4 Lessons of Entrepreneurship

For golfer's, Ben Hogan's Five Lessons is a classic. While the golf courses and equipment have certainly changed over the five decades since this was published, this tutorial is still relied upon by professionals and amateurs worldwide.

As I mentioned in the previous post, Jeff Fluhr (founder of StubHub) recently stopped by my Entrepreneurial Finance class to share his 4 Lessons of Entrepreneurship with the students. I was glad to see he didn't try and upstage Mr. Hogan by adding another one.

1. Do you have the right make-up to be an entrepreneur? You need to be true to yourself and many people aren't cut out to take the personal and professional risk associated with being an entrepreneur. There are going to be a lot of tough times and perseverance is essential.
   
2. Challenge the Status Quo - StubHub entered an industry dominated by a couple of large players who had a vested interest to block the legality of their business of providing a marketplace for the sale of tickets in the secondary market. In the early days, Jeff spent a lot of time with state legislators to get beyond the stigma of "ticket scalping" and change regulations. He definitely had a lot of people tell him that it couldn't be done.
3. Go with Your Gut - This certainly goes hand in hand with challenging the status quo. Jeff founded StubHub during the dotcom bust and funding for consumer Internet companies was disappearing rapidly. His gut told him the opportunity might not be there in a year and he dropped out of business school to launch the venture. He raised less financing than originally planned but was able to launch the site and was running a business by the time his classmates graduated 9 months later.
4. It's Ok to Exit a Little Early -StubHub was experiencing great growth and hitting it's metrics when Ebay acquired the company in early 2007 It is quite possible that Jeff could have gotten a higher price for the company by waiting, but felt there were a number of benefits to exiting when they did. Besides the natural fit with eBay, he wanted the buyer to feel good following the acquisition and certainly the investors in StubHub were happy. All of this only helps for the next venture.

Here's another bonus lesson. Be passionate about whatever it is you are doing. Any start-up is going to be all consuming and will require a lot of personal sacrifices, so make sure you believe in what you are doing. Dan Gordon, founder of Gordon Biersch, came by my class this week. Prior to founding the brewery, Dan spent five years studying beer in Germany and not the way most college students partake in this particular study. He was the first American in 30 years to graduate from the 5-year brewing program at the Technical University of Munich, the highest technical degree in brewing engineering. Upon graduation, he knew he wanted to open a German brewery restaurant in California and the passion and determination drove a lot of the early success. Brewing a great beer certainly doesn't hurt, which the students got to taste at the brewery after the class.