Looking back on 2013, we have been met with success and also some learning experiences as well. Although this is not really related to payroll and bookkeeping, I thought some inspiration and guidance for small businesses might be helpful in this new year.
These twelve entrepreneurs each shared the best advice they ever got with Business Insider. I’m not sure if I agree with every detail, but it’s certainly great food for thought. There’s a great deal of great advice here, so I will share six today and six more on Wednesday. Don’t forget to comment below!
Restaurateur Jon Taffer: See every detail of your business.
“Years ago when I was very young, a VP of Hyatt looked at me and said, ‘You look, but you don’t see.'” Jon Taffer, a former business owner and host of the TV series Bar Rescue, advises: “See every crack, every detail. I learned to really see and not just look at my business.”
Dilbert creator Scott Adams: Don’t give up.
“The best advice I got was before I was a syndicated cartoonist,” Adams tells Business Insider. “I asked advice of a professional cartoonist, Jack Cassady, who had a TV show called ‘Funny Business’ years ago on PBS. I wrote to him, and he gave me this advice: ‘It’s a competitive business, but don’t give up.'”
“That sounds very non-profound, but let me fast forward the story,” Adams continues. “I put some comics together and sent them to magazines 14 The New Yorker, Playboy 14 but they rejected them. So I said, ‘Oh well, I tried.’ A year later, I get a second letter from Cassady. He’d been cleaning his office and came across my original samples. He said he was just writing to me to make sure that I hadn’t given up. And I had. So I took out my art supplies, and I decided to raise my sights.”
“I had to do one more thing for luck to find me,” he says. “As it turns out, one of the perhaps six people on planet Earth who could have looked at my cartoon and said ‘yes’ was a woman married to a guy who was the spitting image of, and had the same job as, Dilbert. It required that one extra attempt, and that wouldn’t have happened without the best advice anybody ever gave me, which is don’t give up.”
Advertising entrepreneur Sara Rotman: Being comfortable is the enemy.
“The best advice I ever received was from my first accountant when I was discussing the launch of my company,” says Rotman, founder of ad agency MODCo, which has clients like Vera Wang, True Religion, and Tory Burch. “We were speaking about my business plan and how much money to borrow to launch. She wisely said, ‘Only have enough cash on hand to barely survive; never so much that you are comfortable. It’s important to stay scared in the beginning.'”
“While I prefer to describe that feeling as staying hungry rather than scared, I thought it was indeed great advice,” she says. “I have found this hunger to be an incredibly important motivator during my entire career. Being comfortable is the enemy. Staying hungry forces you to push yourself to continue to survive, grow, and evolve.”
Billionaire Mark Cuban: There are no shortcuts.
The investor and owner of the Dallas Mavericks tells Business Insider the best advice he ever got was: “Do the work. Out-work. Out-think. Out-sell your expectations. There are no shortcuts.” The advice came from his father, who did upholstery on cars, when Cuban was in high school. “He was always very encouraging but also realistic,” Cuban says of his dad.
Lululemon founder Chip Wilson: It’s OK to ask for help.
“It took me a long time to understand it, but [the advice was] to ask for help and that I don’t know it all,” Wilson tells Business Insider. “People love to help. I don’t have to be insecure and know it all.” He got this insight at Landmark Forum, a weekend workshop he attended in 1991. Learning how to trust others and share control turned out to be critical to the success of Lululemon, since in the beginning he was simultaneously running it and another company.
Entrepreneur and author Tim Ferriss: You are who you associate with.
“The best advice I ever got is: You’re the average of the five people you associate with the most,” Ferriss, author of the best-selling book “The 4-Hour Workweek,” tells Business Insider. He got the advice from a wrestling coach when he was in high school, and has never forgotten it. “I use it always, whether it’s choosing startups to invest in, choosing investors, sports teams to join, or people to have dinner with. Constantly, I think about this.”
What’s the best business advice you’ve ever received? We’d love to hear and share your wisdom!
