Starting a company can be a challenge.  In fact most startup companies fail or go bankrupt within the first year or two.  I’ve always been fascinated with startups.  In fact at one point I even had a blog where I focused specifically on web startups.  Since then I’ve gotten interested in how to start a successful business in general.  Through all of my research, experience, and talks with successful startup creators, I came down to the same conclusion.

The secret to startup success is hard work.  I know it’s obvious yet it’s easier said than done.  Web startups are a good example.  Many entrepreneurs who start a successful web startup often work 16 hour days for the first year or two.  Of course when their startup takes off it easily turns into the next google, youtube, or facebook and is worth millions if not billions.  At that point if the entrepreneur wants to retire for the rest of their life and live on an island somewhere they can afford it.  Of course many do take time off but they ofter go on to starting their next company.  Why?  Because vacationing is only fun for a month, two or six after that it gets boring.

So how can you work hard on growing your business?  Remember you wont have to work hard for the rest of your life, but you need to work hard to get your startup company off the ground.

A broke genius is simply someone who has great ideas all the time yet is always broke.  The most common way one becomes a broke genious is by not implementing the ideas they have.  Simply being lazy, thinking it will be too much work, or doubting one’s self will leave them a broke genius.

Whenever I’m around people I always hear them coming up with business ideas yet very rarely do I ever see them implement the ideas or at least try them out.  Is it because the ideas are stupid?  No in fact many are great.  I think is because ideas are one thing and doing the actual work is a whole other thing.  Many people look at a successful business owner and say he’s a genious, that was a great business idea blah blah blah.  Often they say that because they never started a business themselves.  If they did they’d know that even if you have a great idea you have to work your butt off to make it work.  So what idea are you going to implement?  Please share in the comments.

What is the value of money?  Well it’s the value society assigns to it.  What’s the value of a five dollar bill?  Can you really explain it without thinking of what you can purchase with the bill?  A five dollar bill is just a peice of paper.  A thousand years ago it would have been worthless.  However today especially in America it has value to it.  How come?  Because as a nation we decided to give it value, we decide it to use to facilitate the exchange of goods, it’s a system of trust we agreed upon.

With the falling economy, the falling value of the dollar and the tough financial times many are wondering whether the dollar will become worthless one day.  I think that’s the wrong question.  Because the dollar is just a peice of paper.  I think one needs to focus on the work and effort that goes into making a dollar.  That work and effort is the real value.  As long as one is willing to work hard and create value for others then they will get value back.  So the question should be, am I creating value for others?  or how can I offer more value to others?

Often when starting a business one is very concerned with his/her great new business ideas, sometimes even tries to keep it a secret and not share it so it’s not stolen.  I used to think the exact same way but then one day I realized that business ideas are worthless.  Here is why…

What really makes a business idea good or bad isn’t the idea itself rather it’s the result.  When youtube decided to launch their website, and then later one became successful a lot of people foolishly looked back and thought oh they had a clever business idea.  No they didn’t.  In fact youtube wasn’t even the first online video sharing site.  What YouTube had was great execution.  They build an easy to use, intuitive video portal that anyone without any technical skills could look at and instantly understand how to use.

Still think business ideas are important?  Well let me give you another example Google.  When google started their were already two huge major search engines (yahoo and msn).  So google’s idea wasn’t original by any means rather it was how they executed their idea.  They build a much more accurate search engines than anything else at that point in time.

So what’s the poing of all this?  Next time you get a business idea you gotta start executing right away, it’s the only way you’ll know whether it’s good and bad.  Often you don’t even have to worry about people stealing it, because people will only think it’s good once it’s a success at which point you will be on top anyways.

It shocks me how finances are one of the most neglected aspects in many people’s lives.  Fortunately I grew up with a family that taught me how to manage my finances well from a young age.  I also got my first job when I was 15 years old which I think helped make me more responsible with money.  Once I realized that it takes hard work to make money I started being more picky about what to buy and what to spend on.

I was surprised when I learned that for most people credit card debt is the norm.  It seems like there are more people who don’t pay their credit card balance on time than those who do.  Now I’m not juding anyone, I don’t know everyone’s situation or circumstances.  However in my own life I know I’ve worked my butt off to make sure I don’t get in debt.  I always had the feeling that if I owned anyone or any company money they would basically own me the only exception being getting a mortgage to buy a house.  To avoid debt I workd 35 hours a week while managin a full time class schedule in all of my 4 years in college.  Guess what?  I didn’t go out with friends much, I was generally either at work, at school or at home doing homework.  Yes it was hard and at times left me feeling a little depressed.  But once I graduated I reaped the rewards.  I had no college loans to pay and no financial pressure.