From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
My wife Freada coined a phrase, distance travelled. We're very interested in where somebody started in life, and what hurdles and barriers they have already overcome in their journey – and how that grit has got them to where they are now. That's an indicator of resilience, persistence, and many other character traits that are significant in terms of entrepreneurial success.
They talk about Steve Jobs having a reality distortion field…. but all the entrepreneurs I met who achieved great things had that. They all had a wilful denial of reality… against all evidence to the contrary they had to believe they would succeed.. that's ultimately what entrepreneurs do.
My favourite question when evaluating a startup idea is, 'Is this from the future?' I'm not interested in your ideas about the future; I want to understand why you are living in it today. Why are you living in a different future right now than other people are?
If you only listen to the voices around you, you'll amalgamate them into something that already exists… My view was that consensus isn't going to build something that will change the game.
The traditional sources of capital for ideas — investment, charity, rich relatives, grants — are nowhere near sufficient to the number of good ideas in the world.
One you have to get a unique insight. It starts there. Two, you need to be prepared to devote a lot of energy and commitment.
It's important to differentiate between a large market and a large opportunity; they're not one and the same. The ideal scenario is to tackle a significant problem within a substantial market, thereby creating a sizable opportunity.
You will never find opportunities in your comfort zone, you have to push yourself. You have to be hungry and willing to go into the unknown. The unknown is where you will always find opportunity.
Where decent jobs are scarce, women can achieve financial independence by becoming job creators rather than job seekers – providing, of course, that they have the right support and opportunities to do so.
A lot of entrepreneurs don't make that switch. They cling to that brand identity of 'I'm an innovator,' still tinkering with the product while everyone else is saying, 'Hey, it's good enough — let's hire our first salesperson.'
Doing something which has a social purpose gives you the motivation to overcome the hurdles and obstacles that you will meet along the way. It gives you that inner strength when you're doing something and you know it's making a massive difference.
At the beginning I literally started a business out of passion. I loved fitness- it changed my life- it changed my schooling, education and taught me skills that changed my life for the better. I just wanted to be in fitness. When we started the business- whilst the first 6 months were difficult- it started to gain momentum and started to feel like a real opportunity. That's when I had to grab the business by the 'scruff of the neck' and drag it to where I thought it needed to be.