“It’s a mistake to think of business as a business. It’s not about dollars and cents, it’s about creating something really special that’ll make a wonderful, positive difference in other people’s lives. That’s what a business is. It’s a great adventure.” – That was Richard Branson at Virgin Atlantic’s “Business Is an Adventure” series event kickoff recently.
The event, in partnership with General Assembly and WeWork was a gathering of top leaders in the entrepreneurial scene to talk about how they make business an adventure. The goal of the series is to get some of the best entrepreneurs out there and have them share their expert insights with the larger entrepreneurial community. The panel was composed of Branson himself, Cassey Ho, founder of Blogilates, Miguel McKelvey cofounder of WeWork and Sean Rad, CEO and Founder of Tinder.
If you need branding advice, whom better to take it from than Richard Branson, right? His piece of advice to entrepreneurs trying to expand their brand is to “Think global. Think of the world as one country. It’s a lot more fun.” Tinder’s Sean Rad said that the key to international success is to “have a strong home base, a strong culture” that won’t dilute as you move and expand internationally.
Along with these heavy-hitting entrepreneurs were a few startups that were brought on stage to showcase their businesses and ask the panel a few questions.
Here are some of the most important take-aways from the entrepreneurs:
1. Think global. – Don’t limit yourself to one country but instead see the whole world as one country. – Words of advice from Branson himself.
- Build a solid, core culture. – Building a solid base culture will help ensure that it won’t get diluted as it expands to other markets.
- Being an entrepreneur is about wanting to solve a problem. – If you see a problem and you come up with a way to help solve this problem – that’s what makes you an entrepreneur, not the money and the (potential) fame.
- Love what you do. – It’s an old one but it never stops being true. If you don’t love and believe in what you do, the chances of being successful aren’t as likely. You need to fight for your business day in and day out to survive.
- Don’t be afraid of taking risks. – That’s just business 101 guys.
- Think of your business as an adventure. – Yes, that is the theme of the series but it’s the theme for a reason. If you want to be an entrepreneur, have fun with it, go for the ride. It’s supposed to be an adventure.