Unless you were born a Hilton, you have to earn your way to greatness in the business world. Back in the days of typewriters, the mother of Monkees guitarist Mike Nesmith got tired of retyping to correct mistakes. So Bette Nesmith cooked up the first batch of Liquid Paper in a blender and poured it into a nail-polish container. She eventually sold the business to Gillette for $48 million.
To come up with great ideas, you just need to pay attention to things that annoy you. And you have to be willing to challenge the status quo. Creativity isn’t some magical process. It’s often possible to generate great ideas by taking an existing approach and simply flipping it around. Like Robert F. Kennedy, instead of asking “why?” we like to ask “why not?”
The inventions we have in mind, like Bette Nesmith’s Liquid Paper, are low-tech solutions—the kind that seem obvious in hindsight. All of us can come up with good ideas that improve our world every day. For example, who knows more than airline crews about the problem of lugging heavy suitcases? And, indeed, in 1989 Northwest pilot Bob Plath got a patent for rolling luggage. (His trick: partially recessed wheels, so the bag fits into overhead compartments.) It enhanced earlier models, including one designed by a flight attendant. This isn’t rocket science. It’s just adapting the wheelbarrow to luggage.
1. Getting Started
The younger you start, the better. If you are single, have five roommates, and a beater for a car, you have nothing to lose. The more stuff and obligations you have, the more likely you will pussy out and not leave a paycheck.
Mark Cuban, owner, Dallas Mavericks
My father told me, “Know everything you can about what you’re doing,” and I listened to him. Being thorough is very important, no matter what your field of work is.
Donald Trump, chairman and president, Trump Organization
Big dreams are a powerful, motivating force. One of the traits of a leader is the ability to dream about what could be.
Jim Ziemer, president and CEO, Harley-Davidson
2. Behind every good man is a patient woman
You need a woman who’s cool enough to understand your commitment to what you’re doing and gets it. If you’re hooked up with someone who doesn’t have that kind of patience, that makes it very tough.
Jake Burton, founder and chairman, Burton Snowboards
Four things to believe in:
There's no status in quo
The 'uncomfortable' has to be better than the tried and true. Operate a strict surprises policy. In today’s ruthlessly competitive markets, the only companies that continue to get noticed are those with offerings and an attitude brimming with relevance and confidence.
The best things have a common address: just this side of mayhem
Believe in the outstanding. Prize tall poppies. Hotwire your brand to your market with driving logic and a creatively stunning premise that swipes your competitors off the planet.
It’s better to startle than to bore
If you're not selling the distinctive, then you're just peddling an also-ran. Intend to make every piece of work as brave as it can possibly be. Believe in howdare you? branding because it imbues companies with the gumption and the vision to stand up and be counted.
Structure is king
Even the most daring idea in the most radical medium needs to be underpinned by relentless logic, perfectly paved.
3. Don’t be afraid to take chances
Realize that being an entrepreneur is not a group effort. When Mark Burnett approached me about doing The Apprentice, everyone advised me against it. Even my agent said it’d be a big mistake. No one was enthusiastic; people thought it’d flop. But I liked the concept, I liked Mark, and I made my decision and stood by it—by myself. When the show was an immediate hit, I knew my instincts were correct. It served as a reminder that it’s important to think for oneself.
Donald Trump
When I was about 23, I was in Vegas playing blackjack for the first time. I was at the $5 table and asked the dealer if I should double down. He told me, “No balls, no babies.” Sometimes you just have to go for it.
Mark Cuban
Decisions require sacrifice. If you choose to open one business, you are not going to get to do another one. If you don’t make any choices, the sacrifice you make is that you never get anywhere.
Paul Budnitz, founder, Kidrobot
4. Think big, act small
I used to carry two business cards with me. The first said KEVIN PLANK, PRESIDENT. I’d give it to my vendors and fabric people to let them know if they needed to get paid, I was the guy to deal with. The other card just said SALES MANAGER. When you’re sitting there making a sale, the customer wants to think there’s a bigger resource behind you to invest in. You never lie, but you give the impression there’s a bigger team behind you. I made my first sale to Georgia Tech. For this 23-year-old to sit there and sell them, they want to have confidence in a larger organization.
Kevin Plank, chairman, president, CEO, Under Armour
5. Conquer failure
In 1994 I sold my company and went to work for Southwest Airlines. Five months later I was fired. That was the best thing that ever happened to me, because the day I cleaned out my desk was the day JetBlue began. It was a drive to do better and to innovate that led me to launch JetBlue. David Neeleman, founder and chairman, JetBlue
Gently keep digging to understand why someone says no. Given the same facts, good people come to the same conclusions. Keep your mind open. Usually, the other party will come around or you’ll discover why the original “no” was a smart answer.
Jim Balsillie, co-CEO, Research in Motion
6. A good idea or product sells itself
First impressions literally don’t mean shit if you’ve got the goods. A friend helped arrange a meeting for me to present to a large supermarket. Being early, I grabbed a smoke, picked up my briefcase, and went upstairs. Nervously waiting in the lobby, I set my briefcase on my lap, and before you knew it I was brought to the meeting.
The interaction with the buyer was like great sex. She loved the price points, loved the brand, and was about to give me a PO when she abruptly said: “That’s all the time I have. Thanks for coming in.” No handshake, no smile. Nothing. As I was leaving, I ran into the friend who arranged the meeting. Without even saying hi, she pointed to my jacket sleeve and said, “Andy, is that shit on your arm?”Apparently, I was so nervous about how I’d do that I didn’t even notice I’d put my briefcase down in a pile of dog doo-doo while I was smoking and got it all over my suit when I was waiting in the lobby.
The next day we got a large PO. The moral of the story? If your product is truly great, it can sell itself no matter how good or bad you come across. Trust your product or idea, relax, and the rest will take care of itself. And I put total trust in my partners. Knowing what they can do, I find myself nothing more than a funnel from which their hard work flows.
Andrew Schamisso, founder and president, Inko’s White Iced
7. Success: you've got to earn it the hard way
I got an accounting degree from Syracuse. It wasn’t a lay-up. But my mother was the type who at restaurants would say, “You gotta order something you can’t get at home.” She said the same thing about school. You don’t get a degree to learn something you can teach your-self. Most of the better CEOs have back-end stuff like accounting as a cornerstone. That way they’re able to sit by their CFOs and financial people and demand more.
Brandon Steiner, founder and chairman, Steiner Sports Marketing
In the early days, I’d work at trade shows and sit there totally alone. Finally, someone would walk up, and I’d think, OK, here’s a customer! Then they’d say, “Hey, where’s the bathroom?” The thing I’m proudest of and why Burton survived is the perseverance to get through the tough times.
Jake Burton
I wrote letters for years without a single response when I wanted the site for Trump Tower.
Donald Trump
8. No money, no problem
I started a business called Parsons Technology. I named my finance software MoneyCounts and priced it at $99. I had $15,000 in savings and lost it all. The second year I dropped my software to $49 and lost it all again. The third year I made an ad that said, “MoneyCounts...but it only costs $12!” The ad worked. I wound up selling Parsons Technology for $64 million.
Bob Parsons, CEO and founder, GoDaddy.com
It’s not how much money you have. I started my first business with $500 and sold it for $6 million, another with $10,000 and sold it for $5.7 billion. Bill Gates, Michael Dell, and others built their empires on sweat equity. Make your business succeed with nothing but hard work. But you only have to get it right once.
Mark Cuban
9. Do whatever it takes to survive
I enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1968. The Vietnam War was raging. I didn’t have much hope of making it out alive. My goal was simply to get by one day at a time, just to be alive for mail call the next day. That was my plan each day, and that still runs through everything I do.
Bob Parsons
10. Take care fo your own
Our employees live and breathe motorcycles, work incredible numbers of hours, and then go out and spend their weekends riding. Sure, they’re well compensated for their efforts. But many of them put forth efforts that far exceed their compensation for the simple reason that they love everything about what they’re doing.
Jim Ziemer
Don’t be cheap with the people who work for you. Too often people in business become too focused on what the shareholders want; they tend to lose sight of what really drives your business to succeed every day…the employees.
David Neeleman
11. There's no such thing as limitations
I was $600,000 in debt when I discovered my agent in China had been stealing from me. The factory hadn’t been paid, because the agent had a gambling problem. This was when we had just put in our largest toy order ever—$500,000 worth. I had to fly to China and hire an interpreter. I called my agent and said I would meet him at the factory. He was very reluctant. The factory owner was furious at Kidrobot because he thought we were ripping him off. I had to convince him that this agent was the one ripping him off, and make a separate deal with him to get my toys onto a boat out of China.
The lesson you’d expect from this might be not to trust people or something about proper business practices. But that’s not it. The lesson I took away was about personal capacity and the realization that I could handle more extreme situations than I thought. What became clear was that what I thought were my personal limitations were totally illusory. I still get scared when things aren’t going well, but pressure can be useful.
Paul Budnitz
Parade magazine called snowboarding the worst new sport. I thought so many times about bailing. Anyone who has ever been involved in a successful start-up, that seems to be a common theme.
Jake Burton
12. Get rich or die trying
When it comes to retirement, I know my exit strategy: cremation.
Bob Parsons
