Complete Course on Entrepreneur Mindset for Entrepreneurship

The entrepreneur mindset is the logic of business - it is not taught anywhere, and almost unteachable.

Everyone can be Elon Musk - but why there are so few Elon Musk's?

The best schools on earth don't cover what we discuss here, and yet every business builder know. 

What is ONE THING that stops you become a billionaire?  what is the one thing that turns an idea into business?  Why Jobs and Musk can do things that adults can not achieve?  what is the missing elements that no one tells you and trains you? 

Why the mindset is the "missing link"?  there are three reasons.

1. Most books are written like a memory or observation, they do not guide your action;

2. Most books are written while avoiding the unpleasant truth of startup - the difficulty.  Such books generally don't sell well, hence authors avoid them.

3. Your mind can only be set by YOU on the field in practice.  No one can set it for you.  No books can do that job. But the mindset is the real element that separate the first timers from experienced entrepreneurs.

With great mind you can work for others.  With a great mindset, you will recruit people to work for you. The mindset is rarely talked about - it is not the idea or plan, it is not the smart or knowledge - it is the attitude.  The core code of mindset is already in you - let's activate them with exercises and activities in this class.  Everyone can be Elon Musk - the trick is to make the transition early, as a side hustle, and with little risks.

Everyone has a great mind.  Everyone can be like Elon Musk.  However, the key to unlock your own hidden power is the mindset upgrade.  If you want to bring changes to the world, you must adopt the business mindset.  If your want to see "the pig fly", your mindset is the air, NOT THE WING.

Our schools do not teach many things, and our schools misinform students on many things.  The mindset is a MIND UPGRADE.  Think of your brain as a computer.  You may be Harvard educated with MIT Ph.D. degree, but your mind is still the "employee" mindset, the "student" mindset.  You want to upgrade to the "business mindset", and the "entrepreneur mindset".  This mindset is the final mindset that people like Musk, Jobs, Gates and Bezos gained when they were very young.  Get the mindset, and then the fun can begin.

Schools don't teach.  Only you can teach yourself the mindset - because only you can set your own mind.  However, the usual steps of startup struggle is very expensive.  This course tries to give you a hint of the mindset when you have nothing to lose yet.

Once you get the mindset, somehow, your perspective on business and life would change.  But honestly, very few people get it.  It is difficult to get, and it is rarely discussed.  But the mindset is a grounded confidence, a humble realization that you are not the smartest but you are powerful.

We use the analogy of learning bike riding to show you the process of gaining the mindset.

Every successful entrepreneur had a "hidden start" - the start that only he/she knows but it is not widely reported in media.  This hidden start got them the mindset.

There are many dreamers with ideas big and small.  It is important to put your skills in gear and build your business.  A wannapreneure is compared here to a second time entrepreneur - one without the mindset, and one with it. 

Most first time entrepreneurs do not realize, that the so called "start" is only the beginning of learning.  Great ideas happen after you start.  Hence most people wait for ever for the "perfect idea", and never earned the "mindset badge".

There are many books out there about entrepreneurship.  However, they don't teach you how to put your dream into action.  It is like going to an art museum does not teach you how to become an artist. 

Reading a book by Guy Kawasaki only teaches you 30% of the "techniques" - what Guy Kawasaki did not tell you is how to get the mindset!  what lean start did not show you is how to get the mindset.  Without the mindset, all the books are just a mystery menu of cars - you can read a whole menu of cars and still don't know how to drive.

Here we will test your knowledge of some great entrepreneurs.  Don't worry, it is not scored, but just meant to be informational.  Have fun.

In one hour, let me explain to you the steps to become an entrepreneur, the essential MBA knowledge a founder must know, and the path a startup can take.  I promise you complete new perspective in one hour.

The entrepreneurship mindset explained.  It is not "inventor", or "innovator", or "scholar", or "change" or "solve problems".

Schools not only does not teach entrepreneurship, schools mess up the entrepreneur mindset that everyone have.  To a large extent, entrepreneurship is to repair the many damages caused by school.

Schools don't teach effective entrepreneurship.  This is by design.  Schools are meant to train graduates to have a good life holding a job at the companies doing plug-and-play replaceable work.  Schools train work force for companies, not founders to start ones.  If you want to become an entrepreneur, you have to eventually renounce comfort.

Let me shows you the process, and give you some hints on how to be entrepreneur safely.

I was educated at top engineering schools, and was a professor of top schools.  Then I started entrepreneurship, and real learning.

To give an offering to people and receiving compensation is a serious act of independence.  All businesses out there, from Google to your local restaurant, compete to survive and compete to give.  An ordinary effort does not create the demand and satisfy them.  We discuss the competition nature of business.

Correctly understanding the competitive nature will make you understand why so many startups formed by well schooled and smart people fail - it is a new level of competition.  It takes all the book knowledge, and then it takes:

1. Market deep knowledge;

2. Buyer psychology, which is very complex to predict;

3. Planning, hustling, experience (to safe time when time counts), and scheming.

First timers think about what strangers will need tomorrow, real entrepreneurs pay attention to what people DEMAND and what they demand TODAY.  This second mindset ties to the competition mindset.

If you focus on what people will need tomorrow, you will have tomorrow's competition tomorrow.  Entrepreneurship is fought today, for today's customers, for today's demands.

Real entrepreneurs know that customers don't need to buy anything.  Customers don't buy what they need,  don't buy what they want.  Real entrepreneurs approach the startup as relation building.

Steve Jobs discusses with a colleague at a QA session about technology, customer experience and demand creation, and the fun of creating things that people demand, no matter how hard it is.

Here, Elon Musk chime in with Steve Jobs on discussing the importance of "what customers want" and winning the customer's heart.  Business is about making value and creating demand that were not there before - it is nothing but hard work, but ultimately rewarding in the end.

Have you ever wondered why someone decide to pay you?  it is a value proposition accepted, it is sometimes called "traction found".  A business is like a marriage and marriage proposition - it takes a long time to build and maintain that kind of trust and relation.

Make the best, don't try to make the first.  Don't make the first unique original "never before" thing that sounds like a sure bet.

Have you met people who insist on using their unique original ideas that no one has thought of?  there are many such ideation experts - the key is to put the idea to the ground and make the idea run.  Good entrepreneurs build a business based on other people's ideas. 

People and inventors tend to exaggerate the problem in their own mind ... that is why it is important to have the mindset so you are not fooled by your own mind.

There is a saying "there are many ways to succeed, but one way to fail".  There is another saying "there are many ways to fail, but only one way to succeed".  Both are right and both are wrong.  The fact is, there are many ways to succeed, and there are many ways to fail.  Others' success can not be copied.  Others' failures are often unreported and can happen to you.  By the time you encounter a risk, it is often too hard to move out of the danger.

A good entrepreneur had the mindset exercise as a vaccine - they took a controlled a risk so they won't be killed by every failure.  That is the trick.

You can not follow anyone's idea.  Anyone's idea don't work for you. You must find your own way, and survive your own mistakes.  The mindset is your only guide.

Not all stories are big, but even a "small" baserun success is EPIC - here we discuss the anatomy of a web store business and how they position themselves and develop the right strategies.

Answer questions to find out how much you understand the concepts.

Steve Jobs discusses his venture with Wozniak to develop the digital phone box that can control the phone network - this is his first taste that ideas can really impact the world.  "Without the blue box, there would not be Apple".

Failure is not a mistake, but many people are afraid of failures.  The failure stories are revealing, but they are often not reported.  People want to hear good news.  However, for many entrepreneurs, knowing quality failure stories, or hard battle stories, or almost failure stories, are important.

We discuss two cases of two tech companies delisted from the NASDAQ stock exchange after IPO - it is shocking because most people won't think that a company would automatically have business, let alone IPO-ed ones.

The verdicts - no customers. No traction, no value proposition acceptance, despite the fame of the founders.  These stories are not easy to find, I only know them because they happened to my friends.

Success is proven in the market place - no amount of planning and advertising can create customers and scaling growth, unless customers allow.  We look at the examples of Angry Bird game (a success after many failures), Bell Picture phone (a failure at the time), and AutoZone (a great success), in this and the coming lectures.

We discuss the case of Picture Phone by Bell, a heavy investment that did not go anywhere.

Which mindset elements do the cases expose?

AutoZone is an American after market car part specialty retailer.  How did it conceive what business to make?

Many failed businesses are never heard of, and only the great successes are propagated in our news media.  Many starting businesses fail and the people never talk about it.  Well, it is important to discuss them.

Critical thinking is rare commodity - as Elon Musk explains.  Critical thinking has three components: 1. Don't believe you are right; 2. Try to prove you are right by doing; 3. Listen to a lot of people and don't listen to a lot of people.

Street smart describes people who earned knowledge not from schools and books.  It is important because most failures are not due to reasons well talked about in books.  Let's test your knowledge base.

A mindset is how your mind is set.  You must set your own mind - we provide the exercises that you can follow.  Once you do these exercises, you will creatively and critically analyze your situation.  These tests will "force" you to become a business person instantly - which is the point.

Many people do entrepreneurship and gained the mindset.

We advocate getting the mindset first and then do entrepreneurship.

With better results and lower costs.

Once you learned how to do business, you can always do business.

Once you learn how to build business, you can always build any business.

You have learned some failure and success stories from previous section. However, many people still don't think that anything would apply to them.  Before we do the exercises below, let's do the following multiple choice quizzes to reflect and evaluation your current state of understanding.

In this exercise, you will build a common webstore and sell common products to common people.  It is called a business.  The buy and sell is the core of business and it is the way to practice the mindset.  Buy somethings from local stores or Costco, and sell them online.  You will learn to become a store owner and a business/marketing chief.  Remember, if you can sell a product, you can sell any product.  Many entrepreneurs can not sell what they built.

There is no need to raise money and build a technology and make a product and then try to sell it.  In this exercise we cut to the chase.

Go to this link for a course on Etsy shop building - learn online selling at no startup cost, and gain the mindset.

https://www.udemy.com/course/etsy-shop-complete-course-to-create-etsy-side-income

Steps for building an online business - briefly discussed here.  More details are not included here to keep the focus tight.  Contact the instructor if you need any personalized discussions.

Is drop shipping real? how do you do that?

It is not enough to have a website.  NO one visit the website, and there are no products stock.

SEO is the art of helping others to find you!  It is deep.  Without SEO, you can be the lated Da Vinci but no one would even visit with you.  SEO is to tell Google "I want to be found under the keyword of xxx".  Here "xxx" could be "inventors", or "Chicago invention", or "genius Chicago".

The five steps to start an online business.

Ten different ways to build an online business.

Detailed suggestions of three steps to become business minded - and then make or do business.  DO business first, then make one.

In this exercise you will build and sell an APP on a platform.  The objective is simple - not for a sure certain success or uniqueness, but get you to FINISH one.  It will let you see the entire flow and gain clarity.

Here we discuss the specific tasks for the APP writer assignment.

Entrepreneurs must unlearn everything our schools and society teach - including views towards innovation, business, money and success.  It is a very deep topic. 

Business is never safe - it is the opposite of the "establishment" or "comfort zone".

Business world and regular life over lap but there is nothing similar.  Business people are sellers and regular people are buyers.  Once you are in business you become a seller. 

Have you learned how to ride a bike by reading some books? going to bike riding schools?  no.  Did your parents teach you?  no.  You simply jump on the bike and carry the risk of falling. Those who manage to fall safely learn it in a few tries.  Those who is afraid to fall will never learn. 

Entrepreneurship and business is like this ... basically no one can teach you how to balance and juggle.

Building a great business and finding a good business is like learning how to cook - you can read as many cook books but you only start to become good after you fail multiple times and gain experience.

Business has no book - there can be business anywhere and everywhere.  Business is like building a LEGO in free style.  It takes practice to build something out of things everyone has.

Business has no rules - it is about providing benefits, not about providing interesting and useful information and assistance.

In business, you must sell a product through a store to desired audience.  The audience must want to pay you cash.  Your ideas are not enough - your ideas must be about a product, about store, and about focus. 

Whatever you invent, you have to sell it yourself.

Business is total dedication and dominating your niche.  It is about giving your audience and buyer tremendous benefits.  It is about keeping your promise for many decades.

Business is to be number one in something small and well defined. 

It is not about being number whatever in something big and futuristic.

In business, you must do what you can NOW.

If a business does not take investment, then it is very likely you have no barrier, no efficiency, and no quality products to talk about.  In this case, your product will be generic and can not command a price for you to be profitable.

Many business is easy to start but hard to master.  You can make revenue but profiting takes more skills.

Investors are like the booster rockets on a rocket launch - without the booster the satellite will not go into high orbits.  However, the booster does not care about being "paid back" - the investor do not bet on you, the investors want to "invest in you" so they can have good returns.

Investors do not treat you as a lottery ticket for 1 dollar.  The investor treat you as a stock they can buy and then SELL.  The investor wants to sell their stock in your company.  They don't want to hold it.

Business are constantly fending off competitors and copy cats.  They must build a barrier of entry.  The barrier is built by a process called "innovation". 

It turns out that "innovation" is not a high brow revolutionary concept - it is everyday business deeds.

In business you must sell what you invented.  No one will help, even if you promise them money.

Every great product takes selling.  Nothing sells themselves. The world does not care your great idea or product - the world can wait.

Business plan must be executed.  Experienced entrepreneur can make a bad idea work, can make a bad plan work. 

Many new entrepreneurs spend forever trying to come up with a better idea - they never start.  What they don't know is this - the great ideas are many and plentiful and they are all waiting for you AFTER you start.

Business is business.  Business is not right or wrong, rich or poor.  Business is a competition.  Business is part of life.  Business is an attitude.

The path to success have three elements:. (1) Your mindset can only be set by yourself. (2) the mind can only be reset after your experience, in the real world and niche sectors; (3) the experience is risky and expensive - the key is to make sure your first failure does not detail you completely.  That is the trick of all the great successes.

The first time novices do the following:

1. Don't experience and don't focus;

2. Think forever;

3. Have an idea, and go ask for money, or take a risk too big;

4. They fail, and never tries it again.

A good way to do is the following:

1. Gain the mindset through small exercises like here;

2. Become a business person, earn the mindset badge;

3. Wait for big waves and opportunities and strike it.

Five entrepreneurs: Zuckerberg, Gates, George Westinghouse, Jobs, and Musk.  What is the common thing to them?  If we can find one thing that all five did, but millions don't, would you like to know what it is?

Elon Mask, Jack Ma and Steve Jobs discusses the importance of taking risks early, and the benefits of it.  Don't be afraid of failures - take them early.

This is the hidden story of Gates.  Popular media make it sounds like a smart person with a great idea, but there is so much hustle and competition behind the scene.

Here is an interesting way to understand entrepreneurship - by drawing analogy between architecture buildings to companies/business, and architects to founders.  We put this here in the supplemental material to help you get some extra perspective thinking.  Have fun.

MAKING MONEY IS COMMUNAL.  It is relationship.

This is the hidden things that the MBAs thought you knew.

Most entrepreneurs never run a business and never worked in one.  If there are two things in the MBA textbook you must know, these two would be it - the channel and the supply chain.  If you do not understand these, it would be like Michael Jordan not knowing a basketball game has two halves and each half last 12 minutes.  These two concepts are critically important especially for engineers.

Yes, to make money, you must help others make money.

Steve Jobs make money for others - he build an APP market.

Gates make money for others - many people can build Microsoft software and making living.

Elon Musk's Paypal help others make money - it makes paying easier.

Jack Ma of China built Alibaba - the company is an online expo for small Chinese businesses.  Many people can make money on Alibaba, or through Alibaba.

Amazon, helps many store owners on Amazon make money.  They help factory owners make money.

Quote quotes from founders who found the truth.