I Am Not Jeff Bezos, and Probably Neither Are You

We hear stories of Bezos, Zuckerberg, and others who shot to fame with their first major product. While these stories can be inspirational, they’re not the blueprint for every entrepreneur.

The rest of us? Well, we should approach entrepreneurship as a series of small bets, exploring different ideas until something sticks.

Think, plan, create, validate, and pivot.

The entrepreneur's journey isn't always a straight line from A to Bezos. More often, it's a winding path filled with detours, roadblocks, and U-turns.

Eric Ries, in his book The Lean Startup, explains this concept with his idea of 'validated learning.' The process? Build, measure, learn, and then either persevere or pivot.

Remember Travis Kalanick, the Uber guy? Before Uber, he started two other ventures. Both failed. However, these failures were just stepping stones on his path to creating Uber, a service we can't imagine living without today.

Then we have Brian Chesky of Airbnb, who attempted some entrepreneurial ventures, none of which took off before Airbnb did.

They didn’t let initial failure deter them. Instead, they learned, pivoted, and persevered.

Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks and co-owner of 2929 Entertainment, also walked a winding path. Before striking gold, he sold garbage bags, gave disco lessons, and even ran a bar that got shut down.

What about Nick Woodman, the GoPro guy? He, too, started two companies that failed before creating GoPro.

The takeaway here is not to fear failure. Quite the opposite. Embrace it. Harness its power. Turn it into fuel for your next attempt.

After all, as Jenny Blake states in her book Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One, the only way to keep moving is by taking that next step, making that next move.

And remember, you don't need a fortune to start. Chris Guillebeau, in his book The $100 Startup emphasizes that you only need a good idea, a modest investment, and a lot of passion.

In the end, we aren't Jeff Bezos, and that's perfectly fine. We're ourselves, armed with our ideas, learnings from our failures, and the courage to make that next small bet.

Each step, each pivot, brings us closer to that opportunity that will change our entire life.

PS. Here is a list of resources that talk more about this.

Books

1. "The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries: This book emphasizes the concept of 'validated learning' - a startup's effort to iteratively build a product or service, to meet the needs of early customers, and to reduce market risks. It encourages entrepreneurs to 'pivot or persevere' based on constructive feedback.
2. "Fail Fast or Win Big" by Bernhard Schroeder: This book introduces the concept of the "LeanModel Framework,” which is a process of quickly vetting and testing ideas before making a significant investment of time and resources.
3. "Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One" by Jenny Blake: This book provides a practical roadmap for embracing career change with less risk and more joy. While it's more focused on career change, its principles can be applied to the entrepreneurial journey as well.
4. "The $100 Startup" by Chris Guillebeau: This book emphasizes the idea that you don't need a fortune to start a successful business, but rather a good idea, a modest investment, and a lot of passion.

Articles

1. “Startup Failure is just One Chapter in Founder Life” by Wil Schroter. Wil talks about how every founder has bad chapters and how to start writing your new chapter in case you are there.
2. “Why Companies Fail—and How Their Founders Can Bounce Back” by Harvard Business School. This article discusses how Leading a doomed company can often help a career by providing experience, insight, and contacts that lead to new opportunities.
3. ”Huffington And Oprah: If At First You Don't Succeed, Fail & Fail Again. Harvard Study Concurs” by Remy Blumenfeld. This article talks about how much you can learn from failure.

Podcasts

1. "The Tim Ferriss Show": Tim Ferriss frequently interviews entrepreneurs, many of whom discuss their experiences with failure and subsequent success. Check out his episode with Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, where they discuss the concept of "blitzscaling" and learning from failures.

Over to you. Do you have a resource that should be part of this list? Let me know!