Entrepreneur Myths Read Free Page A

but that didn’t stop them from starting ventures that created marketplace disruption and revolution in their respective industries. For example, the computer industry parallels the auto industry of the 1900s. Henry Ford didn’t start out as an automobile genius or manufacturing expert, but he is responsible for developing the mass production system, which had a significant effect in most industries. When Steve Jobs came back to fix Apple in 2002, he was not a music mogul or telecommunication expert. However, he changed the dynamics of the music and mobile sectors by introducing iPod, ITunes, iPad and iPhone. I wonder what is iNext.
     
Don’t worry if you’re not a domain expert. You may be in a better position to recognize an opportunity. You can always hire domain experts. The hardest part in entrepreneurship is having a clear vision you can transform into reality.
     
Domain expertise can be applied to a non-related sector. For example, my friend Steve Cinelli founded Primarq, the first exchange for investing in owner-occupied real estate. Previously, he was founder of Offroad Capital, a financial marketplace. He applied his domain expertise in finance, banking and market exchanges to another industry. You might do something similar.
     
When I started my first venture fund, I didn’t have a finance degree. But I had studied complexity science for 10 years as a hobby so I applied those principles to the highly volatile stage of startup investing.
     
Look at it this way, in order to think outside the box, you have to think outside the circle
     
This is one time when being dumb has its advantages. Not being a domain expert causes you to ask simple, dumbass, obvious and silly questions. Besides, there is no such thing as a stupid question, only ignorant people who don’t want to bother answering them.
     
As another hobby, I spent time learning the Toyota Production System (TPS). I was applying it before most lean business experts in the U.S.
     
Taiichi Ohno and Shigeo Shingo developed TPS for Toyota. They were geniuses — true all-time business greats. They don’t get enough credit for developing a business and manufacturing process that is transforming every industry. The Toyota Production System or, what is commonly called in America, just-in-time or lean manufacturing transformed Toyota into one of the largest automobile manufacturers.
     
Ford said, “You can buy any Ford you want as long it’s black.” Ohno and Shingo’s philosophy was that products should be made when the consumer wants them, how they want them and when they want them. TPS’s continuing goal is to reduce or eliminate waste in every stage of the process while offering customers what they want, when they want it. The founding principle of the TPS system is to ask simply “Why?” Ohno was famous for asking why multiple times. Sometimes, he drove people around him fucking nuts. When you ask why, you force yourself and other people to think. On the average, people have a tendency not to completely think through a question. Shit, thinking is hard work.
     
Ask why
     
Why do particular processes contain unnecessary inventory at various stages? Why can’t we build a car according to a consumer wants and deliver it within five days? Why can’t we make products one at time and just in time in most industries? Asking a simple “why” question numerous times on a specific problem enabled Ohno and Shingo to develop agile, flexible, scalable and adaptable business processes at every level of the Toyota value chain.
     
I had lunch with Elon Musk, founder of PayPal and Tesla Motors, around the time he launched SpaceX. He explained to me that because he didn’t start out as a domain expert in those sectors, he saw those sectors with a fresh set of eyes and was able to transform those industries. Elon asked why banks should be the only businesses transacting money online. Why should NASA be the only organization to transport into space? Why