Wee Kiat is one of the people who started myBurgerlab, a really popular burger chain in KL. He recently wrote a blog article about his tough experience in business.
That article gave me food for thought. I began to think about my own business experiences and the truth is that the lessons I’ve learned in the past years were hard truths that my old naive entrepreneur self struggled to accept years before.
If I could go back in time and tell myself then what I know now, I know I would have been a far better entrepreneur.
Anyway here’s the really sad but true things that I’ve learned about business.
1) Business has no place for empathy.
I used to read about how Microsoft in the 90s fought to keep their monopoly position. They used every possible weapon in their arsenal be it legal action against their competitors, bundling IE with Windows to kill Netscape or undercutting its competitors. Facebook has the same approach too. They either buy their competitors or copy them and strive to kill them.
I used to frown upon it because I used to think “Hey… why not let the little guy make some money? They already dominate market share.”
Today I understand why they do it. Business is hard and business is brutal. Sometimes you’re up and sometimes you’re down but when you’re up you can’t afford to pull punches on your enemies or competitors. You have to really go all the way because if the situation were the reverse, your enemies wouldn’t pull punches.
I noticed that too in my own business career. Sometimes I pulled punches on our enemies and I expected them to do the same when the situation was reversed. They didn’t. They went all the way and further.
Today Microsoft and Facebook maintain their dominance in their own spaces and I believe it’s largely because they fought for every single percentage point of market share.
I’ve learned now that the business world is this hard and brutal place. It was really hard to accept this but I now accept and understand why there is no place for empathy against your enemies. Have empathy outside of business, to people, to society, to your loyal employees… but in business, you have to go all the way.
Now if I have 60% market share, I’ll be really unsatisfied because I don’t have the remaining 40%. I think that’s how many successful entrepreneurs think and how I have to think.
2) People judge you on your mistakes… until you have another a success that speaks louder than your mistakes.
Sometimes as an entrepreneur you hit a winning streak. Business does really well, people treat you like a rock star and everything you touch turns to gold. It’s the best feeling in the world… feeling invincible. Feeling that you’re unstoppable.
Except that you’re not. Nobody is. Everyone goes through ups and downs and while I knew that, what I was surprised with was how perceptions change so quickly. How you can fall from rock star to loser overnight.
I had a friend who successfully started and sold two companies. He was a rock star and so by the time he came up with the idea for his third venture, investors were lining up to fund him and fund him they did to the tune of tens of millions.
The 3rd venture hit a snag and just like many other entrepreneurs would he put in the hours to pivot and try to make it work. Yet word has already gone around that he’s “not as good as people thought” or that he’s about to be the next “failure”. Ex-employees who once sang praises of him now speak poorly of him, saying that he should have done things this way or that way. It’s like his entire career was judged on how he did on his latest venture and everyone had forgotten his past.
The same goes for many other successful entrepreneurs in the US. Jack Dorsey is now CEO of Twitter for the second time. The first time he was kicked out because the board and investors felt he wasn’t good enough. Last year when they brought him back in, there was a wave of positivity but eventually investors get impatient and they will judge him again as a loser, if he doesn’t turn things around fast enough.
3) Friends in business are not as strong as you think.
I’ve made many good friends in business and it took me some time to realize that friends in business are only friends as long as one thing remains true.
Whether with your co-founder, investor or key employees, you’re only friends as long as your business interests are aligned. If they fall out of alignment then friends can quickly become enemies.
So manage your own expectations. If you fall out of friendships like this then understand it’s not personal, it’s business (even though to an entrepreneur business IS personal).
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space