idea cost

When was the last time you asked a seasoned entrepreneur for advice, and got his entire life’s lessons gifted to you in the form of a book?

This is exactly what happened after Farrukh Naeem made a recent post in a Facebook group thanking its members for their selfless support. Inspired by that post, Derrick Jones – a serial entrepreneur based in the USA who has worked on three startups (including his last company that he grew into a million dollar consultancy business) decided to give away his book for entrepreneurial success at no cost to anyone who might benefit from it!

Tempo was intrigued by the discussion and so asked Farrukh to interview Derrick for our readers…

Farrukh: Isn’t entrepreneurship about making money? Why are you giving away your book for free??

Derrick: This is one of the biggest misconceptions out there. Entrepreneurship is about solving problems, not making money. Those who succeed the most solve real problems of real people. I decided to give away the eBook version of my book because ideas are more important than profit. I see a lot of new entrepreneurs out there making mistakes, usually the same mistakes over and over. So, I want to help them as best I can, like by giving away my book and removing copyright restrictions. I explain the decision in more detail in this blog post: http://bit.ly/UDZ1Eo

Farrukh: What’s the key to succeeding as an entrepreneur?

Derrick: I don’t believe there is a single key to success as an entrepreneur. There are several, including:

1. Being a problem solver and focusing on creating unique value.

2. Learning to build teams and delegating.

3. Not playing it safe. Play it smart. Play it well, but never play it safe.

4. Embracing failure and learning from it.

5. Not becoming too emotionally attached to an idea. Drop it and / or pivot if necessary.

6. Finding great mentors and advisors.

Farrukh: What are the common mistakes people make when starting out on their own?

Derrick: The number one mistake is failing to embrace the role of an entrepreneur. For example, a hotshot software developer starts her own company and thinks it’s all about the coding, which is what made her successful…as a coder. She knows nothing about sales or marketing and gives it very little attention. Meanwhile her competitor across town just shipped and is actively getting feedback and mind share. Then our developer arrogantly declares, “But I am not a salesperson.” Oh yes you are if you are an entrepreneur. You must sell your ideas to the public, investors, partners and employees. It is all about getting yourself out there and pushing your ideas.

If I was on my deathbed and I could give one piece of advice to new entrepreneurs, it would be this one. There are others, but this is the most common mistake I see.

Farrukh: How is the entrepreneurial landscape changing with the rise of digital natives, e-commerce and social media?

Derrick: This is huge. People can test ideas for very little upfront cost. This is true for online and offline businesses. You can create a landing page to capture email addresses and split test product ideas and campaigns. Not possible 15 years ago. You can create a business entirely on Facebook. Many have done this. With virtual assistants, you can have an entire operation with responsibilities offloaded to services all over the world. Now you sell a product without ever seeing or warehousing it. This does not mean everyone will get rich, but it does mean more people can take a shot at pursuing a business. No more excuses.

Farrukh- What are the best ways to hone one’s entrepreneurial skills? Can you suggest any books, courses, websites, blogs?

Derrick: It’s all in the doing. Booksand seminars are fine, but the key is to get your ideas out there in order to learn and gain experience. As for books, ‘The 4 Hour Work Week’ by Tim Ferriss and “The $100 Startup” by Chris Guillebeau are a good place to start. Obviously, I think my book is a good choice as well but only because I deal with the actual stages of entrepreneurship, how to recognise them and how to navigate them. Few books address this. I cover several other topics on my blog http://www.presidentspilotsentrepreneurs.comand often make book recommendations there.

How To Get Your FREE Book