Five MYTHS about Entrepreneurship
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This presentation was created and presented by Stanley Chee, the director of Gapture Malaysia, a digital marketing agency certified by Google. It was meant for UCSI University SEE (Student Entrepreneurial Experience) Conference 2015. This is the first time UCSI organised an event like this, to which they invited local established entrepreneurs to share their journeys and challenges with the students and faculty. Presenter's notes of the slides can be found here, including some notes that I have missed out during the talk. http://www.stanleychee.com/2015/10/5-myths-about-entrepreneurship-part-1.html
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Five MYTHS about Entrepreneurship
- 2. June 2015 @ Tbilisi, Georgia
- 4. OffGamers Annual Dinner Year 2007
- 5. OffGamers Annual Dinner Year 2007
- 7. Myth #1: I Will Have Flexible Time
- 8. Myth #2: I Will Be Super Rich
- 9. Myth #3: I Just Need to Hire Someone To Do The Jobs that I Don’t Like
- 10. Myth #4: I am the BOSS
- 11. Myth #5: There is a Destination Called SUCCESS
- 12. What Is In For Me? Lots of Learning Lots of Challenges Self Discovery Roller Coster - Up’s & Down’s Meeting People Building Culture
Editor's Notes
- Been an entrepreneur since 2002 Fair share of success and failures
- OffGamers has grown into 180pax at one point, in three offices (MY and CN)
- SEE - Student Entrepreneurial Experience How many of you here want to be an entrepreneur? How many of you here love challenges? How many of you here would like to take a challenge on the stage now? Interesting: 1) those in SEE but don’t want to be an entrepreneur? 2) those that want to be an entrepreneur but doesn’t like challenges, you are in for a surprise! 3) those who say that they love challenges but won’t take one here and now. Please reflect, Why? easier say than done? The idea of being an entrepreneur, you may think you have what it takes to become one, when it boils down the actual action… (hardwork… ) will you still to do it and how long will you continue to do it. Sorry, but I am here to burst your bubbles. You may hate me after this session.
- I remember not taking any vacation for the first 5 years of entrepreneurship, work on most public holidays. I bring my laptop whenever I go, including cinema, as I may need to response if the server goes down. I remember there was one Sunday morning, I have arranged to go hiking with a my then-gf and another friend. Half way driving there, I got a call from office, and I have to u-turn home to handle the situation. I have received calls in the middle of the night, on eves of long holidays to attend to situation that I know who take 5~10 hours to solve. Phone is always on ringing mode next to my bed when i sleep. It took us about 7 years, after growing the company to about 120pax, for us to be able to work 9 to 5pm and have annual leaves like any other employees. I started Gapture in 2011, thinking that with the management skill and experience, I can just work 40 hours a week. And guess what? “entrepreneurship is working hard for 40 hours per week so that you can save enough to start a business and work 60 hours per week”
- As of today, my monthly salary is still lower than my first job as a software engineer in USA. Grabcar driver and Uber driver is making more money than me. The chances of getting super rich through corporate ladder and smart investment is higher than being an entrepreneur. This is a totally unfounded stats, but it is worth taking a look at. 8 out of 10 start-up will fail within the first 5 years, due to lack of experience, know-how or capital. 8 out of 10 of the the companies who survive the first 5 years, will fail within the second 5 years, mostly due to to founders burning out. I have a company that makes 30million revenue per year. However, my wife and I are still counting how many times we can eat out in the restaurant. I have met many millionaires businessmen and women who lives from paycheck to paycheck and reinvested all the profit into the business. After years of being an entrepreneur, I realise that I will only be “super rich” when I exit the business… Then, you have to think of who will be buying your business?
- I don’t like to sell, I hate selling. I don’t like speaking in the public, especially to the public. I thought I can pick and choose what I want to do in the business I started. I ended up doing everything, and learning all the things along the way. Worst thing I have done, picked up a rotten rat from the staircase. Why, you may ask? Because it stank and because we don’t have anyone with a position “cleaner” on it. If the job is not with anyone, most likely it is with you! Another pitfall that most entrepreneur face is that they think with money, we can hire anyone, with whatever experience we were looking for. It takes me around 1~2 years to court some of my best-hires, and most of them was not about salary. Purpose? Culture? Why do someone want to be led by you?
- After being the boss, only I realize the customers are the boss, the tax authority is the boss, good vendors are the boss, good employees are the boss, everyone is the boss, except me. Malaysia is at full employment rate now. We are at 3.2% in July 2015 (definition 4%). What does that mean? It means it is an employee market. Salary is going on to up, employee turn-over more frequently. A common discussion topic among business owners are if the business can still run without us. Usually from that discussion, it will lead to some of the key personnels that we can’t even start to imagine how the company can work IF they leave. It is one of those key positions that I will give anything possible to keep. now, think about it, who is the boss?
- You may have heard this a lot… It is easy for him, he already make his first pot of gold. I don’t believe there is a destination called success. Where after you arrive, everything else after that will just work miraculously. There could be a lot of successes and failures along the way. For example, my wife just started a new wine business, importing naturally semi-sweet wines from Georgia. At the very beginning, we already expected hiccups (small failures) with alcohol import license, logistics delay, custom clearance delay, etc. All these are parts and parcels of “success” and fair enough, they all came true.
- learning: financials, accounting, legal, wine, shipping, logistic, warehousing, etc. CFA experience. challenges: economy outlook is bad, USD is expensive, people not buying my stuff or service, competition is fierce, marketing is expensive, GST, haze, etc. Migrating from dedicated server to cloud in 18 hours, on a x’mas eve, during a DDOS attack. self-discovery: a lot that didn’t work in the business is because of me. the sales of the company was not hitting the target we set, because i don’t like to sell, and why didn’t i like to sell? i don’t like to oblige others, i’m thinking that i don’t want to take up others’ time -> lack of self worth. ups & downs: in the same day, at one moment, after securing a deal, i could be the happiest man on earth, thinking that I can achieve anything i set my mind to. then key personnels tender resignation, never ending story. meeting people: lots of interesting people from all walks of live, some become very good friends. building culture: SMITE core values in Gapture. I want the company to run in the way that I would love the country to be run. We don’t care what race we are, what religions we are (I have my HR drop the “religion” column in our interview form) and even what sexual orientation you are. Each of us have a well defined KPI and JD and excellence and performance is all we care about. When you finally get to start your business and build your company, what values do you see? What have you been always complaining about in the country, and will you do something different?