Episode 10: Myths Part 2
Turns out, there are many myths out there about being an entrepreneur like: starting a business is a sure-fire, get rich scheme. Surely not for everyone, but maybe for you! Tune in to hear which myths Doug and Glenn try to bust in this episode of Conversations on Startups.
Transcript
Glenn Suart 0:00
And that’s a big myth for me. Because you don’t have to have a degree. You don’t have to have all these fancy, you know, titles in some cases. What you need to do is have a market with people that want to buy something. If you just know what people want to buy, that’s pretty good. You don’t have to be smarter or… you just have to have the wherewithal to take action.
Doug Ross 0:33
Welcome to Conversations on Startups, a podcast brought to you by Douglas Ross, author of the book Spark Click Go: How to Bring Your Creative Business Idea to Life. And Glenn Suart of Today’s Great Idea, a radio series featuring over 300 origin stories of businesses, brands and inventions that have changed the culture. Welcome to today’s conversation.
Glenn Suart 0:56
Today, I think we’re going to do part two of the episode we did last week, which was about myths. Myths in terms of being an entrepreneur, and we had a lot of discussion last week about it. But there’s still a lot of myths out there. Doug, what’s another myth that we haven’t talked about?
Doug Ross 1:11
Well, this is a pretty common one, Glenn. Entrepreneurialism is a way to get rich. Not said but the subtext could be for everybody, or it could be at least for me- substitute your name in here. Obviously, some people do very well, and it is one of the main reasons to become an entrepreneur… is that you do get more of the upside of what you create in terms of product, service, business, all of that. So yes, there is the upside, no question. But it’s not the case that all entrepreneurs are rich. It’s like saying this Glenn. You know, many good hockey players, in fact, many of the best hockey players come from Canada. That’s not the same as saying every Canadian is a great hockey player. I know. I’m both. A Canadian, and not a good hockey player. So I think it’s a myth that it’s a get rich, quick scheme for everybody.
Glenn Suart 2:15
Yes, it does not happen overnight. Most of the people I know or [have] dealt with, they’ve struggled for a long period of time before something happens and it becomes viable. Here’s an example. You know, one of the stories I do for my Today’s Great Idea radio series about people who had great ideas who did something with them, let’s see if you can guess… you tell me if you recognize which company this is. Evelyn and David lived in Detroit, like a lot of people, she’s a good cook, she happened to make a dessert for her husband’s boss and her boss – [and her] husband’s boss, loved it. So naturally, you know, they thought about it, and maybe Evelyn should open a dessert shop. And it was a great success. It was very good. And that was the end of the story. Of course, not really, because she wanted to raise her family. They were young so she gave up the shop so she could be at home with the kids, and then she made some desserts on the side for local restaurants. And that’s what she did. But you know, 15 years later, after doing this, she and her husband moved to Los Angeles and she started selling desserts out of a wholesale bakery to local restaurants. That’s fine. And then five years after that, her son opens a sandwich shop and the sandwich shop sells her desserts, things go well and they expand the little sandwich shop. And then five years later, they open a second sandwich shop with the desserts. And then six years after that, it’s like, you know, a new one which was very successful. Then, still another five years, they had a few more. And then they went crazy. And today they have over 200 restaurants across the US, sales of over $2 billion a year. They’re very famous for the dessert and other food that they have. Any ideas, Doug?
Doug Ross 3:54
Cheesecake Factory?
Glenn Suart 3:55
Very good guess. The Cheesecake Factory. It wasn’t an overnight success. They had hurdles. They didn’t intend it to become this way, but they took their time to do it right. And that’s what happens. So you end up with a story that’s not an overnight success, but a very good success. Sometimes it takes a long, long time.
Doug Ross 4:15
Yeah, I agree. And one thing that blows me away about that place is, you know, you think they would experiment with some of these cheesecakes and narrow it down to the top sellers! I can not believe how many they have – not to mention the rest of their menu. Hard to imagine how they make money, you know? I wonder if they cut back during the recent pandemic? But your story reminds me of another person who has not himself become a household name, but his company has. This is a 20 plus year, overnight success story. [Yup] So the person that I’m talking about actually emigrated to Canada as a young person. He came from Lebanon, went to Montreal did schooling there, went up through the sciences, eventually went to MIT, became really interested in forming science-based companies, and he started to do that. He created his own organization to do that, fund them, and also get them off their feet. And over the course of the last 20 years, he’s founded some 50 companies, but only one you might know because this was the first, and arguably the most effective, vaccine against this scourge, COVID-19. You know who I’m talking about?
Glenn Suart 5:42
I do not.
Doug Ross 5:43
Okay, so this is Moderna. This is the story of Moderna. Noubar Afeyan, is the fellow’s name. So 20 years, you know, he did have some success with those companies, but this is a real… he hit it out of the park type of thing.
Glenn Suart 5:57
Well, there’s lot’s we could talk about on COVID, that’s for sure.
Doug Ross 6:01
Hey, podcast listeners, we’re going to take a short break. If you’re enjoying the show, feel free to invite your friends, remember to subscribe, and if you want to help spread the word, leave us a review on Apple podcasts or your favorite podcast app. Each episode of Conversations on Startups focuses on a single topic. If you want to comment on something you’ve heard on the podcast, or suggest a topic for us to cover in a future episode, send an email to go@todaysgreatidea.com or douglas@sparkclickgo.com. Glenn and I appreciate you and hope you find our uncut and unrehearsed stories, perspectives, and tips helpful. Speaking of helpful stuff, let’s pick up where we left off.
Glenn Suart 6:47
So Doug, we’ve talked about… it doesn’t happen overnight, and people think it does, that’s a myth, no, it doesn’t happen overnight. You’re going to be rich. Yeah, that doesn’t happen. It will potentially if it things go well, but lots of people don’t get rich, they struggle for a long period of time. Another myth is: I need to be smarter, and / or have better information. And that’s a big myth for me. Because you don’t have to have a degree. You don’t have to have all these fancy, you know, titles in some cases. What you need to do is have a market with people that want to buy something. If you just know what people want to buy, that’s pretty good. You don’t have to be smarter or… you just have to have the wherewithal to take action. I think that’s one of the myths I run into.
Doug Ross 7:32
You know, I think, one way I could see rephrasing that, to people who think of that, is that there’s going to be nobody smarter than you in an area where you are really focusing and you’re taking those initial steps, and you’re maybe adjusting something about your product, or service, or how you sell it, or the price point, or any numbers of things. The insights that you get from the humans that you’ve been interacting [with] that, you know, you hope to turn into customers, or that are customers, are going to make you the, if I may, master of that domain. But to start with, I totally agree. You don’t have to be a wizard to do this stuff.
Glenn Suart 8:19
No, you could be anybody – just understand what people want. Any other myths that jump out at you?
Doug Ross 8:23
This is a common one. Tell me if you’ve heard this one before, and whether it prompts any examples. Build it, and they will come.
Glenn Suart 8:33
Oh, that’s a good one. I like that.
Doug Ross 8:35
It worked in Field of Dreams, and I love that movie, it’s really a classic movie, I love that. We could probably dissect it and figure out how that actually turned out to be a success. But, build it and they will come is a myth because nobody knows what you’re doing. If you’re only building it, and you’re not talking about it along the way, you’re not figuring out or working with innovators or cultivating early adopters, you know, people that are likely to use it early…and you’re in stealth mode. The day you launch, you’re probably going to have crickets, unless it is gaining publicity for some reason. That’s a different story, yeah, then you just have to build it. Or you’ve already got a massive audience, which is part of the long term game here – if you’re building an audience – if you’re Steve Jobs – people are going to listen when you go and do that, do that announcement, you know, or some of these people that have an audience. But generally speaking, I don’t think that’s a good strategy, build it and they will come. What’s been your experience?
Glenn Suart 9:45
I agree with you that some people have false expectations. Like I’ve got the world’s greatest screwdriver. If I show it to Stanley, the manufacturer of a lot of screwdrivers, they’re just gonna want to buy it right away, you know, type of thing, and that’s not the case. But you do have to build it to get something to show people. And, you know, people talk about this minimally viable product – because you do need to show what it is you’ve got – and that… so that you can get people to understand, as you said, the benefits of what it is you’re offering. You can’t not not do it. You can’t just sell an idea based on… you can, but it’s very much harder, just sell the idea on the benefits and then build it after that, doesn’t always work, you need to show people. I think in that case, we talked about this in a previous episode, you know, the Big Mac sandwich from McDonald’s, created by one of the franchisees, he built it, tested out [at] his own store, didn’t succeed because had the wrong name, and then he changed the name, still no success. But then, when they came up [with] the third name, with the help of McDonald’s itself – the Big Mac – that helped launch the product. So just because you built this great sandwich doesn’t mean people are going to love it. They didn’t understand what it was. It wasn’t sold properly in the beginning. It’s a myth, people will suddenly beat a path to your door right away. Some cases it can. But a lot of cases it doesn’t.
Din 11:09
You’re listening to Conversations on Startups with Doug and Glenn, thanks for joining us, let’s get back to the show.
Doug Ross 11:18
Well, and where the concern comes in, or the risk comes in, is if you spend a lot of time, and money, and other resources doing this, and then you start to get feedback, that’s the particular case that I’m talking about. What you’re talking about with these smaller steps that maybe don’t cost a lot of money, maybe nothing, but shaping it in some way, creating some sort of prototype or minimally viable product, and then getting it out to people, seeing how it resonates with them, figuring out how to talk about it – all of those things I totally am on board with. And, if you do that in small steps, and small investments of time, blood, sweat, tears, all of that, you can be successful. It’s the guy who’s building, let’s just call it a time machine in his garage for 10 years, and then is going to launch it to the world on day 10 years +1. That’s the concern that that I’ve seen, and it just doesn’t seem to work that way.
Glenn Suart 12:24
Yep. All right. Well, we’ve talked a lot about myths in the last two episodes and there are a lot of them out there. You know, if you’re an entrepreneur, basically, just keep moving forward at the end of the day. Take action every day and don’t let these things get in your way. That, you know, you’re not smart enough, that it’s goin’ happen tomorrow. Just keep plugging, you do not know. Things could change in an instant. But you got to take action, you got to keep me moving forward. Any other suggestions for entrepreneurs there, Doug?
Doug Ross 12:54
Well, I like that one, things do change. And you… you know, a market could open up, you have no idea and if you’ve done work but, you know, I think some of these overnight successes… they are successes because they were ready. They were doing the work and then something changed. You know, like the guy who was investing in pulp mills, you know, and then suddenly, there was a run on toilet paper – stuff like that. So, yeah, I love the action oriented message, I think that is… that’s a critical element of it. You cannot do entrepreneurship, on your computer at home. I mean, you can communicate with people, what I meant to say is you can’t do it in isolation. And based on just studying known things that are out there – secondary sources. You’ve got to go out there, into the street, wherever your customers might be, or potential customers, and get to know them, interact with them. That’s going to help propel you forward and build momentum.
Glenn Suart 13:53
That’s right. Don’t let myths stop you.
Doug Ross 14:05
Conversations on Startups is a production of Glenn Suart and Douglas Ross. We hope you’re having fun listening, but mostly that you take action on your business idea. For more inspiration, visit our websites, todaysgreatidea.com and sparkclickgo.com. Another episode of Conversations on Startups will drop soon or is already available to binge. Thanks for joining us and remember to subscribe and invite your friends. See you next time.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai