Jason Fried is a founder and CEO of 37signals, a software company based in Chicago. Fried also treats 37signals as something of a laboratory for innovative workplace practices—such as a recent experiment in shortening the summer workweek to just four days. We caught up with Fried to learn how employees are like fossil fuels, how a business can be like a cancer, and how one of the entrepreneurs he admires most is his cleaning lady.
Jim Schleckser has been an entrepreneur for the last 20 years, and for the last seven he’s been imparting his leadership acumen to other entrepreneurs as part of the CEO Project, a program that trains CEOs to increase their business performance. Many of the CEOs Schleckser coaches are the heads of Inc. 500 companies, and he’s found that sustaining an Inc. 500 level of growth over consecutive years is one of the most difficult challenges facing a young, rising business. “It’s one thing to make the list, but it’s actually quite hard to stay on the list,” Schleckser says. “As you grow, you hit speed bumps, and we talk to thousands of CEOs to determine where those points of constraint are.” Schleckser spoke with Inc. reporter John McDermott about the importance of hiring good talent, finding balance, and the characteristics of bad CEOs.
So you want to build an app, construct your dream gadget or become the next Steve Jobs. No matter what entrepreneurial visions you may want to venture, to be an entrepreneur you must be able to roll with the punches and understand that failure is a part of the process since 82% of the time you will.
This does not mean that your success isn’t awaiting you, but first you need to understand what it takes to be an entrepreneur and the risks and rewards that come with turning a vision into a reality. Money will never be the motive as to why you take the risk and increase your debt to ensure that what you want to see birthed is born, it will be built upon your passion and ambitions, then and only then, will you see results.
A massive number of folks who start their own business do not understand how much work and time will be involved. They fail to carry out any primary analysis and thus become quickly overwhelmed. Perhaps the primary question to ask yourself then is whether or not you’re in fact prepared to start your own business. Do you have an entrepreneurial mindset? Are you committed to pay continuously? Do you wish to succeed?
After a long time of being on my “must-read” book list, I finally started reading The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau. The book is all about “Setting Your Own Rules, Living the Life You Want, and Changing the World.”
And I gotta say, I can’t put it down.
Seriously, this is the only book that has ever caused me to miss my train stop because I was so into it I wasn’t paying any attention to anything else.
But all train-missing aside, here’s why I love The Art of Non-Conformity.
It helped me realize the real reason I love being an entrepreneur.
A lot of young people are starting companies.
But when you’re young and inexperienced, you’re more error prone.
Nick Tart spoke to many young founders while co-authoring a book, 50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs, What It Takes To Make More Than Your Parents.
He told us the most frequent business mistakes they made.
You’ve read a million times what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur: intelligence, vision, drive, perseverance, and a strong work ethic.
But while these are most often repeated entrepreneurial traits, they aren’t the only ones. Through my research I’ve come to find that there are other more surprising characteristics that most all entrepreneurs share.
Over the course of the last year, I’ve profiled ten of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time – visionaries like Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg, and Steve Jobs. I’ve also edited Income Diary’s book of interviews with 20 of today’s most successful online entrepreneurs.
Starting up is arguably more taxing than adding another newborn to the family. Successful young entrepreneurs share tips to handling the “babies”—both at home and at the office.
For the past ten years, small businesses have been the stronghold of domestic job creation in the United States. Currently, there are more than 27 million small businesses in the U.S., but only one in ten small business startups will succeed. 80% of new businesses fail within the first three years, and the remaining businesses will be slashed in half by the five year mark. But there’s a silver lining in all this failure — entrepreneurs with multiple attempts at starting a business are the most likely to succeed. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
These days everyone has their favorite mobile apps, ones that make both their personal and business lives run smoother. But are there any apps that are must haves for entrepreneurs and startup founders?
For startup entrepreneurs, it’s crucial to find the apps that actually make a difference to you and your business. Plenty of startup founders are already experts in this area. Heck, apps are the business of many startups these days. But startups in other fields may not be so savvy.
