Lesson #4 you need a mentor
You need mentors to help you succeed in business. Jan Koum succeeded because he had mentors.
At an early stage of his career at Yahoo, He made friends with Brian Acton. His friendship with Mr Acton helped him navigate the early stages of his career.
He also found Brian Acton’s help crucial during the time when he lost his mother.
The truth is that you cannot build wealth alone. You need a team. You need mentors, and coaches.
Thomas Edison, one of the greatest icons of American business once said that he could not have achieved all he ever did without the support of mentors.
At the peak of his career, Edison had a team of scientists who he called his inner council that worked with him. He was also a friend to Henry ford, Harvey Firestone and J.P Morgan
Just like Jan Koum and Edison had mentors, you also need mentors.A mentor is someone who has done what you want to achieve.
A mentor will help you to achieve your goals by holding your hands-and guide you so you can achieve your dreams.
You can find mentors at your work place, local chambers of commerce, or through your trade associations. You can also pay for mentoring.
Lesson #5 Form a mastermind group
Jan Koum met weekly with a group of friends to brainstorm ideas about business. He was also an active member of hackers’ forums.
At one of such meetings, he shared the idea of starting whatsApp with his group. It was from his mastermind group that he found a Russian programmer who helped him fine-tune the source code for whatsapp.
His mastermind also served a resource for early recruits to his business.
Why do you need a mastermind group?
A mastermind is a meeting of like-minded individuals. The main purpose of a mastermind group is to support individual members to achieve a common objective
A mastermind is helpful because two or more people working closely in a group, in which they complement and support each other, can always achieve more than one person alone.
The bottom line is that you need a mastermind group to succeed at building wealth
Lesson #6 Learn how to sell what your customers want
One of keys for building a successful business is that you must sell a product that fulfills a want or desire in your customer.
In addition, your product should have an evergreen demand.
Koum’s whatsApp software fulfills these 2 criteria because:
first it helps people connect to each other instantly.
Secondly it has an evergreen want. Why? People always want to stay in touch with their friends and loved ones.
That is why in starting your own business; you must choose a product with an evergreen want. That is a product that your customers will always want to use.
Lessons #7 never ever give up
Whatsapp almost went bankrupt at the starting phase of the business. Because Koum ran out of cash to continue running the business
The founders almost threw in the towel after they burned all their savings on starting the business
But Brian Acton that reached out to the venture capital firms in Silicon Valley for help.
The Silicon Valley venture capital firms then gave seed capital that allowed the firm to keep running until it started making profits.
The moral of this story is that you should never give up.
The true test of your commitment to any venture you set out to do is: whether you’ll remain enthusiastic even when-things are not working out as planned.
Winston Churchill says success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm
The greatest reason why many people fail to build wealth is they lack the courage to persist in working on their plan-when the going gets tough.
The truth is Winners never quit. Quitters never win.
To prosper at a business takes time and willpower.
It took 5 years for of grit, losses and pain for Jan Koum to build Whatsapp to the point Facebook acquired it.
His preparation for success had started 14 years earlier- when he started working at Yahoo.
You too can do it
Koum’s story should serve as an inspiration for you to start working your own plan to become wealthy.
What you need to pursue your dream to become wealthy are:
- a desire for lifelong learning;
- a determination to work for yourself;
- mentors, and a mastermind group to help you on your journey
You also need to develop a product that has an evergreen demand.
And never give up trying at pursuing your dream