there’s a difference of kind, not degree, between someone who only wants to talk about weather, sports, and national politics on the one hand, and someone who only wants to talk about computational biology.But a side effect of the writing-as-networking strategy is that writing about your other interests gets other people interested.

We’re pretentiously writing off social interactions with people who don’t share our nerdy interests

You’re not just identifying neighbors in your intellectual ghetto; you’re recruiting more

Networking is painful, and I’m suspicious of anyone who claims to enjoy it. Unfortunately for me, networking is effective: most good opportunities come from personal connections. We can see all kinds…

career

Career

communication

Communication

Writing is Networking for Introverts | by Byrne Hobart

A valuable product or service is integral to starting your creative business. Still, to run and manage your business successfully, you need to consider other factors such as:

Things You Need To Know Before starting Your Business 

Branding Is About Loyalty—Not Just LooksYour branding should draw upon components of communication to give people an idea of what you’re all about and what to expect when working with you.It’s not just about logos, though the visuals on your business cards and Web site are a key aspect of branding. It’s really more about the client’s experience. You want to use your brand—logos, content development, publicity, and the like—to build credibility, convey a message, and encourage loyalty. You want prospects and clients to want you and only you.

Branding   

One of the nicest things about being your own boss is being able to negotiate your rate. Everything is negotiable; don’t be offended if a client asks you to come down a bit, but know that you have the power to negotiate just as much as a client.When you set your rate, make sure you go high enough so that if you decide to come down in price, you are still making enough money to turn a profit on the project.

Negotiations 

Your portfolio is the best example of your talents as a creator. To put a portfolio together, gather as many examples of your work as possible.Most clients only want to see 1-3 pieces so it’s important that when you want to show potential clients your portfolio make sure it is tailored to their job descriptions, this helps you put your best foot forward.The goal of a strong portfolio is threefold:<ul><li>You want it to highlight the range of services you offer</li><li>Show off your capabilities, and</li><li>Resonate with the prospect so they will hire you.</li></ul>

Portfolios 

Working 40+ hours per week for an employer while adding your own business to your plate is certainly a challenge. Without much time for charging your batteries, it is a recipe for creative burn-out. I found the following recommendations from Khierstyn Ross really helpful:

Moonlighting

<ol><li>Set aside 1 hr per day for your business (before or after work), and 1 day on the weekend.</li><li>Plan your week ahead of time.</li><li>Batch task (ex. Writing emails for the month)</li><li>Know what your priorities are before you start working on them.</li><li>Define what “done” looks like on a project so you can get momentum and check it off.</li><li>1 day off a week.</li><li>Consider hiring a VA for admin tasks.</li><li>Can you habit stack? Listen to the content at the gym/audiobook while driving.</li><li>Work on the important, not easy.</li><li>Have a “dailies”/”weeklies” list of non-negotiable things you need to do every day or week.</li></ol>

Moonlighting Tips

Tips that help small business owners, start and run their businesses successfully 

A Dozen Things You Need To Know Before Starting Your Creative Business

People plan for success but be confused and oblivious as to how they failed.Below I have compiled some of the main reasons why people may fall short of their goals

The 3 stages of Failure in Life/Work <and how to fix them>

These are HOW mistakes - They occur when you fail to build a set of tasks/ routines or when you forget to measure your growth carefully and get lazy with the details. A failure of Tactics is a failure to execute a good plan and a clear vision

Stage 1: Failure of Tactics

These are WHAT mistakes - They occur when you follow a strategy that fails to provide you with the result you hoped it would provide.A failure of Strategy is a failure to build a robust set of routines

Stage 2: Failure of Strategy

These are WHY mistakes -They occur when you don't set a clear direction for yourself or follow a vision that doesn't fulfill you in the long run or otherwise fail to understand why you do the things you do A failure of Vision is caused due to ignorance or have mediocre views on life

Stage 3: Failure of Vision

There are three primary ways to fix the failure of tactics<ol><li>Record your process/Routine</li><li>Measure your outcomes</li><li>Review and adjust your tactics often</li></ol><ul><li>Recording your process - Recording your process/ Routine gives you an overview of where your routine is failing you and where you can make an improvement </li><li>Measuring your outcome - Measuring your outcomes gives you a binary view of your routine -  Is it working for you or not. This helps you to alter your routine or make a new one altogether</li><li>Review and adjust your tactics - This is the CHANGE THAT TACTIC phase</li></ul>

Fix for - Failure of Tactics

There are three primary ways to fix the failure of tactics<ol><li>Deploy it quickly</li><li>Do it with dedication</li><li>Revise it rapidly</li></ol><ul><li>Deploy it quickly - Once you have a strategy/Routine ready, don't delay in deploying that strategy for the next Monday</li><li>Do it with dedication - Be diligent and trust your routine and follow it every day</li><li>Revise it rapidly -   Always keep an eye on your routine and adjust it as and when needed</li></ul>

Fix for - Failure of Strategy

There are three primary ways to fix the failure of tactics<ol><li>Take charge of your life</li><li>Determine your Non-Negotiable</li><li>Navigate criticism</li></ol><ul><li>Take charge of your life - People, most of the time follow the masses or so-called ideals set by society, parents, or social media, It is time to take charge of your life and set a vision you have for your life</li><li>Determine your Non-Negotiables - Your Non-Negotiables are those things you are not willing to budge on no matter what. This can be your values or your idea of life</li></ul>

Fix for - Failure of Vision

<ul><li>Navigate Criticism - The moment you take charge of life, there will be showers of criticism pouring over you. Navigate criticism with your wit and don't take them seriously unless otherwise, it is truly for your benefit and you find sense in it.</li><li> Explain your ideas to your parents and mentors only don't bother about anyone else</li></ul>

Fix for - Failure of Vision 

These ideas give me an idea of how i failed and tips on solving them

How do you know when to give up and accept failure and when to stick with your efforts in life and work? Read the article to learn more.

problemsolving

Problem Solving

The 3 Stages of Failure in Life and Work

A business needs to build a personal brand. It is misunderstood that brand design means a logo. Everybody has a logo. There are 10 zillion logos in the world. So if you design a great logo, that's not a brand. There are a few brand touch points like your website and email or print, broadcast e-commerce, social media, video, and digital marketing that show off your brand.

Brand Touchpoints to make you a Brand

If you want to make sure that your brand shows up in a consistent way across all of these points, then I have these nine elements of a brand design ecosystem.

First of all, we need to have a logo. It should probably have very few clours. Do not have more than three colours.

Logo

A font is a brand identity like a logo. Have a font or two. Fonts also have a personality, like Serif Fonts, Son Serif Fonts, or handwritten fonts. Fonts say a lot about your brand, so choose ones that are consistent.

Fonts

Colour has incredible psychological power. Colours mean things. The colour palette should have 3–4 or 5 colours so that you can talk about the strategy of what you do and what it is that you offer. Colours speak to consumers. Select colour not based on what is your favourite but on what consumers like and to which they respond.

Colour Palette

Companies like Louis Vitton follow a pattern on all their bags. Meanwhile, Apple has a brushed metal finish on its products.

Pattern and Texture

There are millions of styles of photography and you need to choose the one that suits your brand which needs to be maintained consistently.

Photography & Animation

Like photography, there are millions of illustrations. Select the right one that syncs with your logo and colour palette consistently to establish a visual vocabulary for your brand that is recognisable.

Illustration & Iconography

Many companies fail to identify sound as part of the brand. "Intel is one such company that has made its signature sound," Bum, Bum, Bum, that when one hears it immediately recalls the brand, "Intel Inside."

Sound

A particular layout or style needs to be maintained consistently across all your brand touchpoints.

 Layout

The Tone of Voice: What does your brand sound like, formal, joky, informal, serious, funny, etc. The copy of your website or tweet or your writing.

The Tone of Voice

There are many products in your industry. Do you want to remain one or you want to be the BRAND?

Vikas Nagori | There are many products out in your industrey, only few make it becoming a Brand. Join the journey of becoming a Brand

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

Buidling your Branding | LinkedIn

Creativity isn't a rare magical spark. Even those without natural talent can learn it. It's important in any industry, not just art and design. Creativity takes time and effort but pays off. Austin Kleon (author of several books) shows how to be creative by borrowing ideas. This book is for anyone, artist or not.

Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon [A Book Summary]

This book emphasises that you don't need to be a genius or expert to be creative and that creativity isn't just making something new. Picasso stole other artists' work, and Steve Jobs copied Sony's Walkman to create the iPod.He says you have plenty of good ideas, but you need to find them. Once found, make minor changes to existing ones, he says.

You don't need to be a genius to have good ideas.

Originality is overrated. Every great artist and writer has been influenced by others. Which takes longer: creating an original idea or building on existing ones?Never be afraid to be inspired by others' work. You can only copy those who encourage you. Instead of "stealing" their ideas, use them to inspire your own. Great art starts with someone else doing something extraordinary, then adding something new through practice and experimentation to give it its voice (your voice!).

You can't be unique, always. So, Personalize your work.

Creativity is silly. Artists must remember that creativity is play. It's not a serious business. Artists should be creative and enjoy themselves. You should approach every project with the mindset of having fun and enjoying yourself. If something isn't working out or your audience isn't responding, don't get discouraged. Keep trying new things until you find something that works.

Creative work is play.

Don't wait until you know yourself to start being successful. Without action and new experiences, you won't know your purpose. You don't need a plan to create art, but you must begin.Austin Kleon says, "Waiting for inspiration is like waiting for raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens." Instead of waiting for everything to be perfect before starting important work, just do it.

Start before you know yourself.

Stop waiting for others to create what you want to do yourself. Write a book you'd enjoy. Make your own movie. Make a song that moves you or play an online game until it becomes part of your life (and then share it with others). Humans are prone to complacency and habituation. Still, let's be open-minded about our interests and self-explore. In that case, we can see how unique art can be when created by people who care about making something remarkable, like an app or painting.

Write a book you'd enjoy. (Or make a movie, song, etc.)

The second part is more important. To create something meaningful, you must share it. Sharing doesn't just mean posting on your blog or Twitter feed; it means listening to feedback and making changes, finding your voice by learning from others and finding the right audience for your work (or somewhere in between).Our creations live in a world full of other creators, who can influence us in many ways.

The secret: Do good work and share it with people.

We work, learn, live, and communicate differently because of the Internet. We're rethinking. Digital culture and technological progress have boosted creativity.

Geography is no longer our master.

Being nice can help you get ahead in life. People fail because they're not friendly, not because they're not talented or smart. Being kind will help you make a name for yourself as an artist much faster than being a jerk.Kindness has many benefits:Being nice helps you make friends with other artists and creators who will promote your work because they like working with good people (and don't want their idea stolen).Being nice helps coworkers, friends, and family.

Be nice (The world is a small town.)

Every artist knows that creativity is removing the unnecessary and that great art comes from the ability to make judgments. It’s essential to discern what is good and what isn’t, what works and what doesn’t — and then throw out everything in between. This process is called editing (or “subtraction,” as Austin Kleon puts it). It can be challenging, but if you take a moment to think about it, it’s fun too!

Creativity is subtraction.

In the end, you want to take a look at your work and ask yourself: “Is this original?” If you have only copied another artist, it’s not original. But if you’ve taken ideas and added your spin to them, then it is.

Steal ideas from others, but only if you add your spin to them!

I hope you’ve found this helpful book. Remember that the Internet is a tool, not a magic wand. It can help you find inspiration and feedback, but you still have to do the work yourself — and the best part about that is that it’s enjoyable! So get started now. You don’t need permission or an audience; pick something that excites you and run with it. If enough people follow suit, we might be able to take down Big Art together…

Conclusion

Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon is a book that speaks about creativity and art. It's a must-read for every artist, writer or person involved with or passionate about the creative process.

Creativity isn’t some magical spark that only a few chosen people have. It’s a skill anyone can learn, even if they have no natural talent. And it’s crucial to success in any industry — not just art…

writing

Reading & Writing

creativity

Creativity

Elon Musk is one of the most influential people in the world, but his success is a result of deliberately subverting norms and challenging expectations.Though financial resources differ greatly among entrepreneurs, a calculated media strategy is something every entrepreneur can add to their toolkit. Let's unpack Musk's rise to fame, from his publicly celebrated business successes to his Twitter game, to see how any entrepreneur can take a note from Musk's playbook.

How Elon Musk Breaks The Rules

In the heat of the dot-com boom, Musk invited the cameras to get a first-hand look at his success.Although it was difficult for the public to understand the inner workings of Silicon Valley and VC money, Musk created an instantly recognizable icon in his sports car.

Strategy 1: Pour Gasoline on The Fire

<ul><li>In his early ventures, Musk lost control of his own companies</li><li>With Zip2, his investors appointed a more experienced leader, Richard Sorkin, to position the company for an acquisition</li><li>After his second company, X.com, became PayPal, he was again fired from his role as CEO while he was away from the office</li></ul>

Strategy 2: Make Your Business Personal

Rather than focusing on a clear path to profitability, Musk declares impossible feats to the world, such as getting humanity to Mars before he dies. People love rooting for success against all odds. As one of the richest and most powerful people in the world, Musk positions his companies as "Davids" by creating seemingly unbeatable "Goliaths."As an entrepreneur, your goals are more than financial and operational. Set goals with the power to motivate your workforce, attract an investor or engage your customers.

Strategy 3: Set Unrealistic Goals

Entrepreneurs know that the key to success is to stay laser-focused on their goals and objectives. Yet while Musk is so busy that he sleeps on an uncomfortable couch at the office, he always has time for the spotlight.With the exception of Bill Nye, most scientists aren't drawn to the big screen. Except Musk, who can be spotted in Iron Man 2 rubbing shoulders with Tony Stark, on South Park and The Simpsons, and hanging out with Howard on The Big Bang Theory. For someone focused on advancing mankind, Musk spends a calculated amount of time crafting his image.

Strategy 4: Ignore Your Lane

As an entrepreneur, remember that everything you post is a reflection of you and your business. When Musk posts nerdy memes, he's affirming that he's a part of a subculture that many of his customers associate with. When he offers emergency assistance to Ukraine, he's demonstrating the viability of his business goals. When he posts updates about his business, he's signalling to the world and his employees that he's in charge.What appears random is all a part of the bigger media strategy. Think about the image and signals you want to convey, and engage accordingly.

Strategy 5: Say What's on Your Mind

You are where you are because you challenged a convention, did something in an unexpected way or created something new. Know your end goal, and craft your image around it. From there, you can determine which rules were made to be broken, and how you will bend them in your favour.

Break The Rules

Bend and break those rules, Elon Musk style.

Five business strategies you can steal from this groundbreaking entrepreneur's playbook.

The Richest Person on Earth Breaks Every Rule, And You Should Too

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How to Be a Great Founder with Reid Hoffman (How to Start a Startup)

A Conversation with Paul Graham - Moderated by Geoff Ralston

Why Should You Startup?

Writing is Networking for Introverts | by Byrne Hobart

A Dozen Things You Need To Know Before Starting Your Creative Business

The 3 Stages of Failure in Life and Work

Buidling your Branding | LinkedIn

Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon [A Book Summary]

The Richest Person on Earth Breaks Every Rule, And You Should Too

Multitasking is Unproductive!!

It's time to
Read like a Pro.

How to Be a Great Founder with Reid Hoffman (How to Start a Startup)

A Conversation with Paul Graham - Moderated by Geoff Ralston

Why Should You Startup?

Writing is Networking for Introverts | by Byrne Hobart

A Dozen Things You Need To Know Before Starting Your Creative Business

The 3 Stages of Failure in Life and Work

Buidling your Branding | LinkedIn

Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon [A Book Summary]

The Richest Person on Earth Breaks Every Rule, And You Should Too

Multitasking is Unproductive!!

It's time to Read like a Pro.

It's time to
Read like a Pro.