I’m Starting With The Man In The Mirror
I’m Asking Him To Change His Ways
And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself,
And Then Make A Change
I remember sitting in a Game Theory class, it was a course offered by Dr. Andrew N. Kleit at Louisiana State University. He asked a very simple question “Why do students go to do an MBA?”, I was like, it is obvious isn’t it they want to learn about business. His answer and opinion fundamentally changed my thinking, he said the only reason anyone takes an MBA degree is to give a signal to established businesses. Signaling matters a lot especially when you are an entrepreneur or startup founder.
Think about it who you are matters more than what you say for everything that you need to do to build your business like networking, selling, marketing, recruiting and raising funding. I am a student of watching body language and the words people use to describe things. It matters a lot, I met more than 70 entrepreneurs before I decided to work with Gunnar Holmsteinn, Gummi, Kari, Jon Eldvald, Maggi and Brian i.e. Team CLARA. My hunch was right, it was a great team that stuck together through thick and thin and had a safe and profitable landing for every stakeholder.
The same story when I met the founders of Buuteeq, Forest and Adam and Brian. I could see the signals they were projecting. It is authentic, honest and transparent if one looks for it. I recommend this to every entrepreneur, be genuine, authentic and be yourself. Project your vision, show passion on why you believe this is going to make the world better for your potential customer. I like to hear the struggles that you have endured in your journey, I have written about how Struggle makes you stronger and builds the resilience and antifragility muscles. Tell stories with context of the decisions you made and why you made them. Being positive through those struggles is a great attribute, it shows the kind of response that can come from you. All these things gives the right signals to a potential investor.
The above strategies are true whether you are raising money or not. I have always believed that Entrepreneurship and Startup is a truth game, every morning you need to be able to look yourself in the mirror and ask whether you are ready to make a change to the person on the mirror.
