From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
If you start with a solution, there's a risk you might construct something that no one finds useful, leading to immense frustration. But when you centre your efforts on the problem, it serves as the guiding North Star of your journey.
If you don't love the act of doing, you'll never find happiness. If your motivation is glory or money, you're bound to be disappointed. If you're more excited about lunch with investment bankers than dealing with the day-to-day realities, you'll end up unhappy.
There is no magic formula for great company culture. The key is just to treat your staff how you would like to be treated yourself. People are fundamental in driving the success of a business. You should treat your employees like the smart and capable adults they are.
As business-leaders we have to start taking responsibility to speak-out about our own struggles, so that others do the same- and by doing so, make our teams and our peers realise that it's fine to not be fine.
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.
I don't feed stomachs, I feed minds. Education is the only weapon capable of transforming a community. Imagine… I was an illiterate 17-year-old boy, and I can do this. Imagine what we can do if we empower everyone.
Undeniably, joining a flourishing company vastly differs from joining a struggling one, just as there's a significant contrast between building a company with the intention to sell and constructing one with the goal of passing it on.
In the last 20 years I believe I have become a hybrid entrepreneur – believing in the power of technology and process, but also in the very deep humanistic point of view. I guess it's a weird mix of Italian with Silicon Valley.
It was not wealth or fame that these people wanted... These individuals had, in their own minds, observed a particular customer need that wasn't being met. They were wired in such a way, that this need seemed obvious to them.
Marketing is not going to solve a bad product, but it will be an easier and smoother with a good product, with repeat purchases and word of mouth as being the two things that are critical.
Small companies will get an idea and try to scale up. Big companies have to decide when to extend, when to extend and scale, and when to do something new. They need to build capabilities in terms of insight and execution to do the new thing.
Doing something that has never been done before is terrifying… all the people who love you will tell you not to do it… not because they're jealous, but because they're genuinely scared for you… they're worried for your wellbeing.