Successful Startup 101: September 2014 Successful Startup 101: September 2014 | Page 34

Lesson 1: Opportunistic
vs. Strategic Entrepreneur:
One Of These Is Fatal
Look up ‘shiny object syndrome’ in an older
dictionary, up pops a picture of Theobald. He had
the disease and it wasn’t pretty.

Lesson? Nail first, scale second. Nathan Furr and
Paul Ahlstrom drive this home hard in their book
‘Nail It, Then Scale It’. Do this in the wrong order
and you’ll drive off a 500-ft cliff.

Lesson 4: Know Who You
Are

“That was really just a big mistake on my part.
If it looked interesting, I’d pursue it. It was just
like whatever came my way. Just chased multiple
opportunities and never was strategic about any of
it. That in itself led to many failures.”

You’re either an entrepreneur or you’re not. Period.
No half-way point. No being a ‘little bit’ pregnant.
The entrepreneurs who recognize who they are
at their core are most likely to figure it out and
succeed in the long run.

Lesson? Act strategic. Don’t just chase every
opportunity walking by in a pretty skirt. Understand
your core competencies, your ‘North Star’ purpose
and learn what ‘opportunity discernment’ means.

Theobald explained it this way: “I wrote two things
in my journal: One, when I fall, I am getting up. Every
single time. And two; I get up because it’s who I am
as an entrepreneur. Therefore to not get up is to
betray who I am. And so that’s what kept me going
through all the failure. You can’t stop. You don’t
really have a choice because if you choose that then
you might as well sacrifice your whole life.”

Lesson 2: Fail Fast… But
Not Too Fast
Sweeping the startup world is the mantra ‘fail fast’.
And yes — this is sound advice for every startup.
But is there a case when it can go too far?
Ten failures in 5 years — I’ll let Theobald tell you: “It
may not be entirely redeemable to let go so fast. I’m
an impatient person and it’s a leading weakness. I’m
very quick to let go — sometimes too fast to let go.
Sometimes the most successful entrepreneurs will stick
with it, try from different angles and then it eventually
takes off. They stick it out and get the formula right.”
Lesson? Yes — take on the ‘fail fast’ approach. But
balance it with tenacity and dogged determination.
You don’t want to be the miner who stops digging 6
inches away from the vein of gold.

Lesson 3: Find Your
Formula
Every successful business on the face of the planet
has this in common: they’ve figured out their
‘secret sauce’ and are now scaling it. But you can’t
scale until you find your formula first.
Theobald on one of his 10 failures: “By the time
it came to close, there wasn’t enough revenue to
sustain the (business) model. It just wasn’t viable
and the formula wasn’t right at a fundamental
level. It wasn’t too long after that I went and filed
personal bankruptcy.”

Lesson? Write it down. If you truly believe you’re
an entrepreneur, commit right now to that as your
identity. Claim it and live by it. I did when I was 14.
You may think I’m a writer, but I’m an entrepreneur.
Period. And I never quit.

Lesson 5: You Must Have A
Deeper Why
Simon Sinek nails this in his infamous TED Talk
speech. If you’ve never listened to this thing, do so
after finishing this article.
Theobald; “I believe the most successful
entrepreneurs have a deeper why. They have
a deeper purpose for what they’re doing. The
most contemporary and best example I can think
of is Steve Jobs who came back (to Apple) with
no ownership and taking only a dollar for his
salary. Just because he cared about delivering
greatness. He just wanted to be insanely great
and make a dent in the world. That mentality
is what changed things for me. It’s the key
difference between exceptionally successful
entrepreneurs and marginally successful
entrepreneurs.”
Lesson? Dig deep and find the deeper why. If you’re
just in this for the collateral benefits of possible
wealth, freedom and independence, I predict an
eventual train wreck for you.