Complete Course on Entrepreneur Mindset for Entrepreneurship

Schools not only does not teach entrepreneurship, schools mess up the entrepreneur mindset that everyone have.  To a large extent, entrepreneurship is to repair the many damages caused by school.

Schools don't teach effective entrepreneurship.  This is by design.  Schools are meant to train graduates to have a good life holding a job at the companies doing plug-and-play replaceable work.  Schools train work force for companies, not founders to start ones.  If you want to become an entrepreneur, you have to eventually renounce comfort.

Let me shows you the process, and give you some hints on how to be entrepreneur safely.

I was educated at top engineering schools, and was a professor of top schools.  Then I started entrepreneurship, and real learning.

To give an offering to people and receiving compensation is a serious act of independence.  All businesses out there, from Google to your local restaurant, compete to survive and compete to give.  An ordinary effort does not create the demand and satisfy them.  We discuss the competition nature of business.

Correctly understanding the competitive nature will make you understand why so many startups formed by well schooled and smart people fail - it is a new level of competition.  It takes all the book knowledge, and then it takes:

1. Market deep knowledge;

2. Buyer psychology, which is very complex to predict;

3. Planning, hustling, experience (to safe time when time counts), and scheming.

First timers think about what strangers will need tomorrow, real entrepreneurs pay attention to what people DEMAND and what they demand TODAY.  This second mindset ties to the competition mindset.

If you focus on what people will need tomorrow, you will have tomorrow's competition tomorrow.  Entrepreneurship is fought today, for today's customers, for today's demands.

Real entrepreneurs know that customers don't need to buy anything.  Customers don't buy what they need,  don't buy what they want.  Real entrepreneurs approach the startup as relation building.

Steve Jobs discusses with a colleague at a QA session about technology, customer experience and demand creation, and the fun of creating things that people demand, no matter how hard it is.

Here, Elon Musk chime in with Steve Jobs on discussing the importance of "what customers want" and winning the customer's heart.  Business is about making value and creating demand that were not there before - it is nothing but hard work, but ultimately rewarding in the end.

Have you ever wondered why someone decide to pay you?  it is a value proposition accepted, it is sometimes called "traction found".  A business is like a marriage and marriage proposition - it takes a long time to build and maintain that kind of trust and relation.

Make the best, don't try to make the first.  Don't make the first unique original "never before" thing that sounds like a sure bet.

Have you met people who insist on using their unique original ideas that no one has thought of?  there are many such ideation experts - the key is to put the idea to the ground and make the idea run.  Good entrepreneurs build a business based on other people's ideas. 

People and inventors tend to exaggerate the problem in their own mind ... that is why it is important to have the mindset so you are not fooled by your own mind.

There is a saying "there are many ways to succeed, but one way to fail".  There is another saying "there are many ways to fail, but only one way to succeed".  Both are right and both are wrong.  The fact is, there are many ways to succeed, and there are many ways to fail.  Others' success can not be copied.  Others' failures are often unreported and can happen to you.  By the time you encounter a risk, it is often too hard to move out of the danger.

A good entrepreneur had the mindset exercise as a vaccine - they took a controlled a risk so they won't be killed by every failure.  That is the trick.

You can not follow anyone's idea.  Anyone's idea don't work for you. You must find your own way, and survive your own mistakes.  The mindset is your only guide.

Not all stories are big, but even a "small" baserun success is EPIC - here we discuss the anatomy of a web store business and how they position themselves and develop the right strategies.

Steve Jobs discusses his venture with Wozniak to develop the digital phone box that can control the phone network - this is his first taste that ideas can really impact the world.  "Without the blue box, there would not be Apple".

Failure is not a mistake, but many people are afraid of failures.  The failure stories are revealing, but they are often not reported.  People want to hear good news.  However, for many entrepreneurs, knowing quality failure stories, or hard battle stories, or almost failure stories, are important.

We discuss two cases of two tech companies delisted from the NASDAQ stock exchange after IPO - it is shocking because most people won't think that a company would automatically have business, let alone IPO-ed ones.

The verdicts - no customers. No traction, no value proposition acceptance, despite the fame of the founders.  These stories are not easy to find, I only know them because they happened to my friends.

Success is proven in the market place - no amount of planning and advertising can create customers and scaling growth, unless customers allow.  We look at the examples of Angry Bird game (a success after many failures), Bell Picture phone (a failure at the time), and AutoZone (a great success), in this and the coming lectures.

We discuss the case of Picture Phone by Bell, a heavy investment that did not go anywhere.

AutoZone is an American after market car part specialty retailer.  How did it conceive what business to make?

Many failed businesses are never heard of, and only the great successes are propagated in our news media.  Many starting businesses fail and the people never talk about it.  Well, it is important to discuss them.

Critical thinking is rare commodity - as Elon Musk explains.  Critical thinking has three components: 1. Don't believe you are right; 2. Try to prove you are right by doing; 3. Listen to a lot of people and don't listen to a lot of people.

A mindset is how your mind is set.  You must set your own mind - we provide the exercises that you can follow.  Once you do these exercises, you will creatively and critically analyze your situation.  These tests will "force" you to become a business person instantly - which is the point.

Many people do entrepreneurship and gained the mindset.

We advocate getting the mindset first and then do entrepreneurship.

With better results and lower costs.

Once you learned how to do business, you can always do business.

Once you learn how to build business, you can always build any business.

In this exercise, you will build a common webstore and sell common products to common people.  It is called a business.  The buy and sell is the core of business and it is the way to practice the mindset.  Buy somethings from local stores or Costco, and sell them online.  You will learn to become a store owner and a business/marketing chief.  Remember, if you can sell a product, you can sell any product.  Many entrepreneurs can not sell what they built.

There is no need to raise money and build a technology and make a product and then try to sell it.  In this exercise we cut to the chase.

Go to this link for a course on Etsy shop building - learn online selling at no startup cost, and gain the mindset.

https://www.udemy.com/course/etsy-shop-complete-course-to-create-etsy-side-income

Steps for building an online business - briefly discussed here.  More details are not included here to keep the focus tight.  Contact the instructor if you need any personalized discussions.

Is drop shipping real? how do you do that?

It is not enough to have a website.  NO one visit the website, and there are no products stock.

SEO is the art of helping others to find you!  It is deep.  Without SEO, you can be the lated Da Vinci but no one would even visit with you.  SEO is to tell Google "I want to be found under the keyword of xxx".  Here "xxx" could be "inventors", or "Chicago invention", or "genius Chicago".

The five steps to start an online business.

Ten different ways to build an online business.

Detailed suggestions of three steps to become business minded - and then make or do business.  DO business first, then make one.

In this exercise you will build and sell an APP on a platform.  The objective is simple - not for a sure certain success or uniqueness, but get you to FINISH one.  It will let you see the entire flow and gain clarity.

Here we discuss the specific tasks for the APP writer assignment.

Entrepreneurs must unlearn everything our schools and society teach - including views towards innovation, business, money and success.  It is a very deep topic. 

Business is never safe - it is the opposite of the "establishment" or "comfort zone".

Business world and regular life over lap but there is nothing similar.  Business people are sellers and regular people are buyers.  Once you are in business you become a seller. 

Have you learned how to ride a bike by reading some books? going to bike riding schools?  no.  Did your parents teach you?  no.  You simply jump on the bike and carry the risk of falling. Those who manage to fall safely learn it in a few tries.  Those who is afraid to fall will never learn. 

Entrepreneurship and business is like this ... basically no one can teach you how to balance and juggle.

Building a great business and finding a good business is like learning how to cook - you can read as many cook books but you only start to become good after you fail multiple times and gain experience.

Business has no book - there can be business anywhere and everywhere.  Business is like building a LEGO in free style.  It takes practice to build something out of things everyone has.

Business has no rules - it is about providing benefits, not about providing interesting and useful information and assistance.

In business, you must sell a product through a store to desired audience.  The audience must want to pay you cash.  Your ideas are not enough - your ideas must be about a product, about store, and about focus. 

Whatever you invent, you have to sell it yourself.

Business is total dedication and dominating your niche.  It is about giving your audience and buyer tremendous benefits.  It is about keeping your promise for many decades.

Business is to be number one in something small and well defined. 

It is not about being number whatever in something big and futuristic.

In business, you must do what you can NOW.

If a business does not take investment, then it is very likely you have no barrier, no efficiency, and no quality products to talk about.  In this case, your product will be generic and can not command a price for you to be profitable.

Many business is easy to start but hard to master.  You can make revenue but profiting takes more skills.

Investors are like the booster rockets on a rocket launch - without the booster the satellite will not go into high orbits.  However, the booster does not care about being "paid back" - the investor do not bet on you, the investors want to "invest in you" so they can have good returns.

Investors do not treat you as a lottery ticket for 1 dollar.  The investor treat you as a stock they can buy and then SELL.  The investor wants to sell their stock in your company.  They don't want to hold it.

Business are constantly fending off competitors and copy cats.  They must build a barrier of entry.  The barrier is built by a process called "innovation". 

It turns out that "innovation" is not a high brow revolutionary concept - it is everyday business deeds.

In business you must sell what you invented.  No one will help, even if you promise them money.

Every great product takes selling.  Nothing sells themselves. The world does not care your great idea or product - the world can wait.

Business plan must be executed.  Experienced entrepreneur can make a bad idea work, can make a bad plan work. 

Many new entrepreneurs spend forever trying to come up with a better idea - they never start.  What they don't know is this - the great ideas are many and plentiful and they are all waiting for you AFTER you start.

Business is business.  Business is not right or wrong, rich or poor.  Business is a competition.  Business is part of life.  Business is an attitude.

The path to success have three elements:. (1) Your mindset can only be set by yourself. (2) the mind can only be reset after your experience, in the real world and niche sectors; (3) the experience is risky and expensive - the key is to make sure your first failure does not detail you completely.  That is the trick of all the great successes.

The first time novices do the following:

1. Don't experience and don't focus;

2. Think forever;

3. Have an idea, and go ask for money, or take a risk too big;

4. They fail, and never tries it again.

A good way to do is the following:

1. Gain the mindset through small exercises like here;

2. Become a business person, earn the mindset badge;

3. Wait for big waves and opportunities and strike it.

The most amazing thing is that no one tells you it is a hard process ... hence they make it hard.

Business building is not that hard, if people are warned it is hard.

However, knowing it is hard is hard.

If you are

1. a student

2. a professor

3. a researcher at a company, an institute

Then you are a "comfort zone" creature.  You are brilliant, but you are not business ready -

1. you are not ready to fight as a figher

2. you do not have capital

3. you do not have market deep information and information about trends

Most "comfort zone" creatures believe the hard part of startup is "thinking" - coming up with a brilliant, unrefutable, first of a kind idea.  They waste all the time thinking.

To startup, you need a boat and you need the wind.

1. The boat is a stand alone organization, most likely having enough revenue so you don't have to take on a "wage job"

2. The wind is what drives the boat. 

Most comfort zone creatures don't have the boat.  They dream about the destiny, dream about the idea, but they have nothing to carry them over.  All the dream and all the life is wasted.

The video here shows that even after brilliant startup and IPO, a company is just a business - a chance to fight.

Five entrepreneurs: Zuckerberg, Gates, George Westinghouse, Jobs, and Musk.  What is the common thing to them?  If we can find one thing that all five did, but millions don't, would you like to know what it is?

Elon Mask, Jack Ma and Steve Jobs discusses the importance of taking risks early, and the benefits of it.  Don't be afraid of failures - take them early.

This is the hidden story of Gates.  Popular media make it sounds like a smart person with a great idea, but there is so much hustle and competition behind the scene.

Here is an interesting way to understand entrepreneurship - by drawing analogy between architecture buildings to companies/business, and architects to founders.  We put this here in the supplemental material to help you get some extra perspective thinking.  Have fun.

MAKING MONEY IS COMMUNAL.  It is relationship.

This is the hidden things that the MBAs thought you knew.

Most entrepreneurs never run a business and never worked in one.  If there are two things in the MBA textbook you must know, these two would be it - the channel and the supply chain.  If you do not understand these, it would be like Michael Jordan not knowing a basketball game has two halves and each half last 12 minutes.  These two concepts are critically important especially for engineers.

Yes, to make money, you must help others make money.

Steve Jobs make money for others - he build an APP market.

Gates make money for others - many people can build Microsoft software and making living.

Elon Musk's Paypal help others make money - it makes paying easier.

Jack Ma of China built Alibaba - the company is an online expo for small Chinese businesses.  Many people can make money on Alibaba, or through Alibaba.

Amazon, helps many store owners on Amazon make money.  They help factory owners make money.

Quote quotes from founders who found the truth.

Risks are invisible to you, hence you must go through it once to know it is there.

The logic of success is never taught - because it is too important.

It is a secret dearly kept from you ...

Don't ask me why.

Smart people never make mistakes with school work - can you remain perfect in life?

Life's logic is different.

Mindset is what you know about yourself.

Mindset is what you learn about yourself.

Not knowledge, not products, not technology.  It is hard learning. 

I can not convince a soldier who has never been to the battle field about the horrors of war.  Same thing, teaching someone about the ruthlessness of business and entrepreneurship is a thankless job that no one takes.

Let's talk about the revenge of the C students.

Business is not about A students going through formal education.

The business world is run by B and C students who will out smart the "School A" students any minute.

Being an A student through a formal education does not constitute "unfair advantage" that winning in business must take.

The market and supply chains are all made by average people.  The end consumers are also average people.  If you want them to care and pay you must know that they think and get their approval.

Remember, your success if your own business.  No one will help.

How hard it is to be Elon Musk?

If it is based on intelligence and IQ, why MIT professors do not become Elon Musk?

Why cann't schools like Stanford and MIT produce more Elon Musk?

If it is easy to be Musk, why there are so few of him?

Let me explain to you, why everyone can be Musk, and why there are so few.

Elon Musk stumbled on a path of informal learning - learning in business but not in schools.

SELL what people want to buy.  Don't ask people to buy what you want to SELL.

Whatever will lead to your success is to sell products - either ones you invented or others made.

In all cases, sellers see the world from unique lens that is in-describable to regular consumers.

Learn to sell, such as on Etsy.  it is easy to start, and failure would not cost you.  But you gain the mindset.

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After I have tried this for many times, I start to realize things that no one teaches, not even written in popular books and Harvard business school texts.

Everyone want success.  We want passive life with a lot of money to spend.  We want to make a difference to the world and become popular.  How?