patience

3 Startup Lessons I learned From My Mom

The two most important and influential women in my life, my sister and my mom

The two most important and influential women in my life are my sister and my mom. My mom taught me a lot that’s helped me in my startup life and my entrepreneurial ventures. Here are just three startup lessons I learned from my mom.

1. Be Happy

The startup life is full of uncertainty. It’s uncomfortable. It’s scary. I’m $100,000 in debt from my studies and I’m not going to be paid for awhile. I should be hyperventilating and having daily panic attacks. On top of that, I have to juggle managing my team, coding for FamilyTales, doing customer interviews, recruiting other developers, and dealing with legal issues. But still I make time to meet with friends, take improv classes, ride my motorcycle and read a good novel.

It’s a crazy life. But I learned from the best. My mom works a 9-to-5 job, manages and mentors a team in her volunteer position, cleans the house, feed 3 kids and, on top of that, give me advices about my chaotic personal life and business. Through all of this, she remains happy and jovial, which is both encouraging and energizing.

That’s really important for people working in a very early stage startup. You’ll hear a lot of ‘no’ before you hear a ‘yes.’ Stay happy. Stay positive. Stay optimistic.

2. Just Do It

Talk is cheap. But there’s often a temptation for startup teams to debate on and on for hours about mundane things. A few days ago, I was coding at a local Starbucks, and I heard this other startup team argue for 3 hours! They didn’t get any work done. I just wanted to turn around and say “just shut up and get out of the building.”

That’s what my mom taught me. She leads by example. She’s a woman of action. Whenever something needs to get done, she doesn’t try to discuss 1,001 ways to do it and the advantages and disadvantages of each option. She just does it or delegates someone to do it. Whenever I don’t know what to do next, she encourages me to think about the pros and cons of each option and just run with one of the options.

As Daniel Burka,former Digg Creative Director and Milk co-founder, said in an event in Toronto last year, stop arguing and start doing! What Burka recommended is to talk for 30 minutes, then try it out and build it for the next 30 minutes. Keep what works. Remove what doesn’t. It’s almost like trial-and-error experiments. You push the boundaries by trying to see if the impossible is possible.

3. Ask for help

Startup founders are a fiercely independent breed. We tend to adopt a “me against the world” attitude. The words “I don’t know” usually never comes out of our mouth.This is dangerous. You don’t need to defeat everyone else. What you need is a team of partners in your corner who will work to help you win and vice versa.

My mom raised me in a community, either with family members or the church. Everyone in the community would help each other out. I was taught from a young child that no one is an island. The more there are people helping you, the greater that chances of your success.

This is just as true for parents, in-laws, friends, and teachers as it is for co-founders, employees, VCs, advisers, and mentors. The more people you have cheering you on, the better your chances of success.

Thanks Mom

I can honestly say that I wouldn’t be here if my mom wasn’t around. To all you startup founders and entrepreneurs, thank your mom this weekend! To all you moms, happy mother’s day.

ThanksMom

Filed Under: Startup Tagged With: business, entreprenership, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, humble, lessons learned, mom, patience, startup, startup life

Why Startup Founders Need To STOP Being Realistic

by Ramli 2 Comments

Being realistic is the most common path to mediocrity.

- Will Smith

“I’m just being realistic.” I hear this a lot. And I absolutely hate it. I will not tolerate it in my team and the people who work with me. I tell people all the time to stop being realistic!

Being realistic comes with a sense of security and comfort. You use language like “I will try” or “I’ll do my best.“ In some sense, you’re hedging yourself from embarrassment, disappointment and failure.

But that’s the beauty of life. You learn from failure. You get stronger and smarter when you do things that are impossible, things that aren’t “realistic.”

Yes, there will be disappointments. But if you think about it, it’s how you cope with disappoint and failure that will determine your success. The difference between imposible and possible lies in your determination. And one of the things that greatly affects your determination is your language

The power of words

Words are powerful. People don’t realize it. Especially for entrepreneurs and startup founders, the words you use can become a weapon or a roadblock.

Psychologist and retired FBI Special Agent Jack Schafer wrote in a Psychology Today blog that word qualifiers such as “We’ll see”; “I’ll try”; or “I’ll do my best” serve as escape hatchs for noncompliance. If you don’t complete a task on time, you can say “I did my best to finish the job on time, but I couldn’t do it” without the fear of social rejection or cognitive dissonance because you did not make a firm, verbal commitment.

On the other hand, when you say words like “I will do this” or “this will happen” out loud, you unconciously and conciously start taking the necessary steps to get you there. You start repeating in your head, “I can do this!” That’s when you start believing in yourself and your team. You appear more confident. Not only that, as you say it out loud, you become accountable to your friends, family, mentors, co-founders and employees.

That’s why you should stop using words like “I will try” or “I wish” and start using words like “I will do this.” You will amaze yourself at what you can do.

The balance of impossible and realistic

But, don’t take this too far. For example, I would never say “I will be a 7-foot basketball player.” That will never happen! Even if I went through the gruelling operation to break my legs and extend my legs with pins like this air hostess in UK, it would take me years to be like Mike.

You have to balance impossible with realistic. Don’t be realistic. But, also don’t aim for something so impossible. That’s the importance of having mentors and friends who really know you inside and out. They know your skills, weaknesses and potential. They know what you can and can’t do.

It’s important to have several mentors. Don’t just have one. For me this has been John Pollock at BizInc, Mike Kirkup at Velocity Garage, Stewart Thornhill at Ivey and Howie Chan at Tech Alliance. They’ll all say different things. One mentor will tell you that you’re stupid. Another will tell you to go for it. In the end, you have to make the decision if your goal is the right balance of realistic and impossible.

Velocity Garage

I’m not realistic. I realized that entrepreneurs have to be dreamers who can execute. So when a few months ago I told Ali, my co-founder, “I’ll get us in the Velocity Garage! I’ll do whatever it takes,” he thought I was crazy. If you’re into startups and you don’t know Velocity Garage, you’re really missing out. With startups like VidYard, Thalmic Labs, Buffer Box and PlanBoard, even Paul Graham, the yoda-esque founder of Silicon’s Valley Y-Combinator, told Fast Company magazine that “there’s something going on in Waterloo because the applications we get from Waterloo students are better than those we get from students of any other university.” Even The New York Times wrote a piece about the amazing talent at Waterloo.

That was a few months ago. Fast forward to today. I’m excited to say that FamilyTales has been accepted to the Velocity Garage. It really hasn’t sunk in yet. We just heard the news a few days ago. It hasn’t been easy coding, hacking, doing customer development while completing my MBA. But there was one thing I kept repeating in my head, “I will get us in to Velocity.”

As author, radio DJ and motivation speaker Les Brown once said, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” The next thing I’m telling my team is “I will get us into Y-Combinator or Tech Stars.“ I’m definitely shooting for the moon. You should to.

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss you’ll land among the stars.

Filed Under: Life, Startup Tagged With: embarrassment, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, patience, perseverance, Shoot for the moon, startup, success, University of Waterloo, Velocity Garage, Waterloo, words

3 reasons why entrepreneurship is like a poker game

by Ramli 1 Comment

Entrepreneurship is like a game of poker

Poker is a popular game played by many in living rooms and, more recently, in world competitions. It’s popularity stems from the fact that it is easy to learn, extremely social, provides the opportunity for profit and takes a lifetime of commitment to master. And wow, with the practice and skill you can win a lot money; the top 5 players overall winnings range from $11,000,000 to $16,000,000. Yes, that’s 6 zeroes!

I tried playing poker once with a bunch of guys. I lost big time. My friends hustled $100 out of me. I might not be good at poker. But, I did find that there are many lessons entrepreneurs can learn from poker. Let me share 3 of those lessons.

1. Take calculated risks

If you don’t understand poker, you probably think that your chances of winning at poker is the same as winning the jackpot in a lottery. But, in fact, poker played well is not a gamble, but a game of skill and knowledge. Although there’s a significant element of luck, those who consistently win at poker use their skill, knowledge and experience to take calculated risks.

Take this example: Daredevil Robbie Knievel is about to jump a motorcycle over a row of buses. Most people would say that he would be lucky to make it out alive. To them, it’s a pure gamble, a roll of dice. But, what people don’t know is that Robbie Knievel considered the wind, speed and distance. He knows his motorcycle inside and out. To him, it’s not a gamble, but a calculated risk.

The same can be said about entrepreneurship. To those who don’t have the knowledge and the skill, entrepreneurship is definitely a gamble. But to those who have been applying the lean startup methodology to their startup, it’s not a gamble, but more of a calculated risk. Lean startup methodology is about trying to minimize your risks in a startup by continually validating, learning and pivoting. It provides a framework for entrepreneurs to take calculated risks when building a startup.

2. Be patient and disciplined

Since the best poker players take calculated risks, they bet seldom and only when the odds are in their favour. That’s why the best poker players only play 5 to 10 percent of the hands that they’re dealt. Patience in poker is one of the most important traits that separates successful players from the ones who go home empty handed.

Patience is also an important trait for entrepreneurs. People who win at business bet seldom and only when the odds are in their favour. Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, told Fast Company magazine that businesses and startups go through 3 phases: vision, patience and execution. It’s really exciting to be in the “vision” and the “execution” phase. But the difference between a wantrapreneur and a true entrepreneur is patience.

Your startup might go through 5, 10 or even 20 pivots (if you’ve never heard of pivoting for startups, check out Ash Maurya’s explanation) before you get your business model right. Twitter wasn’t always the micro-blogging tool; it used to be a marketplace for podcasts. Groupon wasn’t always the behemoth of daily deals; it used to be a tool to connect charitable social causes with donors. Don’t expect an overnight success with your startup. Expect 2 to 5 years of hard work before you make it big. So, be patient and disciplined with your startup.

3. Know when to fold

One of the biggest mistakes that amateur or novice poker players make is not folding a hand even though they know that they’re beat. Determining whether you want to play a hand or fold a hand can be an extremely difficult decision when playing poker. It is one of the most important decisions that you will have to make at the table. It can be the difference between a net win or a net loss at the end of the game. Watch the professional poker players on TV. They’re masters at folding hands and picking a winning hand; they fold over 90% to 95% of the hands!

The same thing is true with startups. Maybe your competitor has now squeezed you out of your niche market. Or maybe your market size is shrinking. Know when it’s time to pivot your business model or fold your startup.

I created this teaser video for my first startup, Pressitant, before Edmund and I shelved the product. Yes, that

Edmund and I had to face a similar decision with our first startup, Pressistant. We found a competitor whose product wasn’t as good. So we aimed at releasing a product that was bigger and better than our competitor, manageWP. So, Edmund and I started to interview our target customers to validate our product. We created a launch page www.pressistant.com. I even created a teaser video by myself! Then, right when we were about to start coding our product, our competitor came out with a bigger and better version of his product. Edmund and I talked about it. We neither had the money, the resources, the credibility and the time to compete. We didn’t have a lot of money invested into the startup yet. So we decided to fold our startup.

It was a tough decision. But if we didn’t make that decision, then we wouldn’t have gotten a chance to work on our next startup Lesson Sensei, with two other amazing guys, Kurt and Mark!

Conclusion

The three lessons entrepreneurs can learn from poker are take calculated risks, be patient & disciplined and know when to fold. By applying the teachings of the poker table to the boardroom table, entrepreneurs can position their businesses for success for years to come!

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts. Please enter your comments below.

Filed Under: Startup Tagged With: calculated risk, disciplined, entreprenership, lean startup, patience, startup