3rd March 2015
5 motivating principles for business (and life) from iconic entrepreneurs
Reset your definition of failure Spanx founder Sarah Blakely
“People have million and billion dollar ideas daily, pursue them and if you fail, great! Every failure is a gift, it’s simply a nudge for you to change things slightly. A failure should never stop us in our tracks.”
Your business core values should never change
“A successful marketing strategy should explain why people should buy into you by illustrating their core values. Nike did it by honouring great athletes, we did it by sitting down and asking “who is apple and what do we stand for? Where do we fit in this world? It’s not about focusing on the product, effective marketing must communicate what your business stands for. Apple believe that the people who think they are crazy enough to change the world, usually do. That’s Apple’s core value and that will never change.” Steve Jobs
Be rigorous in your self analysis Paypal founder Elon Musk
“Natural human behaviour is wishful thinking, the challenge for entrepreneurs is to say, well what’s the difference between believing in your ideals and sticking to them, versus pursuing an unrealistic idea which doesn’t have merit. That’s the really difficult challenge – be rigorous in your self analysis.”
You’ll tear yourself apart by not doing the thing you loveWill smith
“When you do things for money you make bad choices. If you have two choices and one is playing piano and one is bowling – but you can make more money playing piano – then you’ve got to play the piano or you’ll tear yourself apart doing the thing you don’t love.“
To engage is conscious capitalism is to understand the higher purpose of their business. Whole Foods Founder John Mackey
“Business can be this incredible force for good. It is already – but because it’s done unconsciously it doesn’t reach its highest potential, because if you really care about your customers, people know that. They know when they are being sold to and they know when somebody authentically cares. We trust people that care about us – and if we trust them, we want to trade with them.”
By Jessica Huie, MBE
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