Since Cuban bought the Dallas Mavericks NBA basketball team in 2000, the team’s winning percentage has gone from 40% to 69% and in 2011 the Mavericks won their first ever NBA championship.

Cuban also has a winning record in business. Born into a working class family, Mark became a billionaire by starting and selling tech companies such as MicroSolutions and Broadcast.com.

Keep reading for ten winning lessons from Cuban’s $2.3 billion success.

#1 Get Paid to Learn

Cuban paid his way through school any way he could. He worked as a disco instructor, party promoter, and even started a chain letter that earned about $1,100.

After graduating from business school, he didn’t stop learning:

If your career or business isn’t yet what you want it to be, adopt Cuban’s attitude and think of it as an opportunity to continue your education. One day you’ll be able to use what you learn to accomplish your ultimate goals.

#2 Visualize Your Success

In 1982, Cuban moved to Dallas, Texas and got a job as a bartender. What he really wanted to do was run his own business and retire by the age of 30. He told himself that he would do it “every day.”

After getting fired from his jobs as a salesperson at Your Business Software, Cuban decided the time was right to pursue his dream. He started his own software selling company, MicroSolutions, which he sold in 1990 for $6 million.

At the age of 32, Cuban was a millionaire who could afford to live in the big houses that he used to drive by as a down-on-his-luck bartender. More importantly, he was living the life of his dreams.

#3 Effort is the Only Requirement

Three years after starting MicroSolutions, business was good. Cuban was set to earn $60,000 that year and he was only 27 years old.

Even though he felt successful, Cuban saw major room for improvement. The PC industry was in a slump and local area networks had yet to take off like MicroSolutions had hoped. Cuban’s solution was to “recommit to getting up early, staying up late and consuming everything [he] possibly could to get an edge.”

The behavior of your industry, your clients, and your competitors is mostly outside of your hands. It’s pointless to become frustrated with things that you can’t control. Instead, focus on maximizing your effort.

#4 Sell High

In 1995, a few years after selling MicroSolutions, Cuban decided to help Chris Jaeb and Todd Wagner launch AudioNet, an Internet radio company that would soon be rebranded to Broadcast.com. Cuban became a billionaire overnight when they sold the company to Yahoo! in 1999 for $5.9 billion in stock.

With all the buzz building around Internet companies, it was the perfect time to sell. Just a year later, the dot-com bubble would burst and the perceived value of Broadcast.com would plummet.

Make sure you sell your company at the right time. Wait until the market is high for your industry in order to get the most money for your hard work.

#5 Diversify

After the sale of Broadcast.com, Cuban was left holding a huge chunk of Yahoo! stock. That stock that was not immune to the dot-com bubble either: it went from being traded at $118.75 a share in January 2000 to a measly $4.05 a share by September 2011.

Luckily for Cuban, he had already taken steps to diversify. Cuban explained to Fast Company Magazine:

The only way that Cuban was able to hold onto his fortune was by making sure all of his eggs weren’t in the same basket. After becoming a billionaire, Cuban immediately began spreading his wealth around in different industries: becoming the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Landmark Theatres, Magnolia Pictures, and the chairman of the HD cable network HDNet.

#6 Don’t Focus on Exit Strategy

Cuban has built his fortune by building successful companies and then selling them when the time is right. Even so, he insists that he’s always looking for a “cash-in-pocket strategy, not an exit strategy.” When Business Insider asked Cuban about how entrepreneurs should think about their exit strategies, he said:

The best exit strategy is to build a company with long-term, intrinsic value.

#7 Be a Loudmouth

I’ve written about the value of keeping your mouth shut and letting your actions speak for themselves. But Mark Cuban proves there are exceptions to this rule.

Cuban sometimes speaks first and thinks later – and the result is that he’s put his foot in his mouth more times than he can count. But while Cuban’s big mouth often gets him in hot water with the media, it also ensures that he gets “push back”:  a constant stream of reactions from the outside world. For Mark, the tradeoff is worth it.

If you’re natural tendency is to be a loudmouth, then you can benefit from embracing it. Just be ready to apologize.

#8 Get Free Press

Cuban has appeared as himself in TV shows like Entourage, The Colbert Report, and The Simpsons. He’s also had recurring roles on reality shows like Shark Tank and Dancing with the Stars.

Collectively, Cuban has reached tens of millions of Americans through these programs. That means greater awareness of Cuban and his personal brand – which ultimately can be leveraged to help Cuban’s business ventures.

#9 Know Your Business Better than Anyone

Cuban spends so much time researching his industries that he told TechCrunch, “I need a break because I spend so much time reading. If there’s something I get into, I won’t stop. I read a lot of industry trade publications for cable now.”

Cuban believes that, when it comes to creating a successful company, knowledge is power. His advice is simple, yet ambitious: “Know your business and industry better than anyone else in the world.”

#10 Do Something Different

As an angel investor, Cuban is always looking for companies that demonstrate a clear sense of market differentiation. In fact, he immediately dismisses any companies that aren’t carving out their own niche: “Wherever I see people doing something the way it’s always been done, the way it’s ‘supposed’ to be done, following the same old trends, well, that’s just a big red flag to me to go look somewhere else.”

If you want to repeat something that’s already been done, then you open a franchise. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur like Mark Cuban, you’ll have to do something different.

Are you completely successful?

By the time you get to the bottom of this page, you may be.

Success is all about having the right mindset. That’s why I’ve compiled 50 of the most powerful perspectives on success from some of history’s most successful people. Their definitions, quotations, formulas, misconceptions, and principles paint a clear picture of the mindset of a success.

Top 10 Definitions of Success

#1 Winston Churchill:

“Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”

#2 Deepak Chopra:

“Success in life could be defined as the continued expansion of happiness and the progressive realization of worthy goals.”

#3 Jim Rohn:

“Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.”

#4 Anita Roddick:

“I want to define success by redefining it. For me it isn’t that solely mythical definition – glamour, allure, power of wealth, and the privilege from care. Any definition of success should be personal because it’s so transitory. It’s about shaping my own destiny.”

#5 Richard Branson:

“It is the satisfaction of doing it for yourself and motivating others to work with you in bringing it about. It is about the fun, innovation, creativity with the rewards being far greater than purely financial.”

#6 Orison Swett Marden:

“When a man feels throbbing within him the power to do what he undertakes as well as it can possibly be done, this is happiness, this is success.”

#7 Zig Ziglar:

“Success means doing the best we can with what we have. Success is the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the triumph. Success is a personal standard, reaching for the highest that is in us, becoming all that we can be.”

#8 George Sheehan:

“Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be.”

#9 Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“Success:  To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.  This is to have succeeded!”

#10 Wilfred Peterson:

“Success is focusing the full power of all you are on what you have a burning desire to achieve.”

Top 10 Quotes on Success

#1 Thomas Edison:

“Success is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

#2 Dorothea Brande:

“Act as though it is impossible to fail.”

#3 Woody Allen:

“Seventy percent of success in life is showing up.”

#4 Mark Victor Hansen:

“Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.”

#5 Yoda:

“Do or do not. There is no try.”

#6 Taryn Rose:

“Fear regret more than failure.”

#7 Edward Simmons:

“The difference between failure and success is doing a thing nearly right and doing a thing exactly right.”

#8 Abraham Lincoln:

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to success is more important than any other one thing.”

#9 George Bernard Shaw:

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

#10 Anonymous:

“God gave us two ends: one to sit on and one to think with. Success depends on which one you use. Heads you win; tails, you lose.”

Top 10 Formulas for Success

#1 Albert Einstein:

“If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y and Z, with X being work, Y play, and Z keeping your mouth shut.”

#2 Thomas J. Watson:

“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that’s where you will find success.”

#3 Stanley Tang:

“Success comes down to hard work plus passion, over time.”

#4 Swami Vivekananda:

“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life: think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.”

#5 Mark Twain:

“To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.”

#6 Napoleon Hill

“Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.”

#7 James Allen:

“For true success ask yourself these four questions: Why? Why not? Why not me? Why not now?”

#8 Unknown:

“Success = an optimist in thought + a pessimist in action.”

#9 Anonymous:

“An Unfailing Success Plan: At each day’s end write down the six most important things to do tomorrow; number them in order of importance, and then do them.”

#10 Arnold H. Glasgow:

“Success is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time.”

Top 10 Misconceptions about Success

#1 Success is Complicated

“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

Steve Jobs

You can make success as complicated as you want, but it doesn’t have to be that way. As Jobs says, making success simple isn’t necessarily easy, but it is very powerful.

Take Google for example: their home page is one of the simplest on the web and that simplicity has allowed it to become the most popular site in the world.

#2 Success is a Destination

It’s tempting to think about success as some far-off point where you’ve accomplished everything we’ve ever wanted: “I’ll be successful when I have my dream job, make a million dollars a year, and spend all my time traveling the world with my soul mate.”

This type of thinking is flawed because the accomplishment of worthy goals only leads to the possibility of accomplishing more worthy goals. A successful person doesn’t stop once they achieve something; they’re inspired to achieve something even greater. Success is an ongoing path. As Ben Sweetland said, “Success is a journey, not a destination.”

#3 Success is the Key to Happiness

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success.”

Herman Cain

If you’re unhappy, don’t blame it on a lack of success. Happiness is all about perspective. If you’ve got a cheerful outlook, it doesn’t matter if you’re a success or failure.

#4 Failure is an Indicator that You Won’t Succeed

“The hardest part about being an entrepreneur is that you’ll fail ten times for every success.”

Adam Horwitz

Everybody fails. In fact, successful people fail more than failures because they take bigger chances. If you want proof, then check out the four biggest mistakes from the world’s four biggest entrepreneurs.

Failures are necessary on the path of success. Just learn from them and move on.

#5 Success Comes at the Expense of Others

Some people think that the only way you can move up in business is by stepping on people to get there.

The truth is actually the opposite: a business is successful because it provides value for people. As I’ve written about before, the more you give, the more you get.

#6 Moderate Success is Easier to Get than “Only in Your Wildest Dreams” Success

“Ninety-nine percent of people believe they can’t do great things, so they aim for mediocrity.”

Tim Ferriss

Many of us are taught from an early age to have practical goals. We shouldn’t try to be a rock star, supermodel, or astronaut because the chances of success are so slim.

But it’s time to challenge those self-imposed restraints. As Ben Nemtin, from “The Buried Life”, pointed out: “The level of competition is highest for realistic goals because most people don’t set high enough goals for themselves.”

Don’t be afraid to go for your wildest dream. It may take more effort, but you’ll also be more energized.

#7 You Need to Wait Until the Time is Right

“Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.”

Samuel Johnson

There’s no such thing as the “perfect time” to act. There will always be a problem. But successful people don’t let that deter them.

#8 Success has to be Traditional

“The fastest way to succeed is to look as if you’re playing by somebody else’s rules, while quietly playing by your own.”

Michael Konda

Don’t get caught up with how other people define success. Traditional success includes a six-figure income, a happy family, and a house with a white picket fence. But your success doesn’t have to include any of these things.

#9 Success is Easy

“Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven’t planted.”

David Bly

When people become very successful very quickly it almost looks like it just fell into their lap. But it only looks easy to us because we can’t see the whole picture. Success is earned. As the old saying goes, “The only place you’ll find success before work is in the dictionary.”

#10 Success = Money

“A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business.”

Henry Ford

This is a tired point, but it’s true: money is not that important. Personally, I would rather make a modest living doing something that matters than get rich trading stocks on Wall Street.

Steve Jobs was one of the richest people in the world, but he once said “being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

Top 10 Principles of Success

#1 Success Starts Within

Success comes from the way you act. The way you act comes from the way you think and feel. Therefore, to become more successful, you must first change something within yourself.

#2 Success is a Habit

“Excellence is not a singular act, but a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.”

Aristotle

The little things that you do every day build on top of one another. Make a little progress towards your goals every day.

#3 Success is Only Obtainable in the Now

“The present moment is the only moment available to us and it is the door to all moments.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

We can’t experience the past or the future. So the only time a person is truly able to experience success is when they’re appreciating success in the present moment. Take time to enjoy the success of the present or you’ll never know the true meaning of the word.

There’s another reason why the present is so important, as Mahatma Gandhi points out: “The future depends on what we do in the present.”

#4 Success is in Motion

“I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.”

Steve Jobs

Have a sip of success and it’s easy to get intoxicated. When you get so pleased with your success that all you want to do is reflect on it fondly, you’re guaranteeing that your success will be short-lived.

The only way to have permanent success is to always be moving forward. This anonymous quotation says it better than I can: “A successful man continues to look for work after he has found a job.”

#5 Success Requires Faith

“Leap and the net will appear.”

Zen saying

Pursuing success is challenging and risky, but your chances increase greatly when you simply believe you will succeed.

#6 Success Means Helping Others

“It’s not that successful people are givers; it is that givers are successful people.”

Patti Thor

While it’s enjoyable to help yourself, there’s nothing more satisfying than helping others. Any true definition of success involves giving back as much as you get.

#7 Success is a Choice

Your life is in your hands. So if you don’t like your situation, change it.

Each of us has the resources and the opportunity to create a better life. But we each must make the decision to do this. As an old Swedish proverb says, “God gives every bird a worm, but he does not throw it into the nest.”

#8 Perseverance is Required

Colonel Harlan Sanders made 1008 sales call before a restaurant agreed to buy his recipe for fried chicken. If Sanders hadn’t persisted through over 1000 rejections, then KFC (a restaurant franchise with that earns about a half-billion dollars in revenue per year) wouldn’t exist.

Success is a long-term game. Be ready for the long haul.

#9 Visualization is Key

“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up some place else.”

Yogi Berra

When teaching my class to shoot basketball, our gym teacher told us to imagine the basketball going through the hoop. Surprisingly, the trick worked: visualizing a successful shot actually helped us achieve it.

It’s not magic. Visualization makes our goals more real and reminds us of the beauty of our dreams.

#10 Success Starts Today

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.”

Robert Louis Stevenson

No matter what your situation is, you can become a successful person today. You may not be able to reap the rewards yet, but you can start planting the seeds.

I bet you’ve made some pretty big mistakes. But have you ever made a billion-dollar mistake?

If not, then rest easy: the world’s smartest and most successful entrepreneurs have made mistakes far greater than yours. One even made a decision that cost him $45 million bucks.

Learn from their mistakes today so that you don’t repeat them tomorrow.

#1 Steve Jobs Giving Up Control of Apple

Today, we all know that Steve Jobs was one of the greatest CEO’s of all time. Between 1997 and 2011, Steve led Apple to soaring profits with unparalleled charisma, leadership, and eye for innovation. But in the beginning, even Steve didn’t know that he was destined to be CEO of the company that he founded.

That doubt led Jobs to give up executive control of Apple Inc. in 1977 – a decision that would result in Jobs being fired by the company he founded.

Slipping out of his Grasp

Apple was a partnership owned entirely by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak until Jobs lured Mike Markkula out of retirement in 1977. Markkula was a seasoned entrepreneur and angel investor who provided Apple with much needed capital and business expertise.

It was the beginning of Jobs losing control of his own company. By the time Markkula stepped down as CEO in 1983, Jobs wanted control back. He was ready to be CEO. The only problem was that it was no longer Steve’s decision – and the board at Apple Inc. wasn’t too keen on hiring a 28-year-old to run the fast-growing company.

Powerless, Jobs agreed to recruit John Sculley, who was currently the head of Pepsi-Cola. Sculley took the job, but a power struggle between the two strong-willed men ensued.

When the conflict reached a breaking point, Markkula sided with Sculley. Steve Jobs was fired from Apple Inc. in 1985. Sculley had this to say:

Without Steve’s unique vision, Apple soon began to falter. A string of failures in the early 90’s opened the door wide for the competition, specifically Bill Gates and Microsoft.

Lesson Learned:

Steve Jobs wasn’t the most experienced choice for CEO of Apple, but he loved and understood his company better than anyone on the planet.

If you want your startup company to grow, you have to give up some control. But be careful about how much control you give and who you give it to. You don’t want to be in Jobs position, betrayed by the very person who you put in power.

Note: If you want more on what Jobs has done right, check out this article I wrote called 21 Life Lessons from Steve Jobs.

Honorable Mention: Selling stock in Apple

When Apple went public in 1980, Steve Jobs was awarded 7.5 million in Apple shares. When he was fired from Apple, Jobs sold all but one share. (He would have sold all of his shares, but he didn’t want to stop receiving the company’s annual report.)

As of April 2012, with Apple stock trading for over $600, those 7.5 million shares would be worth over $45 billion dollars. That alone is almost as much as the April 2012 worth of the world’s richest man, Carlos Slim ($49 billion).

#2 Bill Gates Ignoring Search Engines

Gates has proved himself a visionary by founding a computer software company in 1975 (Microsoft), pioneering a graphical user interface in 1985 (Windows 1.0), and by introducing millions of Americans to the Internet in 1995 (Windows 95 came bundled with Internet Explorer).

But by 2005, it was clear that Bill had failed to predict a billion-dollar opportunity: the search engine.

Walking Past a Gold Mine

Microsoft introduced MSN Search in 1998, the same year that Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google. Google was fast, innovative, and good at delivering relevant results. MSN Search was none-of-the-above.

Microsoft hadn’t even bothered to develop a search engine of their own. They used results from Inktomi, an existing search engine. Search simply wasn’t a priority. Microsoft was more focused on defeating Netscape Navigator in a battle of the browsers.

Still Searching for Results

By 2002, it was painfully obvious to Gates that search had been a big missed opportunity. Google had earned $348 million in revenue that year. A year later, in 2003, Google almost tripled its revenue to $962 million. Finally, Microsoft started developing a search engine.

The company launched Windows Live Search in 2006 but it failed to compete with Google. In 2009, Microsoft rebranded once again and introduced Bing. Billed as the first “decision engine”, Bing has taken a small bite out of the search market, but it hasn’t been cheap. In the fiscal year ending June 2011, Bing cost Microsoft $2.5 billion more than it earned.

The Lesson:

In 1998, no company had more leverage online than Microsoft. Imagine if Gates had prioritized the development of a great search engine back then: Google would probably be the world’s second biggest search engine.

But since Gates owed all of his success to software, it isn’t surprising that he overestimated the importance of Internet Explorer. Bill said it best himself:

As long as the world is spinning, your industry will keep changing. Just because a strategy worked for your business in the past, don’t count on it being the best method today.

Note: If you want more on what Gates has done right, check out this article I wrote on 10 lessons from Bill Gates.

Honorable Mention: Playing Monopoly

Remember when I told you Bill Gates was determined to defeat Netscape Navigator? He may have been a little bit too determined: in 1998, Microsoft was slapped with a lawsuit alleging that it was in violation of anti-trust laws.

In the case of United States v. Microsoft, the plaintiffs alleged that Microsoft had unfairly restricted the market for competing web browsers by manipulating APIs and bundling Internet Explorer with Windows 95.

The judge initially ruled against Microsoft and ordered that the company be split into two divisions, but after years of litigation Microsoft won an appeal and reached a settlement that allowed the company to continue its operations.

#3 Larry Page Missing Out on Social Networking

Google has done so much right since Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded the search engine in 1998. They’ve monetized carefully, kept things simple, and expanded their services (e.g. Google Maps, YouTube, Gmail).

But just as Bill Gates failed to capitalize on an opportunity to dominate search, Page missed an equally massive opportunity to dominate a coming web revolution: social networking. The worst part is that Page saw the potential of social networks, but he simply didn’t act on it.

Friendster: The Google Network that Wasn’t

Google had offered $30,000,000 to buy the social networking site Friendster in 2003. But Friendster didn’t sell. Larry Page should have used his position as “president of products” to start developing a Google social network right then and there.

But he didn’t. Google didn’t roll out Google Buzz until February 2010. Buzz was discontinued in 2011 to make room for Google Plus, which has also struggled to make a dent in the market.

Looking back on the missed opportunity, Page has expressed regret:

Can you imagine if Google had used its team of developers, mountain of resources, and hundreds of millions of users to launch a social network back in 2004? Facebook wouldn’t have stood a chance. Instead, Google’s on the outside looking in.

Lesson Learned:

Page says that he “knew he had to do something” with social networking. But after Friendster declined to be bought out by Google, Page temporarily gave up on Google having a social network.

Don’t make the same mistake. Next time you absolutely know your business is missing out on a big opportunity, stop at nothing to capitalize on it.

Note: If you want more on what Page has done right, check out this article I wrote on the eight simple rules that Google followed on its way to being the world’s biggest website.

Honorable Mention: Google Wave

Page oversaw the development and release of this real-time collaborative editing application. Wave stumbled out of the gate because it was released before it’s time (the software was buggy).

#4 Mark Zuckerberg Deciding to be the Face of Facebook

Nobody can call Mark Zuckerberg stupid. It took great vision for Mark to imagine Facebook in 2004; it took analytical genius to program it into reality.

But nobody can call Mark charismatic either. Mark is a strong-minded individual. He tends to be very blunt and a little bit arrogant. That’s why it’s surprising Zuckerberg chose to be the public face of his company.

Missteps, Miscues, and Misunderstandings

The above sentence stirred up a small controversy when Zuckerberg posted it on his personal Facebook page in May 2011. Animal lovers found it offensive – even though Zuckerberg was only killing animals because he wanted to reinforce that “a living being has to die for you to eat meat.”

These types of misunderstandings have marred Zuckerberg’s PR career.

In interviews and presentations, Mark has been underwhelming and uninspiring. The worst example may be this interview at the D8 conference in 2010. When facing scrutiny over Facebook’s privacy policy, Zuckerberg stumbled over his words and began sweating so profusely that Forbes wrote a story about it called ‘Great Perspirations’.

Of course, Zuckerberg’s most memorable (and perhaps most damaging) portrayal in the media was in the 2010 film The Social Network. The fictionalized account of Facebook’s rise to online dominance characterized Zuckerberg as ruthless, callous, and cocky – not exactly qualities you want associated with the face of your company.

Lesson Learned:

Zuckerberg is getting better at PR. Lately, he’s been almost charismatic.

And obviously, Facebook is doing just fine with him as the face of the company. People will continue loving Facebook as long as it’s the best way for them to connect with their friends online.

But had Zuckerberg stayed in the shadows and allowed a silver-tongued “Steve Jobs type” in the spotlight, Facebook would have a clearer message and a better brand. The world’s biggest social networks would be more trusted, more loved, and – simply – cooler.

So, as your company grows, remember that you may not always be the best person for the job. Play to your strengths and, in the words of Warren Buffett, stick to your “circle of confidence.”

Note: If you want more on what Zuckerberg has done right, check out this article I wrote on nine ways Zuckerberg has been essential to Facebook’s success.

Honorable Mention: Facebook Beacon

Under Mark’s direction, Facebook has gotten into a lot of hot water for privacy issues. Their strategy seems to be invading their users’ privacy first, asking questions later, and apologizing if necessary.

Facebook Beacon is the most egregious example. Launched in November 2007, Beacon was an aggressive advertisement system that sent information from certain websites back to Facebook.

When users started seeing their online activity automatically posted on their Facebook page, they were surprised and displeased. After a storm of controversy and a class action lawsuit, Facebook shut down the service in September of 2009.

What’s the Common Thread?

Steve Job’s mistake left room for Bill Gates to dominate the personal computer industry. Gates’ mistake left room for Larry Page to dominate the search engine industry. Page’s mistake left room for Zuckerberg to dominate the social networking industry.

Before long, we’ll be talking about the entrepreneur who capitalized on Zuckerberg’s mistakes.

That entrepreneur could be you. Start keeping a close watch on the leaders in your industry with an eye for the opportunities they’re letting slip through the cracks.

If you don’t, then you’re making a big mistake.

Post image courtesy of Opensourceway (http://www.flickr.com/photos/opensourceway/)

What does it take to create the world’s largest online retailer, amass a personal wealth of over $18 billion, and be chosen as Time’s Person of the Year?

Better ask Jeff Bezos.

He’s the founder, chairman, president, and CEO of Amazon.com. But he almost wasn’t. Below, I’ll share Bezos’ amazing story and 15 lessons from his life that you can apply to your own business.

#1 Act

It is only through deliberate action that we can bend the universe to our will.

But there’s a common misunderstanding about action too: that we must know the exact right action to take before doing anything. This way of thinking leads “analysis paralysis” and inaction.

Bezos is not the type to fall into this trap. Though he’s well aware that taking the wrong action will have negative consequences, he doesn’t mind:

In 1994, Jeff Bezos was faced with the biggest decision of his life: should he quit his “well-paying” job as NYC hedge fund manager to create an online bookstore… or should he stay put?

He decided to drive across the country and buy the domain rights to Amazon.com. The rest is history.

As Amazon has grown, Bezos has encouraged his employees to err on the side of action. Sometimes this has resulted in pure brilliance (the development of one-click shopping). Other times it has resulted in total failure (the development of Amazon Auction, which couldn’t compete with Ebay).

Bezos doesn’t mind the occasional misstep:

It’s all part of the Amazon company philosophy. Bezos lists having a “bias for action” as one of Amazon’s six core values.

#2 Minimize Regret

When Bezos was debating whether or not to quit his day job and start Amazon.com, he realized that he lacked an analytical framework for making big life decisions. So he made one up:

In this big-picture perspective, the right decision was clear. He wouldn’t regret losing his job at the age of 80 (surely he would have found another good job by then), but he would still be kicking himself for not cashing in on the online gold rush (at that time, the Internet was growing at a rate of 2300% per year).

Give Bezos’ “regret minimization framework” a shot for yourself. You may be surprised what action it inspires you to take.

#3 Grow Slow

How long should it take before a startup becomes profitable? Maybe six months?

For Jeff Bezos and Amazon.com, it took over six years. Even then, the company made only about $5 million in profit out of revenue of over $1 billion.

That might seem like a long time (and a razor-thin margin), but it all went according to Bezo’s unusually slow-paced business plan. Bezos was in no hurry to rake in a profit because he wanted keep prices low while reinvesting as much revenue as possible back into the company.

This strategy frustrated investors in the short-term but it paid off in a big way when Amazon survived the bursting of the dot-com bubble and started posting bigger profits quarter after quarter.

#4 Encourage Word of Mouth

When Bezos started Amazon he didn’t have a marketing budget. The only way his company would succeed was if it was so good that it spread by word of mouth.

There’s no better way for a business to grow than through positive word of mouth. The only way to achieve that is to deliver a product or service that’s worth talking about. Part of that means providing excellent customer service…

#5 There is Nothing More Important than the Customer

Everybody knows that the customer is always right. But Bezos and Amazon have taken the customer-first philosophy to the extreme. For Bezos, customer satisfaction isn’t just everything, it’s the only thing. It’s the very foundation of his business model:

Bezos considers customer service to be Amazon’s biggest competitive advantage:

The customer experience has never been more important than it is online. Word of mouth spreads quickly on social networks and your competitors are always just one click away. If you want your brand to thrive online, focus like a laser on customer satisfaction.

#6 Charge Less

Some companies are always trying to find ways to charge you more. Just think of all the extra fees that airlines and car dealerships tack on to the advertised price.

Amazon could probably make a killing with this strategy, but they don’t. Instead, Bezos tells his employees to find ways to cut costs and increase efficiency so that they will be able to charge their customers even less.

It’s easy to raise revenue by raising your prices, but it can also lead customer dissatisfaction (which will lower your revenue in the long run).

Before you charge more, do everything possible to make your business model cheaper and more efficient. You’ll help your bottom line and you may even be able to charge your customer less. That’s win-win.

#7 Never Stop Innovating

Normal human beings fear change. Jeff Bezos is more afraid of becoming stagnant.

His tendency to push the envelope has given Amazon.com a reputation as a nimble, always-evolving company.

Amazon started out simply selling books, but it hasn’t stopped expanding since its inception. Today, Amazon sells just about everything – but it also creates its own products, offers a host of web services, and even delivers groceries to your door (if you live in Washington).

#8 Be Flexibly Stubborn

Bezos is a man who understands the value of a good paradox.

It seems impossible to be both stubborn and flexible at the same, but that’s exactly what Amazon is. Bezos explains:

Stubbornness and flexibility are both valuable traits. Like just about anything things in life, the key is finding a middle road between the two.

#9 Be Realistic

One of my favorite quotes is from Will Smith: “Being realistic is the most commonly traveled road to mediocrity.” The idea is that if you never allow yourself to imagine an extraordinary life, there’s no way you’ll ever obtain one.

On the other hand, it’s possible to dream a little bit too wildly – and I think this affliction is particularly common with entrepreneurs. If you expect overnight success with minimal effort, you’re setting yourself up for never-ending frustration and disappointment.

As Bezos points out, being realistic about your business is also a way to ease the pressure of being an entrepreneur:

#10 Imitate

It’s good to be unique. But it’s even better to put a unique twist on something that’s already been proven to work.

Don’t turn a blind eye to your competitors. Chances are they’re doing something you could learn from.

#11 Work Backwards

How do you develop a product that’s guaranteed to sell?

The best advice I’ve heard is to first figure out what your customers truly want and need. Provide that with your product and you’ll have no trouble selling it.

This is a strategy that Amazon has implemented many times, most famously with the Kindle e-book reader. Bezos explains:

In 2006, Amazon was an online retailer – not a maker of handheld electronics. But Bezos recognized that Amazon’s consumers needed a way to read the e-books that they were purchasing from his site. So they worked backwards to meet that need.

When Amazon released the first generation Kindle in November of 2007, it sold out within six hours (and remained out of stock for five months). To this day, Kindle remains the leader in the e-reader category and in November of 2011 they reported sales of “well over” one million sales per week.

#12 It’s Good to be Misunderstood

When you’ve got a business idea that’s destined to change the world (like Jeff Bezos did in 1994) there are bound to be people who just don’t get it. The more revolutionary your thinking, the more likely it is to be misunderstood.

Bezos has particularly thick skin when it comes to this kind of thing:

Amazon never shies away from a good idea because they’re afraid some of their customers won’t like it. According to Bezos, they’ve “always had a lot of skeptics,” but they’re confident in their vision – and confident that they can convert skeptics into believers.

#13 Be Picky About People

One of Amazon’s core values is to have a high hiring bar. That means they only bring on a new employee if he/she is a perfect fit.

Bezos is so particular about who he hires because he realizes that great company culture flows naturally from the people who you bring on board. As of April 2012, Amazon.com employs about 56,000 of the world’s best and brightest people.

#14 Be Far-Sighted

Bezos recognizes that “a lot of people believe that you should live for the now.” But he’s says, “I’m just not one of them.”

He recommends that people “think about the great expanse of time ahead of you and try to make sure that you’re planning for that in a way that’s going to leave you ultimately satisfied.”

The Benefits of Long-Term Business

Amazon is a company that will sacrifice guaranteed profits today in hopes of scoring even bigger profits decades from now. Bezos has said that “sometimes we measure things and see that in the short term they actually hurt sales, and we do it anyway.”

Here’s his reasoning:

#15 Make History

For us, it seems like Bezos has already reached his zenith – the pinnacle of entrepreneurial achievement. But in his mind, he still has miles to go. He’s openly said that he hasn’t yet built “a lasting company” and that “the Internet in general and Amazon.com in particular, is still in Chapter One.”

Bezos is out to make history. And if you want to find similar success, you’ll have to adopt his “go big or go home” attitude. I’ll leave Bezos with the last words:

The record industry is known for chewing musicians up and spitting them out.

Apparently Jay-Z didn’t get the memo.

In the last 20 years, Jay-Z (a.k.a. Shawn Carter) has amassed a personal worth of $450 million while turning the music business on its head. Sure, he’s had hit records and sold out shows – but the real wealth comes from his businesses (Rocawear and Roc-A-Fella Records).

Keep reading to find out how Jay-Z became not just one of the greatest rappers of all time, but one of the greatest entrepreneurs of the 21^st century.

#1 Hustle

“Without the work, the magic won’t come.”

Jay-Z, from Decoded

Jay-Z was born Shawn Corey Carter in 1969. He grew up in Marcy, a housing project in Brooklyn, New York City. In 1982, Jay-Z’s father left and his mother had to support her family alone. It was by following her example that Jay-Z got his unrelenting work ethic – his hustle.

“Look what I embody: the soul of a hustler.”

Jay-Z, from ‘What More Can I Say?’

There wasn’t a lot of opportunity for ambitious Marcy kids like Shawn. Given the choice between applying for a job at McDonald’s or becoming a drug dealer, he chose the latter. In Brooklyn, that was the definition of a hustler: somebody who hit the streets to sell drugs.

But Jay-Z fit another definition of the word hustler: an energetic go-getter. Even as he continued to work as a dealer, Jay-Z never lifted his eyes from the goal of becoming a great rapper. He and his friend Jaz would lock themselves in a room for hours on end, just working on their technique. It’s that type of hustle that allowed Jay-Z to develop into one of the greatest rappers of all time.

“I’m far from being god, but I work god damn hard.”

Jay-Z, from ‘Breathe Easy’

Now Jay-Z runs legitimate businesses instead of selling illegal drugs, but he’s still got the energy of hustler. More than anything else, that has been the engine behind his success.

#2 Don’t Wait Until You Have Everything You Need

“It just got to a point where it was, like, ‘Make this decision, because this is something you really love and you love to do. It’s time to really focus on and then get serious about it, give it your all.’ And once I did that, it was no looking back from there.”

Jay-Z, Interview with Forbes

Jay-Z didn’t have a drum kit or Pro Tools growing up, but that didn’t stop him from making beats to rap over (he used his fist and a kitchen table).

Likewise, when Jay-Z first started Rock-A-Fella records the company office didn’t have desks, computers, or air-conditioning, but the company still put out hit records and turned a profit.

If you want something badly enough, you can make it happen. Don’t let imperfect circumstances prevent you from executing your goals.

#3 People Help People who Help Themselves

Young Jay-Z’s pounding on the kitchen table annoyed his siblings, but his mom saw something else: a budding passion in her son. She bought her son a boom box for his birthday so that he could continue to grow as a rapper.

If Jay-Z hadn’t shown his drive to improve as a rapper, then his mother never would have splurged on a boom box. Since he did, he received a powerful new gift on his artistic journey.

When people see that you are pursuing a goal, they’ll want to help. But don’t expect any gifts from others until you’re doing everything you can to help yourself.

#4 Carry a Notebook with You

As a budding teenager rapper, Jay-Z always had a pencil and paper on him. He remembers, “If I was crossing a street with my friends and a rhyme came to me, I’d break out my binder, spread it on a mailbox or lamppost and write the rhyme before I crossed the street.”

Whether you’re a writer or an entrepreneur, you never know when inspiration will strike. Make sure you have a way to write it down or record it so you won’t forget.

#5 Don’t Run Your Mouth

Jay-Z was still struggling to break through into the music business when his collaborator, Jaz, got a big record deal from EMI. Jaz was going to London to record and he wanted Jay-Z to come along.

When Jay-Z told his crew about it, their response was less than enthusiastic. They felt like they were being deserted and told him that rappers were just being used by the music industry.

Of course, Jay-Z ignored their negativity, but he also learned a valuable lesson: sometimes it’s best to keep your mouth shut about your aspirations. From then on, Jay-Z says he knew he wanted to get a record deal of his own, but that he “didn’t go around talking about it to even [his] closest friends.”

It’s tempting to share your dreams and goals with people, but be careful not to talk too much. Sometimes even your closest friends and family members won’t be able to see your vision and their response will be discouraging. Actions speak louder than words.

#6 Skills are Transferrable

Jay-Z never went to business school. But that hasn’t stopped him founding $100 million companies and serving as a co-brand director for Budweiser Select.

While others were out getting their MBA, Jay-Z was learning real-life business skills on the streets. He learned sales, management, and promotion on the streets, so it’s no surprise that he slipped comfortably into the many roles of an entrepreneur.

We all have a breadth of experience to draw from. Always keep a look out for how your skills in one field can be used in another.

#7 Know How to Handle Rejection

Jay-Z was turned down by every label in the industry. So did he give up on his dream of becoming a professional rapper? No. He he started his own record label.

Jay-Z was offered a weak endorsement deal from Iceberg Apparel, even though Jay’s shout-outs for the clothing company were boosting their sales through the roof. So did he accept their offer? No. He started a competing clothing line and sold it ten years later for $200 million.

Jay-Z has an amazing knack for bouncing back from rejection. We would all benefit from adopting this mindset.

#8 Make a Plan

When Jay-Z, Damon Dash, and Kareem Burke founded Roc-A-Fella Records in 1994, they drew up a business plan. Jay recalls, “We made short and long-term projections, we kept it realistic, but the key thing is that we wrote it down, which is as important as visualization in realizing success.”

Sometimes we think we know how it’s all going to play out in our head, but there’s something powerful and clarifying about actually writing things out.

If you haven’t already put together a short business plan, do it today. You don’t have to follow it exactly (in fact, you probably shouldn’t) but having made a plan and wrote it down is invaluable.

#9 Don’t Take Your Eyes off the Prize

“You can want success all you want, but to get it, you can’t falter. You can’t slip. You can’t sleep. One eye open, for real, and forever.”

Jay-Z, Decoded

It’s a common story in the entertainment industry: an up-and-coming artist gets a little taste of success and then everything comes crashing down when they get caught up in the lifestyle (i.e. parties, drugs, and alcohol).

The same thing happens to entrepreneurs. Letting a little bit of success coax you into laziness or over-indulgence is an easy way to run your fledgling business into the ground.

Jay-Z’s music and business career took off at simultaneously but he managed to keep a level head. Even when he was selling drugs, he wasn’t using them. Even though he rapped about champagne and margaritas, he was only a light drinker. Jay prefers to be sober so that he can, “stay focused on making money.”

It’s this ability to resist temptation that has allowed Jay-Z to turn his initial success into a business empire that will likely be around long after he’s gone.

#10 Dream Enormous

“I’d rather die enormous than live dormant.”

Jay-Z, from “Can I live”

As a poor kid growing up in a housing project, nobody ever told Jay-Z he could one day be worth $450 million or that he would pack Madison Square Garden.

But he did have a sixth-grade teacher named Miss Lowden who “must have seen something” in young Shawn Carter. That little show of support gave Jay-Z the confidence to imagine a life beyond the projects.

Accomplishing enormous goals starts with the ability to imagine them and the willingness to pursue them.

Jay-Z’s Five Biggest Accomplishments

(1)    14-time Grammy Winner (1999-2012)

(2)    Became President and CEO of Def Jam Records (2004)

(3)    Jay-Z sold his portion of Rocawear for $204 million (2007)

(4)    Most Number One Albums for a Solo Artist on the Billboard 200 (11)

(5)    Two Albums ranked in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time

#11 Art and Business Can (and Should) Co-Exist

The other part of “commercialization” is the idea that artists should only be thinking about their art, not about the business side of what we do… [but] when I committed to a career in rap, I wasn’t taking a vow of poverty. I saw it as another hustle, one that happened to coincide with my natural talents and the culture I loved. I was an eager hustler and a reluctant artist. But the irony of it is that to make the hustle work, really work, over the long term, you have to be a true artist, too.”

Jay-Z, from Decoded

There’s a good reason people think of art and business as mortal enemies. When money starts to influence creative decisions, the art suffers.

But Jay-Z’s proven that art and business can actually benefit one another when combined carefully.

#12 Demand Respect

“Either love me or leave me alone.”

Jay-Z, from ‘Public Service Announcement’

In 1999, Jay-Z won his first Grammy award: Best Rap Album for “Vol. 2… Hard Knock Life.”

But he was nowhere to be found at the ceremony that night. Jay-Z had boycotted the Grammys because he “didn’t think they gave the rightful respect to hip-hop.” So even though attending the event would have been good for Jay’s career, he passed it by.

“He who does not feel me is not real to me.”

Jay-Z, from ‘H to the Izzo’

It wasn’t the first time Jay-Z made such a stand.

Since his first album, Jay-Z had been mentioning Cristal (a luxury brand of champagne). But when Frederic Rouzaud, the managing director of the company, disrespected the “bling lifestyle” in The Economist, Jay-Z drew a line in the sand: “That was it for me. I released a statement saying that I would never drink Cristal or promote it in any way or serve it at my clubs ever again.”

Jay-Z clearly has zero tolerance for disrespect – and as a result he’s very rarely disrespected.

#13 Accept Help from Mentors

Entrepreneurs and artists tend to be strong-minded individuals. Jay-Z is both, but that hasn’t stopped him from seeking the guidance of a host of mentors through the years.

A good mentor has already been in your position. That means they can see what steps you need to take and what mistakes you must avoid – all while still giving you room to breathe and grow on your own. If you don’t yet have a mentor on your entrepreneurial journey, get one.

Without the role models below, Jay-Z couldn’t have become the entrepreneur, rapper, and championship-caliber performer that he is today.

Some of Jay-Z’s Mentors:

Russell Simmons – Co-Founder of Def Jam Records

“He’d discovered a way to work in the legit world but to live the dream of the hustler: independence, wealth, and success outside of the mainstream’s rule.”

The Notorious B.I.G. – Rapper

“I loved that he described what a lot of hustlers were going through in the streets – dissed and feared by teachers and parents and neighbors and cops, broke, working a corner to try to get some bread for basic s*** – as more than some glamorous alternative to having a real job.”

Michael Jordan – Six-time NBA Champion

“The thing that distinguished Jordan wasn’t just his talent, but his discipline, his laser-like commitment to excellence. That’s something I always respect, especially in people who have great natural talents already.”

[Excerpts from Decoded]

#14 Ignore Trends

In 2009, the hot trend in hip-hop was auto-tune. T-Pain was scoring hit after hit with perfectly-pitched, synthetic vocals (see Flo Rida’s “Low”).

But Jay-Z didn’t jump on the bandwagon. In fact, his big single that year was called “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune).” The song was everything auto-tune wasn’t: dissonant, noisy, and off-pitch.

Watch the video here.

“D.O.A.” won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance. But more importantly, it made a statement and allowed Jay-Z to stay true to himself. As he wrote in Decoded, “You can’t fake whatever the current trend is if it’s not you, because it might work for a second, but it’s a house of sand.”

Following the latest fad isn’t a good strategy for long-term success. You can make a more powerful statement by marching to the beat of your own drum, even if that means standing apart from the crowd.

#15 Start a Blog

In April 2011, Jay-Z dove into a new industry: blogging.

His site, Life + Times features articles on whatever’s on Jay’s mind: music, sports, technology, and fashion. It’s worth checking out just for its sleek, tile-based design.

Why would a rap mogul worth $450 million start a blog?

Jay realized that blogging was more than just another way to speak his mind. Publishing content online allows him to expand his influence and grow a loyal audience – which will ultimately be good for his bottom line.

Note: If you’re a regular Income Diary reader, you probably already have a website. If not, then here’s a guide on how to get started.

#16 Entrepreneurship Empowers You to Change the World

Jay-Z’s success has allowed him to help the world in ways that would never have been possible if he hadn’t become an entrepreneur.

Along with P Diddy, Jay-Z donated one million dollars to aid the people of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005. After meeting with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan in 2006, Jay-Z pledged to help promote awareness of the global water shortage on his upcoming world tour.

In 2008, US presidential candidate Barack Obama asked Jay-Z to help support his campaign. Jay put on a series of concerts to get out the vote. Just like that, Jay-Z had helped elect the first black president in United States history.

If Jay-Z had stayed selling drugs, he would have kept making good money (though he likely would have been caught before long). But he never would have been able to make the positive impact on the world that he has an artist and entrepreneur.

#17 Have an “Empire State of Mind”

“I’m not a businessman. I’m a business, man.”

Jay-Z, from ‘Diamonds for Sierra Leone’

The reason Jay-Z is so much wealthier than other entertainers is because he’s more than just an entertainer: he’s an empire. He has owned night clubs, record labels, clothing lines, restaurants, and he’s currently part-owner of the New Jersey Nets.

More than that, Jay-Z learned quickly what other entrepreneurs are just now learning: that business is more personal than ever. He has said, “My brands are an extension of me. They’re close to me. It’s not like running GM, where there’s no emotional attachment.”

Jay-Z is his business, he’s selling his lifestyle – and we’re buying.

Now that I am, it’s hard for me to ever imagine going back to a normal job.

There are a lot of reasons why I love being an entrepreneur and I’ve listed my top 30 below.

If you’re thinking about becoming an entrepreneur, I hope reading this inspires you to take the plunge. If you’re already an entrepreneur, I hope it reminds you that you have a lot to be thankful for.

#1 You Can Work in Your Pajamas

When you really want to be comfortable, even business casual isn’t casual enough. Online entrepreneurs get to work while wearing sandals, sweatpants, and even their pajamas.

#2 It’s Low-Risk

“If you start with nothing and end with nothing, then nothing was lost.”

Michael Dunlop

Two decades ago, if you wanted to sell a product, you needed a store. If you wanted to offer a service, then you needed office space. If you wanted a platform to promote yourself with, you would have to pay for advertising space.

Starting a business was expensive and therefore risky.

But the Internet has changed things. Instead of paying tens of thousands of dollars a year for real estate, you can pay less than $100 a year for a domain name and hosting. Instead of paying thousands more on marketing, you can start a social media platform for free.

All of this doesn’t guarantee you’ll succeed, but it does mean that you can’t lose much by trying.

#3 Your Work is Your Own

When you work for someone else, all of your efforts go to helping a business that doesn’t belong to you.

As an entrepreneur, your effort goes to increasing the value of something (a business) that you own outright.

Getting a monthly paycheck is great, but it’s a short-term fix compared to developing an asset that can bring you wealth for years and years to come.

#4 There’s Never a Dull Moment

Companies like to hire people to fill one role. As an employee, you’re generally expected to do one thing and do it very well. This may be efficient, but it’s also boring.

Entrepreneurs just starting out don’t have this problem. Instead of filling one role, they must fill all of the roles for their company. In one day, you’ll work as a designer, writer, coder, salesperson, and maybe even janitor (somebody has to clean up).

Playing so many parts is daunting, but it keeps things interesting.

#5 You Learn Something New Every Day

Here’s another benefit to having the varied duties of an entrepreneur: there’s always more to learn.

Even if one day you were able to learn everything involved in making money online, you would wake up the next day and have more to learn. As an online entrepreneur, the better you’re able to keep up with up-to-date technologies, techniques, and trends, the easier it will be for you to be successful.

Personally, I love the sense of progress I get when I learn a valuable new concept or skill. I also like that I’m always challenging my mind and keeping it sharp.

#6 You Can Find Your True Calling

Most people know what they want to do for the rest of their lives by the time they’re five years old. By the time they’re 25 years old, they usually aren’t so sure.

If you’re looking for some clarity on the subject, then you may want to become an entrepreneur. Since it’s such a diverse and self-guided career path, entrepreneurship is a good way to find your true calling.

#7 You Can Beat the Rush

Driving to work with everybody else during rush hour is a waste of time, gasoline, and your patience.

As an online entrepreneur, your morning commute can be the walk from bedroom to your office. If you choose not to work from home, you can still avoid the rush by going to work an hour earlier or later.

#8 More Home Cooking

Employees don’t do a lot of cooking during their lunch break. It’s more practical to go out to lunch at a restaurant or bring a sack lunch.

But as an entrepreneur, you can spend more days working from home and therefore more lunches in your own kitchen. There’s nothing like home cooking: it’s often healthier, less expensive, and more satisfying.

#9 More Sunshine

I live in Fort Collins, Colorado and this last week has seen some unseasonably warm weather. Unfortunately, when I’m stuck inside working during a beautiful day, I tend to be distracted.

So I took mornings off last week to hike, bike, and play basketball. After getting a couple of hours of Vitamin D, I was ready to buckle down for work.

If I had a regular 9-to-5 job, that wouldn’t be possible. I would probably be stuck looking out the window all day.

#10 It Helps Build Your Network

The difference between achieving your wildest dreams and being left in the dust can be as simple as knowing the right person.

Some occupations are better at building your network than others. But you probably won’t make a ton of connections while working in the same office every day year after year.

Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, are always meeting new people. They have to reach out to potential clients, customers, and partners if they want to keep their business moving forward. All of that turnover helps entrepreneurs to have some of the biggest (and most lucrative) networks around.

#11 The Internet is Still Growing

As of December 2011, only 32.7% of the world’s population had Internet access.

In the next decade, that number will climb steadily as more and more people gain access. Meanwhile, those two billion of us who already connect to the Internet will likely be doing it more often, from more devices, for longer periods of time.

In other words, the Internet is a healthily growing industry. If you start an online business today, it will enjoy the benefits of that growth.

#12 We’re in a Time of Economic Transition

The last two decades have seen the sharp rise of digital technology and globalized trade. This has shaken up the world economy and left many industries depleted.

It has also created brand new business opportunities for entrepreneurs to capitalize on.

While bigger, older companies struggle to adapt to these changes, a startup can be built from the ground-up to solve today’s problems. A great example of this is Green-back Laptops, which turns a profit in a brand-new industry (recycling computers).

#13 It’s an Employer’s Market

Unemployment rates around the world are high. That’s bad news for employees, who are dealing with more competition and lower wages.

But it’s good news for entrepreneurs, who can benefit from hiring an eager, available workforce to help grow their businesses.

#14 You Can Create Jobs

If your business becomes successful, you’ll want to hire a few employees. The larger your business becomes, the more people you’ll need to hire.

Google was started by only two people but it now employs over 30,000. What would those 30,000 people be doing if it weren’t for Google? Maybe they’d working for another search engine, but they might also be out of work.

#15 It Makes Your Internet Habit Productive

If you’re reading this, I’m guessing you spend a fair amount of time online.

When you’re an online entrepreneur, browsing the Internet becomes part of your job: you benefit from reading relevant articles, networking with people in your industry, and sharing parts of your story on Facebook or Twitter.

If you’re going to be spending your time online anyway, you might as well be doing something productive.

#16 You Can Do What You Love

This may be the single best reason to be an entrepreneur.

Instead of fitting into a box designated by an employer, entrepreneurs can effectively create their own dream-job.

#17 You Can Earn Passive Income

Passive income is money that you earn on a regular basis without having to put in much effort to maintain it. One example of passive income would be the monthly rent check a landlord receives.

Just about everyone loves the idea of passive income because it means that you can make money while you sleep – and use the daylight to do whatever you like.

Because a good website can earn money without much maintenance, online entrepreneurs have the fast track to earning passive income. Some of the ways to do it are by hosting advertisements on your sites, selling products, and developing membership programs.

#18 You Don’t Have a Boss

A great boss is a leader, mentor, and a friend.

A bad boss is hell on earth.

If you don’t want having to risk getting a bad boss then you may like becoming an entrepreneur. You’ll still have responsibilities to other people, but you won’t have to be anyone’s personal underling five days a week.

#19 You Can’t Get Fired

One of the worst things about being an employee is that you never know when you could get the axe. Companies are always looking for ways to cut costs and annual salaries are one of their biggest expenses. Any day, you could go to work with a career and come home unemployed.

As an entrepreneur, you can lose clients, visitors, or followers, but you can never lose your job. Your future is in your hands.

#20 You Don’t Have to Quit Your Day Job

Making money online doesn’t usually happen right away. It takes time to develop a website, product, or following. Even the world’s most successful online entrepreneurs (think Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page) didn’t earn money from their websites for years.

But even though becoming an online entrepreneur is a big time commitment, the time can be spread out over as many days as you like. So, you don’t need to quit your day job. You can keep earning a full-time income and build an online business with your free time.

#21 You Can Quit Your Day Job

At some point, your online business may become so profitable that your 9-to-5 job becomes obsolete. That’s when you put in your two weeks’ notice and become a full-time entrepreneur.

Other than winning the lottery, entrepreneurship may be the best way to never need a “real job” again.

#22 It Teaches You Self-Discipline

Entrepreneurs have to hold themselves accountable. If they don’t, nobody else will.

This is a challenge, but it’s also a great opportunity to flex your willpower. Being your own boss means that you get to practice motivating yourself every day to get things done.

Self-discipline is a rewarding habit. Practicing it daily makes you feel more satisfied and confident in yourself. Of course it’s also the best thing you can do for the success of your business.

#23 You Can Travel the World

When your office is online, you can work from virtually anywhere. As long as you’ve got a power outlet and a connection to the Internet, you’re set.

Some entrepreneurs (like Cody McKibben) take advantage of this and travel the globe year-round. These entrepreneurs are known as ‘digital nomads’. Others just use their location-independence to take the occasional long vacation.

There’s a big, beautiful world out there. Starting an online business gives you a better chance to experience it.

#24 You Can Listen to Your Body Clock

We all have a unique body clock that plays a role in our mood and energy throughout the day.

For me, every night at midnight a switch flicks on in my brain and I become extremely focused, creative, and productive. That time of night is usually when I do my best work.

If I had a typical 9-to-5 job, this productive window would go to waste. One of the big benefits of being an online entrepreneur is that you can listen to your body and work during the times of day when you feel most energized.

#25 You Can Work Four Hours a Week

In “The 4-Hour Workweek”, Timothy Ferriss discusses how to use things like outsourcing, drop-shipping, and Google Adsense to automate your business and work only four hours a week.

This is one of the great entrepreneurial dreams: build a business to the point that it runs without you.

Of course, you can’t start brand-new business, work on it for a few hours per week, and expect to be able to live off of the income. The road to the four-hour workweek is often paved with 50 and 60 hour weeks.

#26 It Encourages Efficiency

Another way to work fewer hours per week is to work more efficiently. The sooner you get today’s project done, the sooner you’ll be able to relax.

The same isn’t true for most jobs. Generally, you get off at the same time regardless of how efficiently you’ve been working. In fact, an hourly wage can actually encourage you to do things slowly because you know you won’t have to work as hard.

Personally, I prefer how entrepreneurship incentivizes efficiency.

#27 It’s Satisfying

It’s hard to define what gives us that sense of satisfaction, but we know it when we feel it. At the end of the day, we either feel happy, content, and satisfied or… we don’t.

In my experience, entrepreneurs are an exceptionally satisfied bunch. This is true even of those who haven’t yet seen very much success.

There’s something about working for yourself, following your own path, and controlling your own destiny that gives a person that happy, contented feeling at the end of the day.

#28 There’s Unlimited Growth Potential

With a traditional job, you move forward by receiving raises and promotions. These are good ways to get ahead, but they’re all incremental forms of growth. You’re not going to be the secretary one week and the CEO the next.

Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, can experience big breakthroughs and sudden leaps in success. You could make $100 one week and $10,000 the next.

The knowledge that your business could explode overnight is part of what makes being an online entrepreneur so exciting.

#29 You Can Influence the World

As an employee, it’s easy to feel like a cog in a machine. You’re producing results for the company, but you’re not making your individual mark.

Entrepreneurs build businesses that reflect their goals and values. Their businesses entertain, inform, and help people, and in doing that they shape the world.

#30 You Can Leave a Legacy

I don’t know the meaning of life, but I do know that we all want for our life to have mattered.

You don’t have to start a business to do that. Raising a family, becoming a teacher, or simply being a good friend are all fine ways of leaving a legacy.

But if you really want to “put a dent in the universe,” then you may want to become an entrepreneur.

That’s what gave Steve Jobs the platform to change the way we think about technology. It’s also what gave Bill Gates the opportunity to dedicate his life to giving back (through The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation).

Simply put, a business is a powerful thing. When you create one, you create the possibility to provide huge value for people all around the planet. Build your business to last and it will keep making a difference even after you’re gone.

What’s your reason?

Did any of these 30 reasons jump out at you and make you think, “That’s why I decided to become an entrepreneur?”

Or did I neglect to mention your favorite reason?

Either way, illuminate me in the comment section below.

And if you’re not yet an entrepreneur, I’ll give you one more reason become one: you can start right now.

Images Courtesy of

http://www.flickr.com/photos/visualpanic/,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/justinandelise/,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hlkljgk/,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/superfantastic/,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/schristia/.

There’s nothing wrong with being a little selfish.

When you own your own business, you have complete responsibility for all of its operations. You have to look after their own best interest first and foremost.

But the more generous you are with your time, energy, and expertise the easier it will be to accomplish your personal goals. The more you give, the more you get.

Don’t believe me? Keep reading and I’ll explain.

Helping People is the Key to Success

“It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

There’s a common misconception that in order to get ahead in business, you have to lie, cheat, steal, and otherwise step on a lot of other people on the way up.

That may be true in the corporate world, but the opposite is true with most businesses. The more people a company helps, the more people will patronize that company and share it with their friends and colleagues.

“The easiest way to get what you want is to help others get what they want.”

Deepak Chopra

The more value you provide, the more you’re worth. So focus your business effort on helping other people and businesses succeed.

People Tend to Return Favors

There are certain rules that we all follow.

In Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert Cialdini discusses something that he calls the rule of reciprocation. According to Cialdini, “The rule says that we should try to repay, in kind, what another person has provided us.”

I’m sure you’ve felt that powerful sense of obligation when someone goes out of their way to do something nice for you. You feel instinctively compelled to balance the scale with a return favor of your own.

This feeling of indebtedness goes back to the earliest stages of human society, when people began sharing resources and skills in order to thrive. Today, there’s not a single human society that doesn’t follow the rule of reciprocation (according to the research of sociologist Alvin Gouldner).

How can you apply this in your business? Go above and beyond when working with other companies. Provide a service for free or promote them without asking for anything in return. When the time is right, those businesses will do whatever they can to return the favor.

Giving opens up your Network

Nothing has contributed more to the growth of my personal business than my network. Almost all of our clients have come from personal connections or referrals.

The larger and more powerful your network, the easier it will be for you to achieve success. But how do begin making meaningful connections – especially with people who are higher-up on the food chain than you?

One way is to make an introduction to somebody in the form of a generous gift.

I can tell you a story about this method of networking that illustrates how it can be effective:

A couple of years ago, the website of an influential technology blogger was taken down by a hacker. The top-tier blogger was lamenting his site’s crash on Twitter when he received a message from one of his followers.

The follower was a young programmer and he had decided to look at the website to see how it had been hacked. He presented the blogger with exact instructions for how to prevent another hacker from taking the site down in the future.

That advice was worth thousands of dollars to the blogger, but the programmer didn’t ask for anything in return. Instead, he earned himself a high-profile connection. You can try the same thing to establish valuable new business relationships in your field.

Word Spreads Fast

Doing business is commonplace. It happens every day.

Being given something is a little bit more exceptional. The exchange becomes a story that we’re more likely to share with friends and colleagues.

Just last week, I was given a stick of Bruce Spruce’s “man balm.” A few hours later, I found that I was telling my friend about receiving the lip balm. Without even realizing it, I was doing word of mouth marketing for this company.

A good story is also at the core of journalism. As you read this, thousands of magazine and newspaper writers are frantically searching for a story to meet tomorrow’s deadline.

Every business would like that next article to be written about them. Periodicals have huge readerships, so being featured in one generates new leads and a burst of traffic to your website.

But offering a product or a service for a price isn’t much of a story. Giving away that product or service to a worthy cause, on the other hand, is much more newsworthy. When your business takes part in a charitable deed, you increase your chances of being featured in the press.

So if you’re looking to raise your profile, try giving back to your local community. Not only will word spread about your business, the story will be about making it a positive impact.

Karma

“No man who continues to add something to the material, intellectual and moral well-being of the place in which he lives is left long without proper reward.

Booker T. Washington

Karma is an ancient Indian concept that links a person’s actions to their destiny. In western culture, it’s often understood as “what goes around comes around” or “you reap what you sow.”

Some people seem to think of karma as a spiritual scoreboard that keeps track of our every deed. Everything we do, good or bad, is perfectly accounted for and dealt back to us in time. If this were true, then we could just give, give, give and then sit back and wait for karma to come calling with a heap of great stuff in return.

You may not believe in karma as an all-knowing spiritual force, but you have to recognize that events are not isolated. When something good happens, it tends to cause more good things to happen, which in turn cause even more good things to happen… and on and on and on. Unfortunately, the same is true of negative events.

When you realize that events are interlinked, you begin to realize how important it is to be kind and compassionate in your daily life. If you’re always doing good actions, then your whole life will be surrounded by patterns of positive events. Even though you may not always see the benefit of your good actions, you will have good karma overall.

Giving Makes You Happy

When we’re happy, we’re more productive. As entrepreneurs, we’re the engine of our businesses, so it’s especially important that we stay happy and productive.

One measurement of happiness is the level of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Natural methods of raising serotonin involve exercising regularly, eating certain foods (e.g. almonds), and performing acts of kindness.

That’s right: making other people happier makes us happier.

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”

Dalai Lama

Next time you’re feeling down on your business, try giving a little bit of time and energy to do something nice for somebody else.

It Makes the World a Better Place

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

Anne Frank

Up to this point, all my reasons have gone back to personal benefit. I’ve tried to explain how acting in the interest of others is really acting in self-interest. In other words, I’ve been appealing to that always-loud voice in our heads that asks, “What’s in it for me?”

But the best reason to be a more giving entrepreneur isn’t selfish at all.

As entrepreneurs, we have a great deal of power. We have the resources of our businesses, our online platform, and we have our personal skillset. Together, that means the capability to bring big ideas together and turn them into realities.

The world needs entrepreneurs – and the more of us who are actively giving our time and expertise, the better place the world will be for everyone.

Stock in Apple Inc. was trading at a ten-year low ($13 per share). The Macintosh was outdated, the Newton had flopped, and Apple’s board of directors had just ousted their second CEO in as many years.

It looked like Apple would be obsolete by the millennium.

But you know the rest of the story: Steve Jobs took the reins in 1998, unveiled the iMac, and proceeded to guide Apple through an unprecedented period of growth and profitability.

Last week, stock in Apple Inc. surpassed $500 per share for the first time – which makes it the world’s most valuable company. Below, I’ll explain four ways Apple climbed to the top of Wall Street and how you can apply the same strategies with your business.

Apple Targeted Emerging Markets

Apple has been developing products for emerging markets since they first started in 1976. Of course, back then the personal computer was still in an emerging market.

A lot has changed in the last 35 years, but Apple continues to focus its efforts on markets that are new – and therefore less competitive. Their products aren’t usually the first of their kind, but they are almost always the first to get it right.

Take the iPod. It wasn’t the first portable mp3 player, but it was the first to be intuitively designed and well-marketed.

The same could be said of the iPhone for the smart phone market and the iPad for the tablet market. Apple has come to dominate these niches that are now well-developed and very lucrative.

Pioneering New Frontiers

You don’t have $10 million to spend developing innovative technologies, so how are you going to stand a chance in an emerging market?

It’s not as hard as it sounds.

In the world of online entrepreneurship, there’s a new market emerging every week. Mobile marketing, online video production, and social media services are all growing fields that aren’t going anywhere any time soon.

Apple Cultivated Recurring Revenue

True wealth doesn’t come from launching one big product or making one big deal. It comes from tapping into streams of revenue that keep producing profits month after month. Nobody is better at this than Apple.

It started in 2001 with iTunes, a free music player with a built-in store. Ever since, Apple has been raking in hundreds of millions of dollars a year from iTunes sales of music, movies, and books.

In 2008, Apple introduced the App Store. It has been even more lucrative than iTunes, since Apple gets 30% of every app sale.

Then there’s the mobile market. Verizon and AT&T love Apple because their iPhones are great at inspiring customers to pay extra every month for a data plan.

With all of these different sources of recurring revenue, Apple wouldn’t have to launch another product and they would still be making money for years to come.

How You Can Earn Recurring Revenue

Recurring revenue isn’t just for tech industry giants.

The best example of recurring revenue online is membership sites. The concept is simple: in order to gain access to an online resource (videos, guides, and forums), users must agree to pay a recurring fee.

Another way to make a monthly income is by attracting companies to put advertisements on your website. If you take good care of your advertisers, they’ll keep paying you for space on your site for as long as you want.

If you’re like me and you offer an online service, consider offering your clients a monthly maintenance program – or just a longer contract with more deliverables.

Apple Embraced Luxury Culture

Why is it that Apple has never offered a budget laptop?

Companies like Dell and Gateway have long been “racing to the bottom,” trying to provide the best value at the lowest price.

But Apple has stayed above the fray. The cheapest Macbook ($999) is almost three times as expensive as the cheapest laptop HP has to offer.

If Apple offered a budget-priced Macbook, I’m sure it would fly off the shelves. They would make (another) boatload of cash. But they won’t be doing that any time soon.

The reason is simple: they like that their products are considered luxury purchases.

Owning an Apple product has become a social signifier. Pulling out your iAnything indicates that you’re doing well enough financially to splurge on a higher-priced gadget.

Don’t Race to the Bottom

People tend to ascribe more value to items with higher prices. So think twice about trying to have the lowest price in town.

If you’re offering a product or service, consider having one luxury option. It will make your standard prices seem low in comparison.

Better yet, you’ll likely get a few customers who actually want to shell out more money to get something luxurious.

Apple Built a Brand

We’ve all witnessed Apple-mania first hand.

The phenomenon is widespread: Fortune magazine has named Apple the world’s most admired company for the last four years (2008 to 2011).

It all comes down to their brand – which Apple has artfully developed since their inception.

Their former tagline, “Think Different,” didn’t just sell computers; it sold a counter-culture.

Apple has also built their brand through consistent design. From the iMac on, every major Apple product has had the same leading designer, Jonathon Ive. That means that there has been a unified vision behind the design of the iPod, Macbook, iPhone, iPad, and more.

Of course, a brand is so much more than a name, marketing campaign, or aesthetic. The real substance of Apple’s brand comes from the perception that their products are intuitive, reliable, and powerful.

What’s in a name?

It’s no secret that Apple has fostered their brand by using similar product names: iPod, iMac, iThis, iThat. All Apple has to do is put a lowercase ‘i’ in front of a one syllable word and they’re set.

You can use a similar tactic to create your own brand identity.  If you’re choosing a name for your company or for your next product, think about using a distinctive word that will be versatile. That way, you will be able to use variations of it in future.

Will Apple Stay on Top of the World?

According to the laws of physics, what comes up must come down.

Some doubt that Apple will continue to innovate without the guidance of Steve Jobs. Others think they will lose ground in the less affluent global markets that are increasingly purchasing consumer electronics. And lately Apple has come under fire again for its labor practices.

Apple will be facing its fair share of challenges in 2012 and beyond. But the underlying principles at the core of the company make me believe Apple will still be the world’s most valuable company this time next year.

They’re just nice enough to let us live in it.

When Larry Page and Sergey Brin launched Google out of a dorm room in 1998, they had no idea that it would one day employ 32,000 people, process one billion searches a day, and earn over US$30 billion a year.

What they had, instead, were some very non-traditional thoughts on how to run a business.

Rule #1: Stay Simple

Google’s home page is a perfect example of the company’s commitment to simplicity.

For Google, simple means faster, easier to use, and higher quality.

That’s why software developers who work at Google are taught that the best products “include only the features that people need to accomplish their goals.” When they’re creating a new product, they don’t try to stuff it full of as many features as possible.

“Simplicity is powerful.”

Google Company Philosophy

What a Tangled Web We Weave…

For some reason, it’s human nature to make things more complex than they need to be. As a writer, I’m always resisting the temptation to use long words and complex sentences.

But simple writing is usually more effective – and the same goes for business models. 

Rule #2: Collaborate

The first day Larry Page met Sergey Brin, they got into a long argument. According to Page, they “both really disliked each other.”

But their studies at Stanford soon led them to respect one another as intellectual peers. It was this mutual respect that brought them together in 1995 to collaborate on Page’s doctoral thesis: an algorithm that could rank websites based on their shared hyperlinks.

Even though it was Page’s idea (hence the name PageRank), he couldn’t have created the algorithm without the mathematical wizardry of Sergey Brin. Without a math prodigy like Brin on board, Google might have been just another thesis.

It was the joining of two very strong brains and personalities that made the algorithm what it was: a search engine so effective that it put Lycos and Excite to shame.

Google’s PageRank system rocket-propelled Page and Brin to the top of the upper echelons of Silicon Valley. Suddenly, their little search algorithm was duking it out with industry titans like Yahoo! and Microsoft… and winning.

Part of the reason for Google’s success was the collaboration they encouraged among their employees. Since the beginning, they’ve implemented something called open source software development, “where innovation takes place through the collective effort of many programmers.”

But as the company grew even larger, Page and Brin realized that they had to bring another brain into the trust: this time, someone who could lead Google as a corporation and offer the boys “adult supervision.” In 2001, they hired Eric Schmidt as CEO and began running Google as a triumvirate. Schmidt started running Google like a business – and acquired YouTube in the process.

Even though Schmidt has since stepped down as CEO, he still serves as Google’s executive chairman, and Google continues to emphasize a spirit of collaboration in all they do.

Going it alone?

Having a partner to collaborate with isn’t a requirement. Many very successful businesses are founded, owned, and operated by one person.

With that said, two complementary business partners will motivate one another, brainstorm innovative ideas together, and each allow the other to do what they’re best at.

I can speak from personal experience on this subject. My business partner has been absolutely essential to our company’s success and I feel thankful for him daily.

Rule #3: Great Just isn’t Good Enough

“We see being great at something as a starting point, not an endpoint.”

Google Company Philosophy

When Google launched its search engine in 1998, it was already great. The PageRank algorithm was simply better than the competition, which focused too much on words and often returned irrelevant results.

It was this greatness that allowed Google to grow without spending millions on a marketing campaign like Yahoo! and Ask Jeeves. Google was so great that it spread almost entirely by word of mouth.

But great wasn’t good enough. Google believes, “It’s best to do one thing really, really well.” So, instead of spreading out into different industries, the company kept perfecting their search engine.

“The ultimate search engine would basically understand everything in the world, and it would always give you the right thing. And we’re a long, long ways from that.”

Larry Page

The above quote is from 2004, by which point Google had cemented their position as market leader. Not only were they the world’s top search engine, they were about to unleash their IPO to a market capitalization of a cool US$23 Billion.

But even at that point, Larry Page was not ready to rest on his laurels. As he said, they were a “long, long ways” from where they wanted to be.

Thanks to this attitude, Google has been churning out big improvements to its search engine year after year. Innovations (i.e. the spelling suggestions Google gives you when you misspell a word) are a big part of the reason they’re still the world’s top search engine.

How Can You Improve?

I don’t care how good you are at what you do, you can always get better. That’s why I’ve suggested that you spend 20 minutes actively learning every day. 

Rule #4: Give Value for Free

“Our goal is to develop services that significantly improve the lives of as many people as possible.”

Larry Page and Sergey Brin

People don’t expect to have to pay for much of anything online. But that’s not a problem for Google, which offers more free value to their users than any other online company.

Just think of all of their free software and services: Gmail, Google Docs, Google Analytics, Google Website Optimizer, Google Earth, Google Chrome… the list goes on and on.

Collectively, these products have cost Google millions and millions of dollars to develop. Some, like Gmail, generate revenue through advertising, but many do not make Google any money at all.

What they do is more important: build brand loyalty. Thanks to all they’ve given away, Google has an army of devotees eager to use their latest services, share them with their friends, and shell out cash when Google releases something that actually costs money (like a Chromebook).

Count me among the converts: I’ve been so impressed with Gmail and Google Chrome that I just assume everything Google does meets a high standard of quality.

Giving / Receiving

When people receive something of great value for free, it instills in them a sense of gratitude to the giver. It’s human nature to want to return the favor.

Start being more giving with your business and you will find that you’re getting more referrals, making more sales, and getting a warmer response on social networks.

Rule #5: Protect Your Market

Nikola Tesla was one of the greatest inventors of his time. He laid the foundation for radio communication, wireless technology, and electric power. Without his advances, Google couldn’t exist.

Yet Tesla died with hardly a penny to his name.

When Larry Page read a biography of Tesla as a kid, he learned an invaluable lesson: protect what makes you valuable. This is an especially difficult task if your value comes from easy-to-steal ideas.

As CEO of Google, Page has been sure not to follow in Tesla’s footsteps. Google has kept a close guard on their big competitive advantage: the PageRank algorithm that Page and Brin had labored over as graduate students at Stanford University.

While Stanford actually owns the PageRank patent, Google bought the exclusive rights to use it for 1.8 million shares of stock (later sold by Stanford for $336 million).

No other company is able to use their patented method for ranking pages. That’s a big reason Google still sits at the top of the heap.

In recent years, Google has been more active working with the government to protect their interests. They spent about US$10 million on lobbying the US government in 2011 and took part in a successful campaign to deter the SOPA/PIPA legislation in January 2012.

How to Protect Your Big Idea

Every idea is different and there’s a good chance that yours won’t require a patent.

But that doesn’t mean you need to be telling your competition your secret formula:

“There are two rules for success. 1) Never tell everything you know.”

Roger H. Lincoln

Rule #6: No Hype Necessary

“Part of our brand is that we’re pretty understated in what we do. If you look at other technology companies, they might preannounce things, and it will be a couple years before they really happen, and they don’t happen in the way they said they would.

Google tends to release things without announcing them in beta, or whatever. We wait until they get really big and really good, then we start talking about them. And so that’s a really different way of doing business.”

Larry Page

Google doesn’t do hype. They let their innovative products and services speak for themselves.

I’ve met a lot of entrepreneurs who talk a big game. They’d have you believe that they’ve got all of the most important connections and that their next project is the next big thing. Talk to those same entrepreneurs in six months and chances are that last project fizzled out and they’re already onto talking up the next one.

Talk is cheap. It’s always better to let your accomplishments speak for themselves.

Three Good Reasons Not to Hype Yourself Up:

You Make a Stronger First Impression

Everybody knows how important first impressions are. When somebody’s first impression of your project is you talking about it before it’s ready, then you wasted that first impression on mere talk.

It’s tempting to tell all of your friends, relatives, and colleagues about your brilliant idea. But think about how much more powerful it will be if you wait until your project is completed, successful, and has a few mentions in the media.

Be patient – and wait until the time is just right to share your business with the world.

You Don’t Box Yourself In

Until a project is set in stone, it should always be evolving. Keeping quiet also allows you to be more versatile with your business.

If you realize that it would be better to evolve in a slightly different direction than you had initially planned, you don’t want to be constrained by the expectations of the people who already know your original plan.

You Increase Your Commitment

At a more personal level, talking up your plans too much can actually make you less likely to follow through with them.

When we tell someone what we hope to achieve, we feel some of the satisfaction of actually accomplishing that goal – and it actually makes us less hungry to pursue them.

Rule #7: Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously

“You can be serious without a suit”

Google Company Philosophy

Google may be the world’s most powerful website, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have a little bit of fun. Since 2000, Google has been playing April Fool’s Day jokes on the world.

Their first prank was a new search feature called Google MentalPlex – which claimed to scan your “personal aura and brainwave activity” and then determine which website you were trying to reach.

In 2002, they “revealed” that their search results were determined by “data coops” full of trained pigeons. They’ve since announced job openings on the moon and unveiled a sports drink called Google Gulp. Sounds tasty.

Google’s actually ramping up their pranks. In 2011, they pulled a whopping 17 of them on April 1^st.

Why does Google spend so much time joking around? The pranks earn Google plenty of press and a small bump in traffic. But more importantly, it brings a sense of fun and real personality to their brand – both for their users and for their employees.

Nobody Likes a Robot

When you interact with somebody online, they could be all the way on the other side of the globe. Just because you’re distant from one another, that doesn’t mean you have to act distantly.

Every website visitor, every Facebook sharer, and every email subscriber is a flesh-and-blood person, just like you. A personal touch goes a long way.

#8: Don’t Be Evil

“We have a mantra: don’t be evil, which is to do the best things we know how for our users, for our customers, for everyone. So I think if we were known for that, it would be a wonderful thing.”

Larry Page

In a 2004 meeting, Google employees were brainstorming an unofficial company motto. Suggestion after suggestion was met with little enthusiasm. Then one finally stuck: “Don’t Be Evil.”

Big companies like Google can often make more money in the short-term by taking advantage of their customers and employees, damaging the environment, or ignoring human rights. Google’s adoption of the “Don’t Be Evil” motto meant that they were committed to being a different type of company – one guided by a strong moral compass.

This philosophy has had a big impact on Google’s ad policy. Their search results only turn up relevant ads, clearly marked as “sponsored.” They also refuse to use pop-up ads or any other flashy ads that would interfere with “your ability to see the content you’ve requested.”

Google also does good through philanthropy. In 2004, they launched Google.org, a not-for-profit organization that looks to solve the problems of global health, poverty, and climate change.

“We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served – as shareholders and in all other ways – by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short term gains.”

Larry Page and Sergey Brin

Still Not Evil?

Absolute power corrupts absolutely – and Google has become very, very powerful in the last few years. In 2009, Google quietly dropped “Don’t Be Evil” as their official motto.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that Google’s gone to the dark side. The slogan was simply attracting too much negative attention.

The company has drawn criticism for allowing their search results to be censored in China and for making a deal with Verizon that some journalists considered damaging to net neutrality.

Today, in 2012, Google is getting a ton of heat for their new privacy policy, which will allow the company to more easily merge personal information it has collected from across its many platforms. This means more powerful, targeted advertisements and more money for Google, but it also represents a new low in online privacy.

Do Good, Make Money

“You can make money without doing evil.”

Google Company Philosophy

We could argue all day about whether Google’s doing a good job of practicing what it preaches. It’s a worthwhile conversation to have, especially given than an immense amount of our personal data sits on Google’s servers.

But here’s something where, in my opinion, there’s no room for debate: doing good is good business.

It’s not just about being a better person or getting that warm, fuzzy feeling; businesses that do good are simply more likely to be successful in the long haul.

Do You Follow Google’s 8 Simple Rules?

Google’s principles are pretty idealistic. I think this explains why they’ve become so popular but also why they sometimes have trouble living up to their own values.

Take a moment to reflect on our own businesses. Are there any of the rules above that you think your business does a great job of embodying? Are there any areas where you think you could improve by being a little bit more like Google?

Personally, I see a lot of Google in my own business (an emphasis on collaboration and a daily desire to improve the service), but there’s still a lot for me to learn (keeping things simple and protecting my share of the market).

This article has left me more energized than ever to apply Google’s principles to my company and my website.

I hope it does the same for you. The more people who follow Google’s lead and create simple, collaborative, value-packed websites, the better off we’ll be.

The New Year is a fresh start.

The person you were last year no longer exists. All that matters is who you are on New Year’s Day and who you become by the end of the year.

January 1^st is a perfect time to make a personal change, but it’s also a perfect time for entrepreneurs to make big changes to their businesses.

The 12 resolutions below are for entrepreneurs hoping to help their business thrive in 2012.

#1 Resolve to Finish Every Project You Start

I’ve written previously about how most entrepreneurs have so many good ideas, that it can be difficult finish one project before starting the next one.

Don’t make that mistake this year. If you decide to develop a business, commit to seeing it through completely.

#2 Resolve to Start Charging Your True Worth

When trying to get your business on its feet, sometimes you have to charge less than your product or service is actually worth. It’s a good way to gain clientele and experience. But it’s not a good way to get rich.

Eventually, you’ve got to start charging clients for the actual value that you’re providing.

If you’ve been working for less than you’re worth, then 2012 is the year to make a change.

#3 Resolve to Keep a Clean Work Space

It’s hard to be productive in an environment that’s cluttered and disorganized.

Look around your work space right now. If it isn’t clean and controlled, then make a commitment now to maintain a focused work space for the next year.

#4 Resolve to Improve Work Systems

When Henry Ford implemented an assembly line in his factories in 1913, he completely revolutionized the automobile industry. By making the production system more efficient, The Ford Motor Company was able to produce more vehicles for less money – and profits went through the roof.

A business is only as efficient as the systems it employs.

Some systems are simple, like the way you organize your inbox. Others are very complex, like your step-by-step approach to completing a project over the course of a month.

We often create systems without much thought and then take them for granted once they’re established. As long as a system works, what’s the point in meddling?

But this is one thing where you really need to put in the extra time and make sure you’re doing things right. Take a step back and look critically at the systems you implement regularly with your business.

Systems are so important because their effect is cumulative. If you improve a system one time, that improvement continues to benefit you every time it’s implemented.

If you haven’t paid much attention to your systems lately, then make a point to focus on them in 2012.

#5 Resolve to Be Authentic

People are spending more time online than ever before. By now, they’re pretty adept at recognizing who’s being genuine and who isn’t.

2012 is a great year to tune out the voice in your head that tells you to pretend to be someone you’re not. Instead, communicate online with your authentic voice. People will take notice and respond.

#6 Resolve to Keep Track of Your Hours

How many hours are you putting into your business a week?

It’s not necessary to have a set schedule or to work eight hours every day. That’s part of the joy of being your own boss. But it is important to be aware of your work hours – and four hour days aren’t going to cut it (at least not at first).

When you begin to keep track of your hours, you start to understand where your time is going and how you could use it more effectively.

If you’re doing freelance work and you’re being paid by the project, this will also help you in pricing your services.

A Time Tracking Tool

There are many applications out there that help you keep track of how you’re spending your time on your computer.

Rescue Time is free software that automatically tracks which programs and websites you’re using throughout the day. Over the course of a few weeks, you begin to get a clear picture of how efficient your computer time is and how it compares to the work habits of others.

At the end of the month, take a look at the data. You may be surprised to realize how much of your time goes to work that doesn’t actually you earn you any income (like answering emails or being active on social media).

#7 Resolve to Redesign Your Website

Even if you’re website is up-to-date now, it won’t be in six months. The Internet keeps changing and the most successful online companies will continue to change with it.

Don’t risk becoming outdated. Make sure you update and improve your website at least once this year.

#8 Resolve to Eat Right and Exercise

Okay, okay – I know these are the two most cliché resolutions in the history of New Year’s. But they’re cliché for a reason.

Eating right and exercising are great resolutions for anyone who operates their own business. It will give you more energy and focus to make the most of your work day.

Of course, it will also make you healthier and it may even help you look better in the bathroom mirror.

#9 Resolve to Spend 20 Minutes Actively Learning Each Day

Solo entrepreneurs must be proficient in many different fields. In any given day, you may work as a designer, marketer, salesperson, and writer.

There’s not always time to master each of these skillsets. When you’re just starting out, sometimes all that matters is that the task is completed. Whether or not it’s completed perfectly is beside the point.

So entrepreneurs tend to become jacks of many trades, masters of none.

The good news is that means there’s a ton of room for improvement. And even if you’re getting by with your current ability-level, honing your skills will make for better and more efficient work.

That’s why it’s such a good idea to spend 20 minutes actively learning every day.

Ways to Learn

Podcasts

This is a great learning solution for the time-crunched entrepreneur. Maybe you’ve got a full-time job, run your business on the side, and you don’t have 20 minutes to spare.

Pop in a pair of headphones and start learning while involved in an activity that doesn’t require your full attention. Suddenly riding the bus, doing the dishes, and exercising are opportunities to become a smarter, better entrepreneur.

Video Tutorials

While audio is a great learning tool, actually seeing something is often the most effective way to understand it. There’s simply no substitute for watching a pro as they complete a task, talking you through every step of the way.

In the last few years, a huge number of quality video tutorials have been posted on YouTube. Simply search for a subject, press play, and start learning.

Video isn’t the best if you’re just looking for a few bits of essential info. You can’t skim a video like a written tutorial. But they’re an ideal method when you need to sit down and learn a process from front to back.

Books

Ink and paper may be old-fashioned, but a big “how-to” book is still one of the best learning resources available.

Even if all of the information within its pages is available online, that’s no replacement for having it right there in your hands. You won’t have to search the web for quality instruction and you can take it with you wherever you go.

A 500-page tome can set be pretty expensive, but the cost is small when you think of it as an investment in your business. Check out your local bookstore or Amazon to find a compendium on whatever subject you want to master.

Refresh, then Rest

If you really want to get the most out of your daily lesson, revisit it for a few minutes right before you go to sleep. If you read an informative article, skim through it again. If you learned a new technique in Photoshop, create something simple with it.

Not only will this reinforce what you learned the first time around, the new knowledge will sit at the fore front of your brain as you prepare for sleep.

Sleep is your brain’s opportunity to organize and store all of the knowledge it gains throughout the day. So you stand a better chance of actually remembering your daily lesson if you revisit it before you call it a day.

If you resolve to devote a little bit of time to learning every day for the next year, you’ll be see a huge improvement in the quality and quantity of your work by the end of the year.

#10 Resolve to Keep Your Resolutions

Every January, people across the world make resolutions to change the way they act.

Every February, many of those resolutions have been broken or forgotten.

It’s only over the course of the whole year that a change can have any real impact. But if you do stick to your resolutions, they will eventually become habits that will improve your life (and business) for years and years to come.

So, the most important resolution you can make is to really stick with whatever changes you decide to make this year.

What’s Your Resolution?

Let us know how you’re going to make 2012 the best year yet.