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Our inability to disconnect extreme events from the norm also affects our perceptions of business. The picture we see of the business environment shows us the tails not the curve, we here…
What 337 conversations with the world's leading thinkers reveal about the spirit of entrepreneurship
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Another hugely common mistake is optimising your business for investors, and not customers and employees. If you don't believe me, look at the fact that consulting businesses have a 5 year survival rate of 60% and venture backed businesses, less than 10%.
— Rand FishkinFounder of Moz, SEO software company and industry thought leader
When you're starting out, your ambition shouldn't be defined by someone else's success criteria. That's something I struggled with, and still do. I struggle to align my business objectives with my life and my own motivations rather than externally formed motivations that come from culture and society.
— Rand FishkinFounder of Moz, SEO software company and industry thought leader
There's a culture in Silicon Valley that believes that you should be obsessive and not be able to think about anything else other than your business. You shouldn't have kids… friends… just your company as a vehicle to make millions of dollars. That's the kind of founder that many investors want to back, but we need to kick those people out.
— Rand FishkinFounder of Moz, SEO software company and industry thought leader
One of the biggest myths in startup-land is this idea that the pinnacle of startups is building a venture-scale company, backed by venture capital, growing exceptionally fast and being OK with high failure rates as a result; in other words, returning a significant amount of capital to an investor rather than any other outcome.
— Rand FishkinFounder of Moz, SEO software company and industry thought leader
If you are able to share the things you're scared people will find out? That's real transparency, and that's how you earn the trust that transparency can bring, but if it doesn't feel uncomfortable, it's just marketing.
— Rand FishkinFounder of Moz, SEO software company and industry thought leader
Another hugely common mistake is optimising your business for investors, and not customers and employees.
— Rand FishkinFounder of Moz, SEO software company and industry thought leader
When you're starting out, your ambition shouldn't be defined by someone else's success criteria. That's something I struggled with, and still do.
— Rand FishkinFounder of Moz, SEO software company and industry thought leader
In the same way that kids would benefit from healthy, happy parents- startups would benefit from healthy, happy founders.
— Rand FishkinFounder of Moz, SEO software company and industry thought leader
If you are able to share the things you're scared people will find out? That's real transparency, and that's how you earn the trust that transparency can bring, but if it doesn't feel uncomfortable, it's just marketing.
— Rand FishkinFounder of Moz, SEO software company and industry thought leader
One of the biggest myths in startup-land is this idea that the pinnacle of startups is building a venture-scale company, backed by venture capital, growing exceptionally fast and being OK with high failure rates as a result; in other words, returning a significant amount of capital to an investor rather than any other outcome.
— Rand FishkinFounder of Moz, SEO software company and industry thought leader
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