Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2016

The startup lifestyle is known to be stressful and challenging, but it’s also meant to be satisfying and fulfilling, with you as the entrepreneur in control of your own destiny. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out that way, based on my many years of experience with entrepreneurs and advising startups.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 21, 2018

I believe the days of the “job work” mentality are thankfully waning, with more people looking to get satisfaction by making the world a better place, rather than just tolerating brain-numbing work to fund enjoyment elsewhere. Thus a record number of entrepreneurs (and team members) are getting rich.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 7, 2016

I found this illustrated well in a new book I just finished, “ A Paperboy’s Fable ,” by a young entrepreneur and writer Deep Patel. Although just seventeen years old, Patel has some great insights that I can extrapolate for every aspiring entrepreneur to answer the most common question I get as an advisor and mentor – “Where do I start?”

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 21, 2016

There are a few entrepreneurs who seem to always be ahead of the rest, and are able to sense where the market is going tomorrow. Everyone wants to support the entrepreneur with the courage to make bold decisions, and can make it happen. So what does one have to do to get on the list? His new product presentations were legendary.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 14, 2016

Every entrepreneur I know feels the pressure of the thousands of things that need to get done, all seemingly at the same time. I recommend that entrepreneurs test the market with a minimum viable product (MVP), before burning resources on the ultimate solution, only to find the market has changed. There is just not enough time!

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2016

The challenge for every entrepreneur and every business is to understand the pragmatics of identifying and reacting to what their customers love and what they hate. It’s not only good for your business, but it will add meaning and joy to your customers, and will also enhance your personal satisfaction and well-being.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2016

It’s easy to declare yourself an entrepreneur, but it’s not so easy to convince investors, your team and customers that you are that special one to fund and follow. If you don’t consistently display the right entrepreneur mindset traits, people won’t follow and business success will likely elude you.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2016

Every entrepreneur knows what it’s like to face adversity. The best entrepreneurs tackle these one at a time without losing their stride or their passion and many secretly get their highest satisfaction from overcoming an impossible problem. Thomas Edison called every failure an experiment (now it would be a pivot).

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 16, 2016

Most new entrepreneurs have great ideas, and many are highly skilled in building their solutions. Full autonomy to go above and beyond in sales and customer-service roles will increase team engagement as well as customer satisfaction. High engagement is more related to high performance than high satisfaction. Are you there yet?

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 8, 2016

One of the myths I often hear as an advisor to many entrepreneurs is that their lifestyle would somehow be better if they could more easily find other people’s money to build their startup. Most entrepreneurs never forget for a moment that having investors means owing money, even if they can legally argue that equity is not debt.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2016

Here are seven key principles that I recommend you follow as an aspiring business leader or entrepreneur, based on my own experience in large companies as well as startups: Proactively ask for input to hone your vision. It’s time for all of us to ask more, listen more, learn more, and lead the way to our own success and satisfaction.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2016

I meet many entrepreneurs with a real passion for their new idea, but unfortunately they don’t all realize that passion is necessary but not sufficient fuel to turn their idea into a successful business. Of course, an even more important driver of passion than success is happiness and satisfaction with the lifestyle.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2016

They also get satisfaction from mentoring others. Everyone appreciates a productive worker who does the hard work, makes no excuses, and gets satisfaction from positive customer and executive feedback. Fun is all about satisfaction, doing new things, stretching your mind, and productive relationships with others.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2016

Entrepreneurs don’t realize that Facebook spent over $100 million, before revenues from advertising turned cash positive. Businesses that focus on the local community have long been the source of satisfaction and financial livelihood of entrepreneurs. Isn’t it time that you joined this age of the entrepreneur?

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2016

Business success is all about having the best team, yet the average entrepreneur has little prior experience with hiring people and building top-notch teams. Most new entrepreneurs assume their passion will attract and motivate the right team members. Marty Zwilling First published on Forbes on 07/02/2016.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 2, 2016

For example, in the entrepreneur world there are people like Elon Musk , who has demonstrated not only innovative ideas, but also impressive results in SpaceX, Tesla Motors, and Hyperloop. Marty Zwilling First published on Forbes on 08/27/2016. We all know examples on a smaller scale in every organization.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2016

Many entrepreneurs are so passionate about their new startup idea that they can’t believe any intelligent being, investor or customer wouldn’t react just as excitedly after a quick introduction. Indeed, all entrepreneurs have to start at the beginning with passion for an idea. Repetition is the key to getting people’s attention.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2017

They get more personal satisfaction from giving than from receiving. Every good entrepreneur learns to pivot, and learn from that experience, but never see failure. Many experts believe that the single biggest cause of startup failure is entrepreneurs simply giving up just prior to success. Always give more than you get.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2016

In reality, that’s the definition of a successful startup these days, so every aspiring entrepreneur should take note, as well as every existing corporate executive. I like their seven step approach, which I have paraphrased here for entrepreneurs as follows: Pull together a great multi-functional team.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2016

Entrepreneurs don’t realize that this burden is actually costing them over $200 billion in repeat sales, according to a recent study by the W. If a customer feels like they are doing all the work, satisfaction will never be forthcoming. Marty Zwilling First published on Entrepreneur.com on 06/08/2016. Carey School of Business.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2016

In my own experience as a startup advisor and mentor, I find that entrepreneurs who can’t attract and maintain a highly motivated team rarely even get off the ground. Marty Zwilling First published on Forbes on 06/18/2016. If you can do it, motivation can easily be your biggest competitive advantage. Start today.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 19, 2016

Rather than focus on negatives, let me summarize key positive attributes that I look for in people to move ahead, from my own experience as a corporate executive, and many years mentoring entrepreneurs. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 11/30/2016. Either way, you win and your business wins.

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