7 Things I’ve Learned as an Entrepreneur
There’s no shortage of advice out there for entrepreneurs. There are seemingly unlimited online resources to support the growth of newcomers and veterans alike. However, I’ve noticed that while the resources are plenty, no two are the same. Sure, there are some overlapping themes, but every time I read someone’s entrepreneurial journey, I discover a new nugget of wisdom. Some of these nuggets are meager, and others quite immense, but all of them bring about a new sense of clarity on some aspect of business, life or a mix of the two.
The business I’ve been “starting up” is a bit unusual. It’s not an app or some tech platform. It’s called Acornseekers. My business partner Manuel and I were the first people ever to fly a special breed of pig, black Iberian pigs, from Spain to the United States. For the first time, we’ll be making jamón ibérico de bellota — a ham commonly deemed the finest in the world — on American soil (Texan and Floridian soil to be precise). While entrepreneurship rarely involves transporting mammals across oceans, I believe the the things we’ve learned are universal. There are some truths that transcend industry and category boundaries.
While I am not one to claim my opinion is infallible, there are a few things that I have learned over the course of my time working on this business that I would like to share. So with that, I humbly submit these entrepreneurial learnings to the ever-growing wealth of collective knowledge.
- Embrace the craziness of it all.
There’s a lot to be said about starting something from scratch. It’s bold. It’s delicate. And perhaps more than anything, it’s absolutely crazy. I repeat, absolutamente loco.
But don’t let the inherent craziness of what you’re doing get to you. Accept it from the beginning and move on.
In fact, don’t just accept it, but wear the craziness as a badge of pride. When you decide to try something new, you’re already flying in the face of the rule book. And you can’t get much flying of any sort done without a pair of sturdy, trusty, crazy wings.
When our Spanish pigs first landed in America, I remember getting piel de gallina (goosebumps) as I turned to my partner and said, “We did it. We are crazy. We are really crazy.”
2. Establish a process for choosing your team members.
When you’re starting a business, you’re putting many things at stake: money, reputation and, yes, sanity. That’s why surrounding yourself with a team that minimizes these risks is of the utmost importance. When it comes to our team at Acornseekers, there were three criteria that guided the membership of our core team.
First: have enough money to risk.
Second: add value in the form of experience and knowledge.
Third and most importantly: always be in a good mood. Make congeniality a habit, and demand an even-handed approach to business. Make decisions by consensus.
Ultimately, it comes down to using your instinct. If you have suspicions about your working relationship with someone early on, you should ask yourself how this may pan out further down the road.
3. Be driven by your critics.
You will face critics of all kinds, from the mild skeptics who shake their heads to the scornful disbelievers who turn their backs. While nobody likes a critic, everybody has them. So why let them impact your worldview?
Rather than adopting any of my detractors’ cynicism, I use it as motivation. There’s nothing more satisfying than proving someone wrong, so keep reminding yourself of what this feeling will be like when you finally attain your goal.
This isn’t to say avoid your critics. Simply use your instinct to discern the constructive criticism from the baseless, and take heart that there are people who find your ideas worthy of criticism in the first place.
4. Be prepared for obstacles, but don’t let them define you.
As with any leap of faith into the unknown, there will be some tough times. You will have obstacles, but you do have the power to overcome them.
So many times in business we can let minor setbacks take a toll on our sanity, and when you’re an entrepreneur who has put everything on the line, you feel those same feelings but exponentially amplified. Learning to embrace significant challenges with a level-head is a habit you will certainly be glad you’ve learned to embrace.
So accept your mistakes. Confront your obstacles. But whatever you do, don’t let them change you.
5. Believe in your product.
There’s a lot more to your brand than your product, but if you don’t truly believe in the appeal of what you’re making, then why should anyone else?
A strong conviction is not something you can always magically attain along the way, so it’s important to do some serious soul searching at the very beginning of your journey. Ask yourself the important questions, and answer honestly. Do I really believe in the viability of this idea? Do I really believe that I will retain this passion the whole way through?
When Manuel and I started Acornseekers, it was because we deeply missed the traditional jamón of Spain. We wanted to bring the unrivaled flavors of the ham across the Atlantic to share amongst ourselves and the people of America. This strong emotional connection to our product instilled a true belief that what we were doing could be done successfully.
Sure, making money is an important — and enjoyable — part of business. But if making money is your goal, then you may get burnt out along the long road to that stage of the process.
6. Plan your own serendipity.
Success often comes from being in the right place at the right time. While I am a true believer in serendipity, I also believe that accidents only become happy accidents with hard work. Don’t think of hard work as items on a to-do list, but rather an intrinsic, habitual part of your spirit. If your natural proclivity is to work, work, work, you’ll be more likely to find yourself in the right place at the right time at any given moment.
Perhaps the Roman philosopher Seneca said it best: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
7. Redefine the impossible.
Don’t deem your dream impossible. The word “impossible” all too often leads to the words “I quit.”
Especially early in the process, your definition of ultimate success may indeed seem impossible to you. But if you start to consider your dream as a series of slightly-less-impossible tasks, and consider those tasks as a series of improbable-but-not-impossible steps, then suddenly there is no more “impossible.”
That daunting mountain you face no longer seems so insurmountable. Its height is just as great, but the path upwards is now much clearer.
In other words, dream as an idealist, but plan as a realist.
¡Buena suerte!
Sergio Marsal Colom President & CEO, Acornseekers
