We have been exposed to a lot of successful entrepreneurs these days, I don’t know how these intelligent people do their reflection, but some of the points they made are really worth thinking. Basically, I feel that I learnt more from speakers’ sharing sessions than visits to established companies. We visited Cisco today, and experienced real time video conference, unified communications, and other advanced technologies. The presentations and demos are more marketing orientated than entrepreneurial orientated…  but on the other hand, it’s nice to have some combination of SME and giant companies, so that we can at least have a feeling for company status at different stages. Anyway, every day is filled with enriching experiences and we enjoyed them all!

This evening Babu Jain reminded us of the following points that need to pay attention to:

1)      Do something unique. This point is similar to Mike Maple’s “Be different, not better.” And I think the reason of being unique is to create entry barrier for current and future threats. Babu pointed out that intellectual property is the most important thing, because it is the most defensible weapon.

2)      Manage your relationship with colleagues. In a startup working environment, which is stressful and risky, the working relationship with colleagues is usually complex, and how to manage it well is really an art.

3)      Be flexible in your idea. If one idea is not working, be bold and fast to abort it and move on to the next one. “Don’t be emotional” to a single idea, technology, or product.

4)      Continuous learning is very important. Learning from other industries, learning from competitors, etc.

5)      Select the right team and be prepared to work in a highly stressed environment. Once you are working with a start up, you are giving your blood and future to that startup. With limited resources, you have a great vision, and a strong team is vital to the realization of the dreams for every entrepreneur.

6)      Find out what is the “unfair advantages” for your business. That is going to make you a difference from others and opens a door leading to the road of success. When I asked Babu for examples for such advantages, he said “while, if you are the Minister’s daughter, you have unfair advantages.”

7)      Identify how desperate customers need your technology/services. That contributes to the sustainability of your company. And once you make efforts to improve that desperateness, you are able to do a better job in retaining customers.

8.      “Lose Face if Fail” is not correct. One of the biggest culture differences in SV and Asia is the attitude towards failure. This point has been talked for quite a few times. In Asia, people’s mindset of fearing of failure is very hard to change… and I’m wondering how many generations will continue to inherit this mindset…

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