Starting a Business? Read These Books First

Think Twice Before Opening a Restaurant

When I was CEO of a small YouTube agency, I saw firsthand how the first inclination is to follow the default path — doing what is obvious and what everyone else is doing. And that’s a sure way to bankruptcy.

If you want to start a business, chances are you’re thinking of opening a grocery store, a clothing shop, a restaurant, or something similar that you’ve seen other people do successfully. But that can be a vicious cycle.

What’s the Problem?

We hit a snag at our agency. None of us — me, my colleague who my boss hired for sending Upwork proposals, nor the boss himself — could figure out the cause. Our cold emails and proposals weren’t getting much traction.

As CEO of our YouTube agency, I was personally invested in solving this challenge due to my natural curiosity and leadership role.

I remember my colleague saying she and our boss were scratching their heads over it. After months of grappling, I turned to books for answers. Elon Musk said ‘You don’t know what you don’t know.’ Well, that’s true.

Who’s to Blame?

Our marketing person left, and I took over, sending proposals myself. Still, same old story — low responses, minimal conversions. My boss thought it might be my writing, so he asked for all the proposals.

But I had confidence that the problem wasn’t with me. Despite lacking editorial experience, I had been with the agency for months, facing various and horrible challenges and gaining valuable insights.

He was overly concerned about minor grammatical errors, which I didn’t think were a big deal. I believed my proposal was well-written.

When Upwork introduced a new feature notifying us when clients opened our proposals, it further reinforced my confidence that my work wasn’t to blame. Instead of scrutinizing my work, he should have dug deeper to uncover the real issues.

He seemed determined to blame me for a flawed system he had created himself.

It’s interesting that instead of looking at the whole picture and the system his agency was operating upon, he was mostly concerned with how I was operating. Not that I don’t have flaws — I do — but I would have appreciated if he had examined his own perspective, his plans, his systems first before scrutinizing me.

This is a common issue in the marketing industry: many marketers feel pressure from their industry to perform better and increase sales, yet the industry leaders themselves often fail to critique their own products. Do they have remarkable products? Certainly not. As Seth Godin says, the blame shouldn’t fall solely on marketers; sometimes, you have to go back to the drawing board.

Anyway, with this notification, I realized that 99% of clients didn’t even open the proposals, let alone read and notice minor grammatical errors. Despite this, he insisted on detailed reports.

And I gave him. He reviewed everything and found no mistakes.

Aha, So It’s the Wrong System!

Frustrated but determined, I dove into books like ‘The Art and Business of Ghostwriting’ by Nicolas Cole, ‘Purple Cow’ by Seth Godin, and ‘Zero to One’ by Peter Thiel. (though I read this one after I quitted but it was very eye-opening).

At first, when I saw Ryan Holiday always quoting Peter Thiel’s ‘competition is for losers,’ I thought maybe it’s about not putting pressure on ourselves by competing with others. But later, I realized what it’s really about: having a monopoly and pricing power. Without these, everyone is just racing to the bottom.

The issue with our agency was crystal clear: we were just another YouTube agency doing the same old thing. Seth Godin’s idea about ‘purple cows’ stuck with me.

Arrogance is to Blame

Over the New Year holiday, my boss ran a new cold email campaign. When I got back, he looked beat — tired, unshaven, and disappointed. Turns out, out of 20,000 emails, he got only two responses which were a disappointment, telling us they couldn’t work with us.

He wasted his money and time despite my advice against it. I knew cold emailing wouldn’t work because everyone was doing the same thing, and the competition was fierce.

But he just kept pushing on with cold emails.

I wouldn’t have known all of this if I hadn’t been reading books obsessively.

It’s incredibly egotistic and arrogant to believe we have all the answers, that we know more than anyone else. Books exist for this very reason. For countless years, people have faced failure, learned from it, and documented their insights in books. Why should we repeat the same mistakes?

Perhaps my boss would tell a different story, but my intention isn’t to emphasize my intelligence over his shortcomings or debate who’s right or wrong. I respected his talent in team-building and doing good in our tough economy, despite being younger than me — he was truly sharp.

The real focus should be on the lessons learned: while it’s easy to get stuck in passive consumption of information, action without proper understanding can squander both time and money. Certain failures are avoidable.

Happy Reading