Biggest Failures, Best Advice and Defining Success From 14 Inspiring Entrepreneurs

I recently connected with some of the most inspiring men and women in entrepreneurship. I asked them to share the best advice they’ve ever received, their biggest failure, lessons learned and their definition of success. Here what they generously shared.

1. Barbara Corcoran

The Shark Tank investor went from achieving straight D's in high school to creating a multi-million dollar real estate firm in her early twenties.

Biggest failure: My fabulous new idea to put all our apartments for sale on videotape so customers wouldn’t have to go out to see them. I pissed away my first profit of $77,000 and it was dead on arrival.

Biggest lesson: In an effort to save face, I put them on this new government thing called the Internet. It was 1989. We had two sales out of London in the first week. I registered all of my competitors URLs under my name. One by one, they called. 

Best advice: “You will never succeed without me!” The prediction of my boyfriend and business partner when I ended our business partnership -- after announcing he'd marry my secretary.

Definition of success: Feeling proud of yourself got trying.

2. Guy Kawasaki 

Guy dropped out of law school to complete an MBA at UCLA. His years working alongside Steve Jobs shaped his work as chief evangelist at Canva and co-founder of Alltop.

Biggest failure: That Macintosh did not achieve 100 percent market share of the PC market.

Biggest lesson: I learned that the best gizmo doesn't necessarily win. It's taken 30 years, but I've gotten over this.

Best advice: Never ask people to do something you wouldn't do. This is a very good test for how you treat your employees and customers, assuming you're not a sociopath. 

Definition of success: First, that you made the world a better place. Second, you don't "have to" do anything. 

3. Gary Vaynerchuk 

From managing seven lemonade stands as an 8-year old, Gary hasn't skipped a beat with numerous startups, bestselling books and, most recently, creating VaynerMedia.

Biggest failure: In 2009 I had founded VaynerMedia, purchased Cork'd and was involved in about half a dozen other business ventures. I tried to do everything, and ended up not doing anything.

Biggest lesson: Since then, I've learned how to focus much better, and I've built up a team around me that allows me to do just that, so let's see if I've learned anything.

Best advice: Word is bond.

Definition of success: I'll define success by how many people show up to my funeral.

4. Christiane Lemieux

The Ottawa native started DwellStudio from her apartment in 1999 after grinding it out for years as a fashion intern in New York. 

Biggest failure: The biggest mistake I made was not seriously vetting an investor I had in the business.

Biggest lesson: Not all money is helpful or strategic, and all money has strings attached. Sometimes theses strings become a noose. Be very careful. Ask all the right questions, vet your investors very seriously. 

Best advice: "Stay focused.” As a serial entrepreneur with “shiny object syndrome,” my path to success has been a jagged line. A straight line meets milestones much more quickly.

Definition of success: Success for me is defined by how my business touches the people I work with.

5. Grant Cardone

After starting off in automotive sales, Grant has gone on to become a New York Times bestselling author, successful entrepreneur and founder of Whatever It Takes Digital Network.

Biggest failure: I should have gone 10X bigger from the get go.

Biggest lesson: It's the same amount of work to stay small as it is to go big. Building a $100 million dollar company is no more work than building a $1 million company.

Best advice: The best investment you will ever make is in yourself. (Grant's mom told him this).

Definition of success: The attainment of the gap between my current reality and my potential. 

6. Jack Canfield 

Graduating from Harvard, Jack turned the Chicken Soup for the Soul series into an international billion-dollar enterprise. 

Biggest failure: We spent a year attempting to create a new human potential oriented internet portal, and we never got it off the ground.

Biggest lesson: To stick to our core business -- writing and training. And having adequate funding for the marketing needed to pull off such a huge venture. We were ignorantly going up against AOL, which was spending millions. 

Best advice: Dream big, ask boldly and take action on an idea immediately.

Definition of success: Fulfilling your soul's purpose. I believe everything works better when it is done in the spirit of love and joy rather than fear and greed.

7. Mark Cuban 

After a billion-dollar deal with Yahoo, Cuban purchased the Mavericks. The Shark Tank investor's court side dancing as entertaining as his appearance on Dancing with the Stars.

Biggest failure: Lots of failures, but I haven't had my biggest one yet.

Best advice: Today is the youngest you will ever be, live like it.

Definition of success: Waking up every morning with a smile on my face knowing its going to be a great day.

8. Alexa von Tobel 

Launching her personal finance company, LearnVest in 2006, Alexa was inaugurated by President Obama as a member of the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship early this year.

Biggest failure: As an entrepreneur, you have to be OK with failure. If you’re not failing, you’re likely not pushing yourself hard enough. 

Biggest lesson: “Fail fast” is a concept we tend to encourage at LearnVest. Don’t be afraid to try something, but be ready to learn from it and move forward.

Best advice: Get up, dress up, show up.

Definition of success: Success is working towards a goal I can believe in. My life’s mission is to make financial education and advice accessible to people nationwide.

9. Noah Kagan 

Beginning his career at Intel, Kagan joined, and left, Facebook as employee #30. The marketing expert has numerous startup successes in the tech world, currently working behind AppSumo.

Biggest failure: Ha. This has been documented more than I care. Getting fired from Facebook. Losing out on $200 million at today's market value.

Biggest lesson: The best way to get known is to create things that help others.

Best advice: I ran away from home and then my mom went across the street and made me come home. My step-dad then said instead of running away, I need to face issues head on. I think about that moment and the message a lot. Face your fears and go towards them -- never as scary as they seem.

Definition of success: Doing work that I'm proud of and having fun. Be careful to avoid having others put their success pressures on yourself.

10. Erika Trautman 

Having owned an Emmy award-winning video production company, Erika's current venture, RaptMedia, is about enhancing interactivity for online video.

Biggest failure: Rapt Media went through some scary moments getting off the ground. I thought if my team knew how tough things were, they'd panic and quit their jobs. So I kept them out of the loop. When we finally closed our seed round, I turned to the team to celebrate only to discover I’d lost their trust.

Biggest lesson: Without openness and transparency, you can lose the trust of your team. Since then, I share the good news and the bad. We tackle the issues together because the vision is worth it.

Best advice: "Fearlessness is a muscle. The more I exercise it, the less my fears run me." This is a quote I once read by Ariana Huffington. 

Definition of success: Success is building and leading an amazing team capable of creating something indelible and transformational.

11 & 12. Steven Pressfield & Shawn Coyne 

A prolific writer, Pressfield is known for many works including The Legend of Baggar Vance, and The War of Art. He has partnered with fellow writer, Shawn Coyne, and created Black Irish Entertainment.

Biggest failure: Failing to start doing what matters sooner.

Biggest lesson: The lesson learned is to start before you're ready.

Best advice: Never pass up an opportunity to use a rest room.

Definition of success: Discovering what you're supposed to be doing and then doing that.

13. Jessica Butcher 

Based out of London, Jessica is the co-founder and CMO of Blippar, the augmented reality platform that turns printed images into digital experiences.

Biggest failure: Allowing a negative situation to spiral downward, and then choosing to quit rather than salvage the situation through small, positive steps

Biggest lesson: Sometimes it’s the right decision to end a particular course of action or working relationship, but I now make a more concerted effort to salvage or reverse a situation.

Best advice: Invest in memories. It’s ultimately what life is about—people, places, moments and experiences. 

Definition of success: Achieving a true work-life balance. Doing something you love work-wise, whilst also coming home to a happy, healthy home.

14. Paul Budnitz 

Studying photography, sculpture and film at Yale, Paul has gone on to create Kidrobot, Bunditz Bicycles, and most recently, the social media platform Ello.

Biggest failure: I don’t see anything that I do as a failure (or a success). I know that sounds cheesy, but it’s really how I operate.

Biggest lesson: It’s all just another step on a road that never ends. There’s always a disaster, followed by things working out fairly well, followed by another disaster. It’s a cycle. You learn to look out for disasters when things are going well, and take heart when you’re at the bottom that things will reverse eventually, too.

Best advice: Genpo Roshi, an American Zen Master said, when we bury the parts of ourselves we don’t like, those negative aspects of our personalities eventually come back to haunt us. I’ve learned to ask for help from a beginner's perspective, even if I’m the one who’s running the company and I’m asking for help from an intern.

Definition of success: Being willing to lose it all, if that’s what it takes. If you aren’t open to that, you’ll never be able to take the risks necessary make something truly amazing.

This article is picked from Entrepreneur Magazine

15 Free Online Learning Sites Every Entrepreneur Should Visit

Being a successful entrepreneur means you have to wear a lot of hats, especially when your company is just starting out and you don’t have enough employees to cover all the areas you need.

Learning the new skills necessary to start a new business can be expensive, but fortunately the initiative for free, high-quality, educational resources online has only continued to grow in the past few years. Below are some of the resources available to learn more about marketing, entrepreneurship, business management and more.

1. CodeAcademy

This great resource offers free interactive programming sessions to help you learn programming languages such as HTML, CSS, Javascript and PHP. You can save your progress as you go with a free account. Learning to code can help entrepreneurs fix bugs if they don’t have a developer, or even go down the road of building their own website or products (such as apps).

2. HubSpot Academy 

The free certification program offers courses on inbound marketing, including website optimization, landing pages and lead nurturing. These skills are a must for business owners as they try to grow their business and online presence.

3. Moz

If you want to learn search-engine optimization to make sure your website is as visible as possible, check out this treasure trove of resources from SEO leader, Moz. Besides having the free Moz Academy, there are also webinars (live and recorded), and beginner’s guides to SEO, social media and link building.

4. LearnVest

The most successful entrepreneurs know how to manage their money both on a business and personal side. In addition to having extremely affordable finance classes, LearnVest also offers some of its classes for free, such as “Building Better Money Habits” and “How to Budget.”

5. Niche consultant courses

The Internet has made for a coaching boom, which is extremely helpful to entrepreneurs who want to learn how to start or better a business in a specific niche. Some great coaches and organizations that routinely have free courses and ebooks on building a business include Natalie MacNeil and MyOwnBusiness. Try searching “niche keyword” + “business course” to find one most applicable to you.

6. edX

This free site currently has over 300 courses on a variety of topics, including “Financial Analysis and Decision Making” and “Entrepreneurship 101: Who is your customer?” These courses not only cover business in general, but can also you help learn more skills that are applicable to your industry, such as big data or environmental conservation.

7. Khan Academy

This free learning resource was created to give everyone access to education in math, science, art, technology and more. There are over 100,000 interactive exercises to put your education to practical use. Even though many of the courses are geared toward high school students, there are several courses that would be good for anyone to have a refresher on, such as taxes and accounting.

8. MIT Open Courseware

These are actual courses taught at MIT and offered for free on the sitefor viewing and reading at your discretion. The school put together anentrepreneurship page that lists available courses that are beneficial to new business owners. Courses include “Early State Capital” and “The Software Business.”

9. Kutztown University of Pennsylvania

This university has almost 100 free on-demand college courses that are extremely applicable to entrepreneurs, including ones that cover business planning, operations and management and small-business tax.  

10. Coursera

Much like MIT’s Open Courseware, this site has 114 educational partners that provide free courses to almost 10 million users. One benefit toCoursera is that there are very specific courses that fit perfectly into particular niches, such as “Data Management for Clinical Research” from Vanderbilt University and “Innovation for Entrepreneurs: From Idea to Marketplace” from the University of Maryland. Its wide network of partners allows for a greater selection.

11. OpenCulture

This site isn’t an educational platform on its own, but rather collects and shares free resources from around the web. Its list of 150 free online business courses is a great resource because it offers classes from iTunes U and other lessons on video and audio. The site also has lists of free audiobooks, certificate courses and other online courses.

12. YouTube

It’s probably unsurprising to most users that YouTube is one of the world’s largest search engines, as there are literally videos on just about anything you can imagine. From TED talks to recorded presentations on building a business, it’s a great free resource on just about any topic.

13. Alison

This platform offers free online courses from some of the most well-known names on the internet today, including Google, Microsoft, and Macmillan. With over 4 million users and over 600 courses already, it covers topics such as economic literacy, personal development and business/enterprise skills.

14. Saylor

The Saylor Foundation offers tuition-free courses and also works with accredited colleges and universities to offer affordable credentials. Its course offerings are similar to what you’d see when working toward a bachelor’s degree.

15. Podcasts

Even though it’s not an official course, podcasts are an amazing (and easily digestible) way to become a better entrepreneur. Podcasts can be listened to via streaming on your computer (if that certain podcast offers it) or via iTunes for iOS and apps such as Podcast Republic for Android. Podcasts such as Entrepreneur of Fire already garner thousands of listeners every episode and are a great way to learn the most up-to-date information and strategies possible. Another good list of entrepreneur podcasts include Think Entrepreneurship's.

Whether you learn best by audio, video or text, this list of 15 learning resources for entrepreneurs can help you learn more about building a business, accounting and getting customers.

This article is picked from Entrepreneur Magazine

Why it’s better to take notes by hand

In a study published earlier this year in Psychological Science, researchers at Princeton University and UCLA found that while computers might help you write more notes quickly, they might keep you from actually absorbing the information you write, even when you’re not switching between tabs to check your email or scroll through Facebook.

“Our new findings suggest that even when laptops are used as intended — and not for buying things on Amazon during class — they may still be harming academic performance,” lead author Pam Mueller of Princeton University said in a statement.

Why do hand-writers have an advantage? For the study, researchers asked students to watch TED Talks and take notes either by hand or on a computer disconnected from the Internet. After completing distraction tests, the students were then asked to take quizzes on the material covered in the TED Talks. While students in both groups did equally well when it came to factual questions, those who took handwritten notes had a much better conceptual understanding of the material.

“It may be that longhand note takers engage in more processing than laptop note takers, thus selecting more important information to include in their notes, which enables them to study this content more efficiently,” the researchers wrote.

So while computers allow you to write down every word that comes out of your professor’s mouth, they won’t necessarily help you synthesize and digest what’s being said, whereas hand-writers intrinsically understand what is actually important and needs to be remembered. And that can help you make better use of your knowledge in the long run.

This article is picked from www.forumblog.org

5 Potentially Dangerous Decisions to Avoid When Starting a Business

You’re ready to launch a business and anxious to get things under way. 

Keep these things top of mind to steer clear of the roadblocks and pitfalls and making decisions that could create more problems than solutions. 

1. Picking a partner who isn’t going to work out.

After starting a business, you'll find some people will want to join your party. Sometimes this can be a good thing. Other times, it won't be so much so.

In addition to considering the facts about a potential partner's background and expertise, rely on your gut instinct about whether someone is a good fit. As much as you might want things to work, sometimes you will have a nagging feeling that it won't. Go with that. 

2. Taking startup capital when it's not needed.

Sure it’s a confidence booster that someone believes in you and has offered to invest in your company. But when your company starts to do well and you realize that you didn’t need the startup funds you received, you won't be happy knowing that someone else owns 25 percent of the business. 

3. Staying at the original job.

You can’t do two things at the same time. Once you know for sure that you’re ready to take the leap and go out on your own, sever ties with your employer so you can devote 100 percent of your time to your business. If you’re not fully invested in it, the startup won't be able to take off the way you need it to.  

4. Hiring family and friends.

Your sister-in-law is really good with numbers. Your college roommate is really smart. And both need jobs. But do they have the requisite skills needed for the business? You may figure they're sufficiently smart and motivated enough to figure things out, but don't take that risk. If they have actual experience and expertise related to your product, that's one thing. If they don't, take a pass. 

5. Buying a lot of equipment and supplies.

Sure it's fun to have a reason to buy the very latest electronics or the most up-to-date equipment. But seriously consider if it's needed or if you can make do with the existing computers and skip the completely decorated and supplied office. Hold off on purchasing to see what you'll really need on a day-to-day basis. 

So start your business. But go in with your eyes open about what makes sense and what does not. Making solid decisions from the outset will create a strong foundation for your business that will be easy to build on and help it succeed.

This article is picked from Entrepreneur Magazine

Here's One Of The Best Potential Ways To Earn Between $200,000 And $300,000 A Year

The quickest way to earn between $200,000 and $300,000 a year may be to become an expatriate in Asia.

China has the highest income growth potential for expats. It ranks first in the Expat Economics league tables, with nearly a quarter (24%) of expats earning more than US $300,000. 

And Australians working in Asia are the highest-earning expatriates in the world, according to HSBC’s global Expat Explorer survey.

“Asia is becoming the salary sweet spot for expats, and Australians are there en masse,” HSBC says.

The in-demand jobs are in banking, finance, education, and Information Technology.

The results of the survey, conducted by the research company YouGov, are classified into Economics, Experience, Raising Children, and Expenses.

Nearly 9,300 individuals from 100 countries shared their insights about life as an expatriate.

More Australian expats are choosing to live in Asia than expats from other countries, according to Expat Explorer.

HSBC

The survey shows one-third of Australians abroad live in Asia, across 10 countries, compared with the global average of 13% expats in Asia.

Elsewhere, 31% of Australians currently reside in the UK and 9% in North America.

Asia’s higher salaries and lower living costs means that expats there earn the highest income.

According to the survey, there are more expats in Asia in the higher-income bracket than expats in other markets — 14% in Asia compared with 5% in Europe — and the higher proportion of Australians in Asia compared with those there from other countries has resulted in Australians being the top earners globally.

The survey shows 30% of Australians boasting remuneration packages in excess of US$200,000 a year. compared with the global average of 21% for expats.

Graham Heunis, head of retail banking and wealth management for HSBC in Australia, says people go where the growth is.

“With benign economic conditions in the UK and US over the past few years, it’s no surprise that career-oriented Aussies are flocking to fast-growing markets in Asia,” he says. “Swapping London and New York for a life in Shanghai and Singapore is certainly paying off for Australians abroad.”

Of the Australian expats surveyed, 6% are in China compared with 1% of expats globally.

This article is picked from Business Insider

Indiegogo Co-Founder: When What It Means to Be a Fearless Entrepreneur Changes

Five years ago, after being a year or so in business, the three co-founders of Indiegogo, the second largest crowdfunding platform in the U.S, were brainstorming about why they were passionate about their business and how they would build the company. They came up with a list of four core values that would become the axis around which Indiegogo’s brand and community would be built on: fearlessness, authenticity, collaboration and empowerment.

Fast-forward to the present and those four values are still as important as ever, says co-founder Danae Ringlemann. What those four values mean, however, has changed as Indiegogo -- and crowdfunding as an industry -- has been on an explosive growth trajectory. Indiegogo has expanded into the triple digits of employee headcount, now has a New York City office and has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for more than 275,000 people in more than 200 countries.

In particular, the idea of what it means to be fearless as a company and as leaders has evolved in recent years.

“In the early days, fearlessness meant opportunistic and going for it, experimenting,” says Ringelmann. Now, that same value means something quite different . “Fearless to us, while it may have meant opportunistic in the early days, means being ruthlessly prioritizing. We need to really listen to our customers and know what the opportunities are, but see the patterns, see the trends and then focus in.”

For example, in the last year, Indiegogo implemented an "Objectives and Key Results" system -- OKR for short -- to keep employees on track with their short-term goals -- even as endless opportunities come their way.  

The OKR system aligns individual employee’s daily goals with company-wide quarterly goals. “This system helps people to understand their individual near-term impact on the company's performance, gives them bumper lanes to experiment which in turn helps them say no to opportunities that don't align to near-term goals, all while keeping them connected to our mission,” said Ringelmann.

The transition from being opportunistic to ruthlessly prioritizing happened in the past couple of years, estimates Ringelmann. And in a sense, it’s an enviable place to be in as a company: It’s a feather in the cap of the Indiegogo team to have the luxury of having to pick what they most want to do as a company. After all, as an entrepreneur, you want to be calling the shots. But that kind of success and growth has also required more strategy and organization. Having core values when you are a team of three eyes-wide-open, dreaming-big entrepreneurs in business school is one thing. Running a company with more than a 100 bi-coastal employees who all stick to those core values and move their oars in sink is a more nuanced game.

“Values never change. They are your cornerstone, foundation of your company. But the behaviors that embody those values do change a little bit, as your organization grows,” said Ringelmann.

This article is picked from Entrepreneur Magazine

10 Questions to Ask Yourself When Testing a Business Idea

You've got a business idea you're jazzed about, but aren't sure if it's feasible. What you need to do is test the concept to see how it stands up to a series of rigorous questions.

"You are always testing," says Andre Marquis, Executive Director of the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship at Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. "What you start with is rarely what you end up with."

Where to begin? Here are 10 key questions to help you evaluate your business idea:

1. What is my customer profile?

Maybe your product or service idea seems like just the right solution for you, but can you identify a clear customer base beyond yourself? Ask what your customer's biggest pains are and how your product might help resolve them, says Alexander Osterwalder, co-author of Business Model Generation (Wiley, 2010) and founder of The Business Model Foundry, which provides digital tools to help develop business ideas. When David Dodge got the idea to start a tutoring business, he used Internet surveys to develop a psychographic analysis of his core customer. "I tried to dig deep and find more," he says. "Understanding and segmenting your market is very important." In 2005, he founded Sure Prep Learning in Scottsdale, Ariz., focusing his marketing on worried and competitive parents. Today, the business has more than 800 tutors.

2. What am I replacing? 

Whatever your idea is, someone out there is buying something else in its place, says Jim Pulcrano, executive director of IMD, the top-rated Swiss business school. Ask yourself what makes your product compelling enough to replace what's already in the marketplace. This doesn't necessarily have to be limited to products that have a similar purpose as yours, Pulcrano says. You could also look at your target customers' spending habits, he says, and consider how you could get them to buy your product instead of something else they currently purchase.

3. How do I demonstrate this idea to others?

Make your idea as tangible as possible, says Steven Stralser, clinical professor of entrepreneurship at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Ariz. That might mean developing drawings or a working prototype. By figuring out how you can easily represent your idea to others, you'll start to see how much footing it has, Stralser says. "The ability to show it to other people becomes very critical."

4. Who will I need on my team? 

In the early stages, you'll need to figure out whom you can turn to for honest and informed advice about your ideas, Stralser says. And soon, you'll also need to think about whose brainpower you want on your side—whether in product development, marketing, IT or another function. Find a way to approach such people to gauge their interest in getting involved.

5. What resources do I need?

How can you actually make this idea happen? That requires asking what resources you'll need, from factories to computers to office space, Osterwalder says. Make a list of all the key assets and figure out whether you can obtain them before you invest a lot of time and money in testing and product development.

6. How long will my purchasing cycle be? 

You want to know the purchase cycle for your product or service so you can estimate your upfront cash needs. With a longer purchasing cycle, you'll need more money on the front end before you start bringing in revenue. If you are selling medical technology to a hospital, for instance, that transaction might take 18 months to complete. In contrast, a phone app can be purchased immediately.

7. What's a reasonable sales forecast? 

You want to analyze the actual operation of the business as much as possible to come up with a solid sales forecast, Stralser says. For example, if you want to open a restaurant, don't just base your revenue forecast on annual restaurant sales in your city. For a more specific estimate, consider the size and seating capacity of your proposed restaurant, the expected average customer bill, and the hours of operation.

8. How much growth potential does my idea offer? 

Think about how big you want your business to be and figure out if your idea can meet your expectations. For example, if you are writing software, building simulations or making something by hand, you should realize that you may not grow as fast as if you're making something that can be mass produced. "Are you selling your time, which is finite, or are you selling a product, which you can sell a million of?" Marquis says. "A lot of times it's not obvious to people."

9. Do I possess the necessary skills?

Having an idea and making it happen are two very different things. Be honest in assessing whether you're qualified to turn your idea into a business, Pulcrano says. If an idea requires highly technical skills or business experience that you lack, will you be able to find someone who can fill those gaps?

10. Can I see myself doing this for the next two years? 

Coming up with an idea can be exciting, but are you willing to dedicate your life to it for at least the next two years? Do you have support from family, friends and mentors, and are you willing to make the necessary sacrifices? Dodge decides whether to pursue an idea partly based on how excited he and his team are about it. "You have to look at opportunity cost and realize any new opportunity is going to take a tremendous amount of time and energy," he says.

This article is picked from Entrepreneur Magazine