Bill Gates isone of the world’s most successful and renowned businessmen. There are a lot oflearnings, that every entrepreneur can pick up,from the business journey that Bill Gates has transgressed.
“It takes a wise man to learn from his mistakes, but an even wiser man to learn from others” so said Bill Gates.
Likewise, we canadopt many lessons from other businesses and competitors at every stage of abusiness.
Here are the top six entrepreneurial tips by Bill Gates that will help you to bring about a sea change in the way you think and work.
(1) Work hard, even in your hard times
Bill Gates’sfirst company named “Traf-O-Data” did not take off due to poor marketing activities, but thatfailure did not stop Bill Gates. If he had said to himself that “I’ll stophere”, he would have never been a founder of a trillion-dollar market valued companycalled Microsoft.
Bill Gates did face many hurdles and he overcame them with his persistence. His persistence continues to be an inspiration for all of us, whenever we take up any challenging tasks.
(2) Never stop or unwind after a new customer sign up
In a start-upscenario, it is not good to rest or unwind after a small win or customer signup. Assoon aswe see a small amount of cash flowin the initialdays , wethink that wehavesucceededin the business journey,andstart celebrating!
However, weshouldn’t take this approach, and as an alternative, here’s what Bill Gatessays:
“Instead of buying airplanes and playing around like some of our competitors, we’ve rolled almost everything back into the company.”
This quote is a perfect example of how start-ups should plough back their money on initiatives rather than on luxuries.
(3) Innovate Fast
Companies should always try to analyze emerging trends and create products or services that will delight their consumers. Not only creating new products or services will make the company stand out from the crowd, but the success of the product/service is determined by how quickly this hits the market and creates a buzz. As part of innovation, you should also have a precise and time bound GTM strategy.
Speed is theessence in whatever we do. So, companiesshould be focused on how fast they are creating products and also making themavailable in the market. Having a deadline and being organized while developinga product should be the priority for all companies.
With regard tospeed, Bill Gates said:
“The most important speed issue is often not technical but cultural. It’s convincing everyone that the company’s survival depends on moving as fast as possible”
(4) Learn from competitors
From his early days, Bill Gates had learnt a lot from his competitors and aligned his business appropriately. Even, people accused Bill Gates that he had stolen their ideas and marketing strategies since he had achieved greater success as compared to his adversaries.
Every company can learn many things by watching their competitors. We can analyze the marketing strategy of our competitors and the feature benefits and/or USP of their products / services. By doing so, we plan our roadmap/strategy to beat the competition.
As a real-time example, Zoom stormed and captured the Video Calling Industry pushing Skype, and became the best in the COVID pandemic situation. Zoom and Skype both are video conferencing applications, but Zoom saw an opportunity and drove specific marketing strategies to become the Number One.
(5) Don’t do the same mistake twice
Bill Gatesshares that he learnt from his mistakes and he also knew how not to do them again.This tip is an important for every company and start-up that exists in this world.
Bill Gates says that if you make a mistake, don’t just sit and keep regretting it. Be responsible for the mistake and learn from it. Naturally, everyone makes mistakes, but learning from mistakes and preventing them from occurring again is what makes you stand out.
(6) Always be keen on Learning
“I am not in competition with anyone but myself. My goal is to improve myself continuously”- Bill Gates
Despite havingmany years of experience in a field, a person is likely to face data deluge onaccount of many new innovations, updatesand emerging technologies in this fast-paced world. Hence, continuous learning isimportant.
In everyindustry, there are always new things evolving and these cannot be ignored. So, everyone should keep upgrading theirknowledge and have the appetite to learn new things.
There is much to learn from Bill Gates. It would be great if we could imbibe some of his principles in our respective businesses. Such principles will help everyone to achieve something spectacular. Looking back at his history, we can see the failures and successes that motivated him to be where he is today. Bill Gates just marched forward irrespective of the results and emerged as a successful entrepreneur, which is a great lesson for all businesses in this world.
“As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others”- Bill Gates
