The Entrepreneur’s “Wheel of Fortune”
Transcript
All right. So in many cases, you've heard me talk about focus and how important focus is for entrepreneurs. As a matter of fact, you've probably heard me use the phrase, maniacal focus. It's that important. Well, the other day I was in a meeting with an entrepreneur and one of my mentors, a guy named Scott Wald, who did a visualization that I love and I want to share with you because I think it's going to help you understand why focus is so important. You see, when you're building a company, there are three things that you really need to do.
and they interplay. They're not linear. The first is that you need to have a great product.
And we all focus on the product. And if you have a great product, that product should
result in your getting customers. And if you have customers, that customers, those customers
should drive cash. And the cash should help you invest further in the product, which gets
more customers and gets you more cash this is a very virtuous cycle this is what you should get
focused on the problem is that many many many times we have a lump in our wheel we call them
distractions they're the shiny new thing that you want to think about they're the investor wants to
talk to you and doesn't actually want to invest they're the company that wants to acquire you
and doesn't actually want to acquire they're the cool new feature you want to put in and all those
things throw a wrench into the works of your beautifully symmetrical wheel and so your job
is to vet out which of these distractions are actually going to slow you down and which of
them are things that can actually help you by putting more momentum into customers more momentum
in cash or more momentum into your product.
And if you are maniacally focused on the three things, product, customers, cash, product,
customers, cash, get rid of the distractions and only allow those things that help build
more momentum, you will build an amazing company.
We often talk about how important focus is as an entrepreneur. There are three things you should be focusing on: Product, Customers, and Cash. In this video, we will show a visual representation of how all of these interplay with each other in the “Wheel of Fortune.” To keep your wheel spinning you need to avoid distractions and focus on the things that will help your company move faster!
Originally published on the MATH Venture Partners blog.