In this fourth installment, let's first review Entrepreneurship Failure Class! Lesson 3: Thinking You're Invincible by Assembling a "Complete Team"
Recently, I've had the opportunity to interview quite a few experts in innovation and entrepreneurship, such as Appworks' Jamie, Meitu's General Manager, DCard's Kytu, NTU Professor Guo Tingkui, and blockchain's Minson. Through actual interactions with these friends during the process of writing this series, I gained considerable insights. Leaders and entrepreneurs fundamentally don't start with the goal of making money; instead, they want to "help others become better."
Starting a Business is About Having a Passion to Help Others
For instance, Appworks doesn't invest large sums directly into startup teams, but rather provides mentoring resources. Jamie put it this way: "We build an ecosystem, not to make money." As a result, Appworks' latest numbers are truly remarkable. After seven years of effort, their alumni ecosystem includes 328 active startups with 925 entrepreneurs combined, having accumulated $806 million in fundraising with a total valuation exceeding $3.6 billion.
(Image／AppWorks official website)
One of my senior classmates happens to be the founder of #15 Jia Yao Medical Devices, Shih Wen-fei. She mentioned that the AppWorks team influenced her entrepreneurial values. During the two weeks before Demo Day, Jamie would spend time every morning adjusting the team's Demo content and timing, because they only have three minutes on stage! He also gave me some pointers: if you want to start a business, discuss it with others more often, and you'll become increasingly certain about your direction.
Basically, I think entrepreneurship has become a "trend" nowadays. Of course, for friends who follow this closely, it might feel like they're falling behind if they don't jump on the bandwagon. But with so many people wanting to start businesses, is it really that easy?
Whether to start a business or not is like sports—you can run, work out, and learn about sports, but not everyone needs to become an elite athlete!—Guo Tingkui
This insight comes from Professor Guo, who currently teaches at the University of Nottingham in Ningbo. He said this because I had raised the phenomenon of everyone wanting to start a business and be their own boss, questioning whether it's truly suitable for everyone and whether they've really thought it through.
Entrepreneur-Centric Thinking is Where Failure Begins
Looking back at my failed beauty project #Inpaco from three years ago—there was insufficient incubation and planning period. It all started from a simple thought: "Korean beauty products in Taiwan are too expensive." This shallow idea led me to import Korean beauty products. Breaking it down, this motivation was fundamentally "for myself," hoping to get cheaper products, rather than considering end users. As a result, I got trapped in entrepreneur-centric thinking instead of consumer-oriented thinking.
I not only didn't understand market demand; aside from media resources and integrated social media marketing, I wasn't particularly skilled in anything else. Moreover, I didn't have much research into beauty products. Lacking inherent and acquired advantages put me in a position where I easily got stuck when facing "setbacks."
For instance, Dcard's founder Kytu once said in a public speech that "being able to create works that users love even more than you do is a wonderful thing." This thought deeply moved me when I heard it. Today, Dcard's platform positioning is "hoping everyone can find resonance here." Whenever users have problems, they quickly solve them.
(Image／DCard website)
Every Enterprise Should Have Ambitious Goals! First Figure Out Why
From a management perspective, "only enterprises that set ambitious goals and strive toward them can enjoy enduring success." When setting corporate goals, they can't be too ambitious. For example, saying you'll earn 100 million in the first year when basic infrastructure isn't even established is a goal that even motivated employees will find unreachable. But goals also can't be too easy to achieve—like establishing 30 customer lists a day, which is mechanical work requiring no thought and leaves people exhausted. More importantly, goals should have a certain level of challenge that allows employees to achieve outcomes better than their own initial expectations through effort.
But how do we set ambitious goals that aren't too vague yet aren't non-existent? Here are some goals from major companies:
Motorola: Motorola's goal is to provide good service for society's needs, supplying customers with quality products and services at fair and reasonable prices. For the company's overall development, we must achieve this and earn appropriate profits to provide opportunities for our employees and shareholders to reach their personal reasonable goals.
American Oil Company: American Oil Company is an integrated company operating globally from refining to chemical products. Finding and developing petroleum resources while providing customers with quality products and services. Our responsibility is achieving excellent financial returns, balancing our long-term growth plans, generating shareholder value, and fulfilling our obligations to society and the environment.
Intel: Intel provides chips, motherboards, systems, and software for the computer industry. Intel's products are always viewed as "building blocks" used to build advanced computer systems for personal computer users. Intel's vision is to become the most important supplier in the global new computer industry.
All three of these share a common point: "providing quality service to others." This is an ideal and vision, so when enterprises execute every task, they're moving toward this direction.
Starting a Business is a Path to Self-Discovery Through Various Choices
Looking back at my own entrepreneurial attempt, did I have grand ideals and goals? Honestly, no. Mentally, I wasn't prepared either. It could truly be said that I was following the trend. Friends who are still considering starting a business can also reflect on themselves through the cases and ideas presented above.
Although "entrepreneurial failure" is an outcome, the feelings, perspectives, and expanded thinking gained through this process are far greater than what you'd get from staying at a single company. Because through different choices in each problem, you learn to understand why you ended up where you are, how to move forward, what you lack, and what abilities you need to develop.
For me, I eventually understood that starting a business requires the ability to provide differentiated services and products, which necessarily requires output—whether self-made works, products, or content. Over the past two years, I've discovered that I'm better suited to writing, working as a content creator. After continuously writing articles, many publications have reached out for collaboration.
I was also fortunate that a Korean beauty YouTuber PONY's channel that friends and I translated together has surpassed 30,000 subscribers and continues to create considerable value for me—for example, signing a contract with Taobao Live, with opportunities to live stream and sell products on Taobao in the future. This is a frontier that Taiwanese content creators haven't yet crossed. In any case, everything that happens has a certain arrangement. How you maintain flexibility in your mindset and embrace challenges are all valuable processes in life.
