🎙 Inventive Journey | Real Stories From the Startup Survival Club

Adaptable mindset, If you want to be an entrepreneur(starting a business), you got to have the right mindset, because it's straightforward for people to give up if they don't see any results or anything manifesting and they might wanna give up in the middle of one year so to speak, not everything is going to be shiny or golden. The journey is hard, there is pain, and there are ups and downs, Judy Lin emphasizes - you want to go to an industry or a niche that you enjoy, typically it would make you last longer and you would be happy putting in the extra hours to the business.

Make sure the "Why" of your business is bigger than yourself. That's what going to motivate you to really get up every day when it's tough and hard and also help you to seek that community to support you. So, make your why bigger than yourself and be willing to pivot.

Don't be scared to ask for help, you'd be surprised how many people are willing to help you if you just ask. Lots of times, you're starting something, you question yourself, like, is this right? Am I wrong? What should I do next? A lot of times reaching out and asking for help, people would be willing to give you advice or lead you to somebody who could help you.

Were a 100,000 percent into this business. This is not a side hustle this is a full time day and night, even while we dream, type of job. This is what my dreams consist of today, dreaming about Sim. The one thing I would say to entrepreneurs who are looking to start a business if you believe in yourself go all in. Take the risk, there's nobody better to bet on then yourself. If your in the stock market your investing in stocks, those prices go up and down and you have zero control over what happens. But if you believe in yourself go all in, work your tail off. A lot of bad things are going to happen along the way, a lot of mistakes are going to be made, learn from those mistakes. Continue to work hard and move the ball forward every day. Incremental movements forward will add up and eventually you'll get the hockey stick curve that everybody dreams about.

Don't wait. I waited many years, I always wanted to start my business. I always knew that I could create something. I already had a ton of ideas that I was working on. My two cents are if you really feel like you were made to start a business and that it is what you like then do it. Don't wait to long worrying about money or how you will actually do it. Jump in and then raising money and find customers is easy if  you really like what you do. Your going to get help along the way and people will reach out to you. If  you really feel that you are made for it go ahead and start right away.

Never launch your perfect product, always launch the imperfect product. If you think back to the iPad 1 it only became the product that it is after several iterations. In my personal experience when I wrote the book "abominable secrets revealed" It was only a year since I learned how to type. Prior to joining the Air Force I did not know how to type. I had to figure out how to type 30 words per minute to get through training. The book was published without a ISBN number, I didn't hire a proof reader. And what I did is I published it and then over time I perfected it. Don't launch a perfect product, always go ahead and launch the imperfect product and then improve it as you go.

Keep talking to people that you don't know that you should know. What I mean by this is that often these technology companies are founded by technologist and they think they know all the answers.  But they have to go talk to the economic buyer and they have to understand what the economic buyer is really thinking. So my advice is never stop reaching out to talk to people.

Talk to people. Find out from other people who are doing that work, something similar, what its like. Ask them for pointers, talk to them, engage. Its almost like networking, I guess it is networking. Talk to people who have done it. I thought I knew what I was getting into, and for the most part I did, but there were key elements that I was missing that slowed me down. You may find that the experience wasn't anything like you wanted it to be. You may find that its exactly what your are hoping it is but you have to take certain steps to make sure your not going down the wrong path. It's like any other business once you go down a path its hard to back track and start over, or redo even part of it. Talk to people who have succeeded, who are running their own business. Ask them about building a network, acquiring clients, marketing, the legal aspect. Get advice. If you haven't done it before you don't know what you don't know. If you don't exactly how to do something of the things you will find out, at least you know where you are on the landscape and you can plan accordingly.

Branding is everything. People want to do business with people not a logo. That is what I very much stick by. You have to show case who you are as a person, why someone should do business with you, what the culture of your company is. That is what people want to see when they do business with somebody.

Start with the end customer in mind. Figure out who your end customer is going to be and go starting lighting those people up. Because at the end of the day that's who you have to satisfy. So whatever the business deal is just figure out where the end customer is going to be and make sure that through letters of intent or something like that you get a relationship in place. And if you do that  you'll be ok.