Through your whole experience, what is the one advice
you would have for someone that's starting an app?
So, actually the piece of advice I would say, it links back to
when I played golf. When I was in South Africa, so just for your audiences
FYI, I originally went to the US because I thought I was gonna be a pro golfer, and when I got
to, you know, when I was playing in South Africa, I thought I was the man, you know.
I was like you know, I just thought okay you know, I've made it.
Going on tour is not gonna be difficult, I'm gonna be in like a top ten
golfer in the world, and then I got to the States and guys who were not even
in like the third or fourth league, like in the seventh league were like
kicking my butt, and this is like in campus, in varsity
and that's when I got a very rude awakening. Okay these guys are A) a hell of a lot
better, they're willing to work a hell of a lot harder and so I've got a
re-imagine what I really want for my life, and B) how hard I'm willing to work.
Often times, and it's linking that back to local and startup entrepreneurs here.
Often times we disguise this allure of being a start-up entrepreneur and
"I run a startup and I'm a build this" you know, when we got the first round of
capital I was actually in tears, because I felt this overwhelming sense of
responsibility that now actually, I mean I've put this nice fancy presentation
together, now people who I really admire and respect have given me money, and it
was a heavy sense of responsibility, now you have to make it work,
because the last thing I would do is waste their money and be embarrassed.
And so what I would say to young entrepreneurs is that actually
running a startup is not just a five-year commitment, it's like a ten or
twelve year commitment if you're gonna do it right.
It is massive amounts of sacrifice. Personal time, family time, friends time, partying time,
everything, and going to the gym if that's something you love,
you're probably not going to be doing it much, and so A) you've got to be really aware of
the sacrifice and commitment that it requires, and then it
requires that large of sacrifice and commitment simply, because in
order for you to be successful that's what it takes. If you want to fail you
can go to gym, and have friends and party right, that's number one. Number two, if you
are ready to make that kind level of investment, then you really have
to actually do it wholeheartedly, and today with Google and with all the resources
that we have available to us there is no excuse, for not knowing who your global competitors are.
There is no excuse for not knowing all the mistakes that they've
made, and reaching out to people and speaking to them. I mean I reach out to
40 to 50 people a day on LinkedIn in various industries, and various
skill sets, because I need to understand what they're doing. I need to understand
whether they great to have to hire for our team, if there's something that they
working on that's gonna disrupt us, if there's something that they're
working on that I need to incorporate into our business. So if you, as a
start-up entrepreneur on LinkedIn you aren't reaching out to, if you want to start up a an
on-demand business, there are thousands of ex-Uber employees right, reach
out to them, go speak to them they will be
dying to talk about their experience right. If you want to start up a retail
business, there are plenty of ex-Woollies, and
Checkers, and Makro employees,who will gladly, you know share some
information. So I would say you really got to be prepared for the sacrifice
that it takes, and it's not a five-year commitment, it's a ten-year commitment.
If you're thinking that you're gonna be the next Instagram, you're dreaming.
Be realistic.
Sure, you have to.
Go for the 99% moonshot, not the 1% moonshot.
So that 99% of people are gonna spend ten years, I'm in it for six
years already, gone by in a flash, right. And then the second thing is, you have to
have a ridiculous work ethic, ridiculous, nobody can teach you
anything about your business when it's six months, if they can you haven't
worked hard enough, and then I think what also happens,
the byproduct of that, is that when you're meeting investors, when you're
meeting other smart people, they actually pick up on that they're like "You know Dan
really knows what he's talking about. He's been..., oh he knows that person..., oh he's done that..." and then suddenly I want to be
associated with Dan, because Dan is an expert, Dan knows he's willing to
work harder than the next person, and then instantly you start drawing in
these people who also have a very similar perspective on life. Right.
And then they want to be a part of your journey because they're like, I know that
this person's a mountaineer.
Yeah exactly, and I think you attract people with the same work ethic.
Yeah, absolutely smart people and successful people don't want to be associated with lazy, stupid people.
That's true.
Right, you didn't get there by being stupid and lazy.
Exactly yeah.
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