Last night, I attended CIW MEGTALK: Innovation & Influence – a discussion of idea innovation with five of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people. While the thought leaders were discussing social innovation, I found that some of their sage advice also rings true within the entrepreneurial world.
3 Lessons That Startups Can Learn From Social Influencers
Innovator: Suze Orman, two-time Emmy Award-winning television host, New York Times bestselling author, magazine and online columnist.
Lesson: Fear can be your friend.
When Brad Keywell, Groupon investor and Chicago Ideas Week curator, asked Orman whether people should be fearful about the economy, she responded “I hope so.”
Orman’s answer had very little to do with her outlook for the country’s financial future and more to do with her knowledge of the power of fear. “Fear only leaves you with one option, action,” said Orman.
Orman’s advice rings especially true for entrepreneurs. Much like the economy the worst thing a startup can do, is do nothing. A successful startup should look failure square in the eye contemplating how and why they could fail and then do everything in their power to make sure they don’t
Innovator: Michelle Rhee Founder & CEO, StudentsFirst
Lesson: Cultivate competition- Know where you stand within your industry.
Michelle Rhee believes that an “everyone brings homes a trophy” attitude is creating complacency within our youth. Rhee spoke of the year she attended 6th grade in Korea, where her and her classmates were numbered 1-15 according to their academic successes.
“Even the one person who should had felt safe didn’t, number 1 was more worried than anyone else because they knew 2 and 3 were after him,” joked Rhee. Rhee in no way was advocating rating our children according to achievements, the analogy was meant only to point out how competition begets motivation and encourages success.
Have you honestly reviewed your offering and that of your competitors? Does everyone on your team know where and why you rank within your industry? If not, they should. Just like little league playoffs, knowing the competition and the stakes at hand unify and motivate a team and let’s face it, in a startup its always the bottom of the ninth.
Innovator: Rob Bell, Author of the New York Times selling book Love Wins & Founding Pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church.
Lesson: Have a journey mindset – you’ll learn more and end up with more companions.
Bell offered up two ways a person of faith can live their life – with a destination mindset or a journey mindset. Those who live with a destination mindset are blinded by their idea of right, trapped in heavenly tunnel vision and they miss out on the lessons and people along the way. In contrast, an individual with a journey mindset is inherently humbled and is open to learning from all stages of their journey and all people along the way.
In a much less spiritual matter, startups can learn a lot from Bell’s journey mindset. As a startup being humble enough to learn from others and admitting when we don’t know it all can mean the difference between becoming the next Google or the next Berney Madoff. Founding or working in a startup is just as much about businesses as it a lifestyle. And life like business is much better lived when we share and learn with others.
