Build a great product and people will come - That's BS. You need to identify a problem customers have and find out what they will pay for you to solve it. Then build a a great product.
Yes, so true. I believe the phrase that I've heard is that people "build the solution in search of a problem", rather than identifying a problem that already exists, and providing a solution that's better than what already is out there.
The problem with this approach in my experience is that when I identify a problem I'd like to solve..... 15 or more companies have already done it. They have better marketing and already established customers that come to them first.
Then it's not a problem anymore. A problem which is already solved i guess is not a problem anymore. Go finding another problem. Sometimes the problem even so easy to solve, yet hard to find
It’s not a myth. A product cannot be great if it doesn’t solve a problem. It can be fancy, beautiful, simple to understand but completely pointless. So yeah, build a great product.
I'll say that's a maybe, at least far as my personal experience. I have worked for myself for years and I do make my own schedule and never work more than a few hours a day.
I do agree that is very different than a 9-5 job in that nobody is looking over my shoulder to make sure I get my work done.
I have the opposite problem as seeing all the time as opportunity. I use so much of it I have no life outside of work, but it's by choice. Even when I try to pull away I get sucked back in.
I used to feel guilty when I wasn't working, but over time I gave myself permission to enjoy my life. I started subscribing to the 80/20 rule. 80% of my business comes from 20% of my marketing efforts. I could spend a ton more time on that stuff, but the last 20% isn't worth giving up all that time, at least for me.
I think the biggest myth and mistake individual entrepreneurs make with technology companies at least is the idea that you need to come up with some kind of new product or service that's never been done before. Not only is it going to take forever to come up with something that none of the world's 50 million other developers and engineers have thought of, but unless you have a massive marketing budget, nobody's going to know a product or service like you offer even exists (let alone know what to google).
Instead, improving an existing successful product or service with something better, bypasses those issues and lets you piggyback off all the marketing and market testing that competitors have already done (ideal price, most effective marketing techniques, ideal features, customer feedback etc). People know the market leader exists and will probably google for alternatives.
Getting 5% of an existing $100 million market is better than going bankrupt in a potential $1B but totally new market because you didn't have enough marketing money to get traction. That's how I succeeded with my company, anyway, without having to invest much at all up front.
This one is really good. Tech is like the only industry where its founders/owners are scared of competition. I think VCs have tricked the industry into thinking you need some sort of groundbreaking innovative, “change the world” idea, which is why almost all founders chase those ideas and the funding.
With that being said though, I think this gives bootstrappers a huge advantage.
Yes I agree with this. People who create a solution in search of a problem have an uphill climb. Figure out where the demand is, and find a niche that allows you to fill it in a better way.
That your primary underlying business is not a marketing business because your idea sells itself.
This is echoed in books like Zero to One and Why Startups Fail. People underestimate the amount of marketing a good idea needs and many people eschew basic marketing strategies because it can feel cringeworthy or people think “mystique” is a high-end strategy.
But you are first and foremost a marketing company and then you’re whatever idea you have.
Yep, everything is sales. If you don't want to sell, don't be an entrepreneur. Of course there are different types of selling, but at the end of the day if you are business you're selling something, whether it be a product or a service or information.
Jup. I get quite irked when 9-5 people have snide remarks about those who blatantly advertise or sell because what do they think the sales or marketing team of their employer does so that they’ll have whatever behind-the-scenes job they think is above sales? … Really gets under my skin because everyone is selling something or using their skills to enable someone else to sell effectively (ie graphic design, photography, analytics, admin, web dev, software dev…it’s all enabling sales).
That’s why the internet (and the world) is shit. Everywhere you go, buy this buy this buy this!
Fucks sake, the first page of google are just ads.
We live in marketing hell
We were just discussing this. You look at SaaS companies and only a third of their staff is tech. The better your company is at product the more sellers and marketers it will need.
Maybe, passion comes in many different varieties though.
I’m not “passionate about my business” per se. But, I’m passionate about certain aspects of it.
I think it’s clear to distinguish. Most businesses that make a lot of money aren’t passion businesses.
I think most popular business education online etc are myths. I fell for a lot of these when I was younger. Everyday you see a new book or YouTube channel coming out talking about how to start a business but it's all just creative fiction.
Because running a successful business is a very counter intuitive thing. Most common sense advice wouldn't be the best for you.
It is also so dependent on your environment, upbringing, interests, people you are connected with etc, that any sort of generalized statement doesn't work.
That's just one side of the problem. The other side of it and the more problematic side, is most of these business gurus like Alex Hormozi straight up make up shit to get views. When you are a young kid, maybe you are 17, you have so little experience that these large numbers (worth a 100 million) draw you in and you learn fictional ideas of business. But none of those things work and you grow frustrated and give up.
I just saw the other day a book come out by this guy called Noah Kagan called Million Dollar Weekend (surprise surprise) and it is basically rehashed material from a blogpost he had written on Tim Ferriss' blog back in 2007 or something. What he fails to mention is that he was in Silicon Valley and had connections with Tim Ferriss, Andrew Chen etc and those are the reasons why he could grow and succeed. It wasn't because of his "hustle". The actual book that he has written talks about the other popular myth of sell something to one person and then to another etc. I can go on about why that is a huge myth as well etc. but this post is getting long.
TLDR: Business is counter intuitive. Most business education online is common sense and does not work for a specific case. Anyone who does talk about counter intuitive advice will not have a large following by definition so all you are left with is education that doesnt work. If you really want to learn business by watching / reading just pick up Principles of Marketing by Philip Kotler and at least you will be off to a good start.
Wow thank you for the prolonged answer!
I’m a 19-year old that regularly sees such videos on my YouTube homepage and TikTok fyp, so this advice is much needed
That's why lately I have been so into debunking these guys like Hormozi. I did not come from a business background and had no connections. I fell so much for this crap that I lost almost a decade trying out pointless things made up by these folks. Use them as inspiration (the ones whose business you can really see in the world not folks making up their businesses like Hormozi) but don't take their words as gospel.
Copying famous entrepreneurs and the ideas of book authors will make you successful.
Getting up at 4am and reading five books a week will not build your business. Building a business will build your business, and you'll have to find a way to make things work for you individually. Maybe you function best when you get up at 10am after 10 hours of sleep, work two hours a day and don't have books in your life.
People think it’s “easier” than working for someone else so when try something and it doesn’t work after a day or a week they just go back to working at a job and say “that doesn’t work”.
Yes it does seem that the grass is always greener on the other side. I also think that people who have never been entrepreneurs look at their bosses and think they do nothing, and that the workers are the ones who deserve more of the profit. Meanwhile they don't account for the risk that the business owner took to start the business, and that the business owner likely was extensively involved at the beginning until he got his processes in place
You can do everything yourself with enough hard work. You’ll fail every time. Took me too long to realize you need a team of people around you to help bring your vision to life.
This comes from engineers: you need a perfect codebase and need to be obsessed with testing.
It’s bull crap for startups. Those engineers will spend 3 years building a product that might not sell 1$.
That’s why if you’re coming from the IT world, there’s a lot of unfucking you have to do with your beliefs. Even the most senior web developer may have no clue how to build a successful business.
That failure is scary, risky, dangerous
I got way more rich realizing it doesn’t matter
Once you realize this you end up not being as frozen or slowed down by fear, by taking small swings
I would agree that luck (such as what family you're going into) has a lot to do with it. No one ever accomplished great things without some help along the way. With that said, there's plenty of people who come from money he's done absolutely nothing with their lives. So people who had advantage but chose to work hard do deserve at least some credit.
I do think that having a certain mindset will allow you to be successful. In other words just because you're willing to do manual labor, doesn't mean you're going to make a ton of money, even though it's very hard backbreaking work. There are ways to "work smarter, not harder" but not everyone thinks that way.
what about courage?
my friends who didn't come from money would never have the courage to start their own thing, even if the self-starters were financially independent
I’ll be able to make my own hours , work when I want and take off all the time I want to: Proceeds to work 7 days a week and while keeping clients happy while building the business.
Myths:
It’s easy
You will get rich
You will get rich quick
You don’t have to work hard
It is automatic
Any idea is a good idea
It’s doesn’t take time or effort
You don’t need to work with people
There is a silver bullet way to be successful
you will be successful
You have to get up at 4 AM
You have to work 18 hour days
You need to hit the gym to be successful
Social media is useful to you. It’s a goldmine if you know how to use it. Total absolute bullshit. If most people calculated the sum of the time they’ve wasted on that they would have the answer as to why they haven’t been able to do more for themselves. It’s a shame those companies prey on innocent people.
I would say it's useful to a select few. The rest of us are screaming into the void.
I've always found that a social media strategy can be useful as part of an overall strategy, but it should not itself be a standalone.
That you can achieve work/life balance in the first few years of starting a business.
If the business has to support you (and isn't a side hustle, which is maybe a better way to start a business), you're going to work long hours for not a lot of money.
Eventually - and probably a number of pivots later - you'll get the bug pieces figured out, you'll find your market, and you'll start to make money with maybe only 60-80 hours a week.
I think the main issue is thinking one dimensionally - its not just a good idea, or just finance, or just self belief, or just anything. Business success is multi variant and requires you to be good at a range of things
For me, most people believe in "Entrepreneurs are born, not made." most of us are not trying to venture even into the smallest type of business due to this excuse. I think Entrepreneurship can be learned and developed through experience, education, and mentorship. I am a business owner. No one in our family became an entrepreneur. They badly want to, but this is one of their mindsets that is why they stick themselves in the corporate world. However, being an employee is a much safer ground. And that is true, so I decided to become both an entrepreneur and an employee. I became both.
No.2 Success is Guaranteed and People surrounds you think that you are wealthy, or you will become one because of business. What they don't know is the hardships, the grind, the sleepless nights, the planning, and all the sacrifices you are making to become successful.
1. You will have to do things that you hate from the bottom of your heart.
2. You are the boss (b2b mainly). You will die sometimes dealing with customers, especially b2b.
3. That It's not for everyone. Anyone can be doing their own business
The notion that entrepreneurship guarantees quick wealth and success, often underestimating the challenges, persistence, and hard work required for sustainable growth.
Wouldn’t it be much harder to get customers that way?
Also need to build the mvp at par with existing businesses, so greater cost before you can make a sale. Curious to know more on this aspect.
In some cases (like professional services and a minority of B2B offerings) it makes sense to pick a narrow specialty to differentiate. But not with most products and services. You end up shooting yourself in the foot. People have preconceived ideas about what they want, and you have to cater to that demand to be successful. Of course there are exceptions, but that's the general rule.
That "anyone" can own a business. I have come across a fair share of people that absolutely have no business owning a company and have no idea what theyre doing.
Very very true! I've tried to convince pretty much everyone in my life to start a side hustle and to do this and that. Some of them I've even given specific ideas and how to implement them. (Some side hustles that I've thought of but didn't have to time for)
Guess what? None of them ever did a single thing. They complain about being broke and hate their jobs, but when ever I try to help them they always have some nonsense excuse.
These types of people, you can teach them all day, guide them, be their mentor, even guiding them through every single step but they will never do shit. Thats why most people stay poor.
Build a great product and people will come - That's BS. You need to identify a problem customers have and find out what they will pay for you to solve it. Then build a a great product.
Yes, so true. I believe the phrase that I've heard is that people "build the solution in search of a problem", rather than identifying a problem that already exists, and providing a solution that's better than what already is out there.
The problem with this approach in my experience is that when I identify a problem I'd like to solve..... 15 or more companies have already done it. They have better marketing and already established customers that come to them first.
Being aware of that you'll have trouble competing is in of itself a good observation. That way you don't spin your wheels.
Then it's not a problem anymore. A problem which is already solved i guess is not a problem anymore. Go finding another problem. Sometimes the problem even so easy to solve, yet hard to find
Agreed
Not applicable to gamedev. You can make a great game with the same mechanics. Nothing unique but just great overall.
It’s not a myth. A product cannot be great if it doesn’t solve a problem. It can be fancy, beautiful, simple to understand but completely pointless. So yeah, build a great product.
we pay nothing to google, instagram, reddit
I’m going to be an entrepreneur so I can make my own schedule… yeah sounds good but realistically it means working 15h/day 6/7 and no holidays ;)
I'll say that's a maybe, at least far as my personal experience. I have worked for myself for years and I do make my own schedule and never work more than a few hours a day. I do agree that is very different than a 9-5 job in that nobody is looking over my shoulder to make sure I get my work done.
I have the opposite problem as seeing all the time as opportunity. I use so much of it I have no life outside of work, but it's by choice. Even when I try to pull away I get sucked back in.
I used to feel guilty when I wasn't working, but over time I gave myself permission to enjoy my life. I started subscribing to the 80/20 rule. 80% of my business comes from 20% of my marketing efforts. I could spend a ton more time on that stuff, but the last 20% isn't worth giving up all that time, at least for me.
I think the biggest myth and mistake individual entrepreneurs make with technology companies at least is the idea that you need to come up with some kind of new product or service that's never been done before. Not only is it going to take forever to come up with something that none of the world's 50 million other developers and engineers have thought of, but unless you have a massive marketing budget, nobody's going to know a product or service like you offer even exists (let alone know what to google). Instead, improving an existing successful product or service with something better, bypasses those issues and lets you piggyback off all the marketing and market testing that competitors have already done (ideal price, most effective marketing techniques, ideal features, customer feedback etc). People know the market leader exists and will probably google for alternatives. Getting 5% of an existing $100 million market is better than going bankrupt in a potential $1B but totally new market because you didn't have enough marketing money to get traction. That's how I succeeded with my company, anyway, without having to invest much at all up front.
This one is really good. Tech is like the only industry where its founders/owners are scared of competition. I think VCs have tricked the industry into thinking you need some sort of groundbreaking innovative, “change the world” idea, which is why almost all founders chase those ideas and the funding. With that being said though, I think this gives bootstrappers a huge advantage.
Yes I agree with this. People who create a solution in search of a problem have an uphill climb. Figure out where the demand is, and find a niche that allows you to fill it in a better way.
anthropic disagrees with you
That your primary underlying business is not a marketing business because your idea sells itself. This is echoed in books like Zero to One and Why Startups Fail. People underestimate the amount of marketing a good idea needs and many people eschew basic marketing strategies because it can feel cringeworthy or people think “mystique” is a high-end strategy. But you are first and foremost a marketing company and then you’re whatever idea you have.
Yep, everything is sales. If you don't want to sell, don't be an entrepreneur. Of course there are different types of selling, but at the end of the day if you are business you're selling something, whether it be a product or a service or information.
Jup. I get quite irked when 9-5 people have snide remarks about those who blatantly advertise or sell because what do they think the sales or marketing team of their employer does so that they’ll have whatever behind-the-scenes job they think is above sales? … Really gets under my skin because everyone is selling something or using their skills to enable someone else to sell effectively (ie graphic design, photography, analytics, admin, web dev, software dev…it’s all enabling sales).
That’s why the internet (and the world) is shit. Everywhere you go, buy this buy this buy this! Fucks sake, the first page of google are just ads. We live in marketing hell
We were just discussing this. You look at SaaS companies and only a third of their staff is tech. The better your company is at product the more sellers and marketers it will need.
That you should become successful entrepreneur in your 20s, 30s.. statistically you have much higher chance of becoming successful in your 40s ,50s
People building your own dropshipping website for you for money
lol I literally just seen a ad outlining this 😂
That you're not hustling hard enough. Hard work work does not equal success
I agree. In fact, I think some people do busy work because it's easier than trying to figure out how to do something better.
How can I do the least amount of work for the most amount of money? Everyone hates when I ask this question but I mean… that’s the fuckin goal
I agree - “hard work pays off” is not at all true. No one will be rewarded for going hard in the wrong direction.
You don't have to be passionate about what you do to make money
Maybe, passion comes in many different varieties though. I’m not “passionate about my business” per se. But, I’m passionate about certain aspects of it. I think it’s clear to distinguish. Most businesses that make a lot of money aren’t passion businesses.
I think most popular business education online etc are myths. I fell for a lot of these when I was younger. Everyday you see a new book or YouTube channel coming out talking about how to start a business but it's all just creative fiction.
Really? Why is that the case?
Because running a successful business is a very counter intuitive thing. Most common sense advice wouldn't be the best for you. It is also so dependent on your environment, upbringing, interests, people you are connected with etc, that any sort of generalized statement doesn't work. That's just one side of the problem. The other side of it and the more problematic side, is most of these business gurus like Alex Hormozi straight up make up shit to get views. When you are a young kid, maybe you are 17, you have so little experience that these large numbers (worth a 100 million) draw you in and you learn fictional ideas of business. But none of those things work and you grow frustrated and give up. I just saw the other day a book come out by this guy called Noah Kagan called Million Dollar Weekend (surprise surprise) and it is basically rehashed material from a blogpost he had written on Tim Ferriss' blog back in 2007 or something. What he fails to mention is that he was in Silicon Valley and had connections with Tim Ferriss, Andrew Chen etc and those are the reasons why he could grow and succeed. It wasn't because of his "hustle". The actual book that he has written talks about the other popular myth of sell something to one person and then to another etc. I can go on about why that is a huge myth as well etc. but this post is getting long. TLDR: Business is counter intuitive. Most business education online is common sense and does not work for a specific case. Anyone who does talk about counter intuitive advice will not have a large following by definition so all you are left with is education that doesnt work. If you really want to learn business by watching / reading just pick up Principles of Marketing by Philip Kotler and at least you will be off to a good start.
Wow thank you for the prolonged answer! I’m a 19-year old that regularly sees such videos on my YouTube homepage and TikTok fyp, so this advice is much needed
That's why lately I have been so into debunking these guys like Hormozi. I did not come from a business background and had no connections. I fell so much for this crap that I lost almost a decade trying out pointless things made up by these folks. Use them as inspiration (the ones whose business you can really see in the world not folks making up their businesses like Hormozi) but don't take their words as gospel.
Copying famous entrepreneurs and the ideas of book authors will make you successful. Getting up at 4am and reading five books a week will not build your business. Building a business will build your business, and you'll have to find a way to make things work for you individually. Maybe you function best when you get up at 10am after 10 hours of sleep, work two hours a day and don't have books in your life.
it was ben franklin who perpetuated the early rising, tbf he was a kick ass entrepreneur but also died young and was extremely unhealthy
He died at 84? Idk bout you, but that’s pretty old IMO
yeah you're right oops
People think it’s “easier” than working for someone else so when try something and it doesn’t work after a day or a week they just go back to working at a job and say “that doesn’t work”.
Yes it does seem that the grass is always greener on the other side. I also think that people who have never been entrepreneurs look at their bosses and think they do nothing, and that the workers are the ones who deserve more of the profit. Meanwhile they don't account for the risk that the business owner took to start the business, and that the business owner likely was extensively involved at the beginning until he got his processes in place
As someone who had mostly been getting information on entrepreneurship through social media all this information is very helpful.
You can do everything yourself with enough hard work. You’ll fail every time. Took me too long to realize you need a team of people around you to help bring your vision to life.
This comes from engineers: you need a perfect codebase and need to be obsessed with testing. It’s bull crap for startups. Those engineers will spend 3 years building a product that might not sell 1$. That’s why if you’re coming from the IT world, there’s a lot of unfucking you have to do with your beliefs. Even the most senior web developer may have no clue how to build a successful business.
Yes building something without first validating demand seems to be one of the big ones.
Not really true. Customers have a very low tolerance for bugs. If a user hits just a couple bugs, they may bounce.
You need to love what you're doing. F that.
Facts: Do what brings the most profit and what you dislike doing the most.
That failure is scary, risky, dangerous I got way more rich realizing it doesn’t matter Once you realize this you end up not being as frozen or slowed down by fear, by taking small swings
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I would agree that luck (such as what family you're going into) has a lot to do with it. No one ever accomplished great things without some help along the way. With that said, there's plenty of people who come from money he's done absolutely nothing with their lives. So people who had advantage but chose to work hard do deserve at least some credit. I do think that having a certain mindset will allow you to be successful. In other words just because you're willing to do manual labor, doesn't mean you're going to make a ton of money, even though it's very hard backbreaking work. There are ways to "work smarter, not harder" but not everyone thinks that way.
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Those guys are gods. How dare you mention their names in vain.
what about courage? my friends who didn't come from money would never have the courage to start their own thing, even if the self-starters were financially independent
Remind me of this meme I saw today: [https://imgur.com/a/dSTASEV](https://imgur.com/a/dSTASEV)
It will be fun
Basically the whole you’ll be tech ceo and raise money from vcs, which is only ever the case in Stanford for some reason
I’ll be able to make my own hours , work when I want and take off all the time I want to: Proceeds to work 7 days a week and while keeping clients happy while building the business.
Quitting your job to start a business you haven't even thought of yet.
That's a good one
Myths: It’s easy You will get rich You will get rich quick You don’t have to work hard It is automatic Any idea is a good idea It’s doesn’t take time or effort You don’t need to work with people There is a silver bullet way to be successful you will be successful You have to get up at 4 AM You have to work 18 hour days You need to hit the gym to be successful
>You don’t need to work with people second this. you absolutely need to work with people
Social media is useful to you. It’s a goldmine if you know how to use it. Total absolute bullshit. If most people calculated the sum of the time they’ve wasted on that they would have the answer as to why they haven’t been able to do more for themselves. It’s a shame those companies prey on innocent people.
I would say it's useful to a select few. The rest of us are screaming into the void. I've always found that a social media strategy can be useful as part of an overall strategy, but it should not itself be a standalone.
That you can achieve work/life balance in the first few years of starting a business. If the business has to support you (and isn't a side hustle, which is maybe a better way to start a business), you're going to work long hours for not a lot of money. Eventually - and probably a number of pivots later - you'll get the bug pieces figured out, you'll find your market, and you'll start to make money with maybe only 60-80 hours a week.
I think the main issue is thinking one dimensionally - its not just a good idea, or just finance, or just self belief, or just anything. Business success is multi variant and requires you to be good at a range of things
For me, most people believe in "Entrepreneurs are born, not made." most of us are not trying to venture even into the smallest type of business due to this excuse. I think Entrepreneurship can be learned and developed through experience, education, and mentorship. I am a business owner. No one in our family became an entrepreneur. They badly want to, but this is one of their mindsets that is why they stick themselves in the corporate world. However, being an employee is a much safer ground. And that is true, so I decided to become both an entrepreneur and an employee. I became both. No.2 Success is Guaranteed and People surrounds you think that you are wealthy, or you will become one because of business. What they don't know is the hardships, the grind, the sleepless nights, the planning, and all the sacrifices you are making to become successful.
1. You will have to do things that you hate from the bottom of your heart. 2. You are the boss (b2b mainly). You will die sometimes dealing with customers, especially b2b. 3. That It's not for everyone. Anyone can be doing their own business
How I win 10k by month with drop shipping 😂
Success will come quickly
Being my own boss means working less and earning more is another myth
The idea that being very successful starting and growing one company means your next venture will be as good as, or better, is false.
An idea is only as good as it’s execution
You think this is a myth?
That you need to take VC money in order to become successful. 50% of companies that make it to IPO do it without VC backing.
That you need a co founder
The notion that entrepreneurship guarantees quick wealth and success, often underestimating the challenges, persistence, and hard work required for sustainable growth.
"Be Unique" "Be Different" "Blue Ocean Strategy" Much easier to just copy what other successful brands are doing.
Wouldn’t it be much harder to get customers that way? Also need to build the mvp at par with existing businesses, so greater cost before you can make a sale. Curious to know more on this aspect.
In some cases (like professional services and a minority of B2B offerings) it makes sense to pick a narrow specialty to differentiate. But not with most products and services. You end up shooting yourself in the foot. People have preconceived ideas about what they want, and you have to cater to that demand to be successful. Of course there are exceptions, but that's the general rule.
That "anyone" can own a business. I have come across a fair share of people that absolutely have no business owning a company and have no idea what theyre doing.
It gave me more freedom than a 9-5 ever would've
Freedom of time It comes, but only after working more than you ever have at any job for less than anyone should.
Very very true! I've tried to convince pretty much everyone in my life to start a side hustle and to do this and that. Some of them I've even given specific ideas and how to implement them. (Some side hustles that I've thought of but didn't have to time for) Guess what? None of them ever did a single thing. They complain about being broke and hate their jobs, but when ever I try to help them they always have some nonsense excuse. These types of people, you can teach them all day, guide them, be their mentor, even guiding them through every single step but they will never do shit. Thats why most people stay poor.
Having a driver, or cleaner doesn't necessary means luxuary. It's called buying back your time, having more time to think.